Climate Change and the Future of Tea: What Every Tea Lover Should Know
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Earlier this week, like the rest of the world I learned of the devastating and tragic natural disaster in Nepal. As I read about the regions most impacted, I looked at a map to get an understanding of where precisely the Rasuwa district is relative to the Ilam district; an area that I am more familiar with. They are 2 distinct districts separated by nearly 200 miles. The Ilam District is in far eastern Nepal. Rasuwa sits to the northwest of Ilam. They have different geographical terrains – nonetheless they are both being impacted by climate change. More on that in a moment.
Nepal is one of the countries that I source teas from. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I don't have a favourite tea. Each tea offers unique historical and cultural experiences and their own flavor profiles. However, I do have an affinity for the natural sweetness of teas from Nepal. Ilam sits 3,000- 8,500 feet above sea level. The high elevation, the crisp thin air, and the rich Himalayan soil all contribute to the production yield of premium quality leaves. I am thankful for the opportunity to work with small tea producers globally, including the producers I work with and source from in the Ilam District of Nepal.
I reached out to both tea producers who I source tea from, including the growers behind our Golden Threads of Nepal Black Loose Leaf Tea, and I am thrilled to report that neither farm was directly impacted by the mudslides and flash floods. While I am glad that the farms of Nepal are safe from this most recent natural disaster, it's the cause of these types of disasters that are alarming. My outreach was about far more than tea.
For centuries, tea growers have worked within these delicate relationships between plant, climate, and place. But that relationship is changing.
Climate change is no longer a distant environmental concern. For tea-producing communities around the world, it is becoming an agricultural and economic reality—one that threatens not only harvests, but livelihoods, cultural traditions, and the remarkable diversity of teas we have come to love. These increasingly frequent climate related disasters are man-made-that is not in question. The onus is on us to acknowledge our contributions to climate change and to accept if we want to continue to enjoy things like premium teas, we must make better choices about the world we want to have. Who are we if we don't make better choices to protect the earth, our water and food supplies, tea included, are all in peril.
At Symphony of Leaves Tea Co., we believe that understanding where our tea comes from means understanding the people and environments that make it possible.
Tea Needs a Very Particular Climate
Tea has been growing for thousands of years and that speaks to how remarkably resilient a plant it is. Camellia sinensis has specific growing requirements.
The finest teas often come from regions where temperature, rainfall, altitude, soil, and seasonal conditions come together in a very particular way. This is one reason teas from Nepal, like our Sajilo Serenity Nepali Loose Leaf Green Tea, can taste dramatically different from teas grown in Kenya, China, India, Sri Lanka, or Japan.
That sense of place is part of what makes tea extraordinary.
It is also what makes tea vulnerable.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), tea-growing regions are particularly susceptible to climate change because tea thrives within relatively narrow agro-ecological conditions. Rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events can affect both tea yields and quality.
In other words, the same environmental conditions that give tea its distinctive character can also make it vulnerable to a rapidly changing climate.
What Happens When Temperatures Rise?
Tea plants respond to temperature and water availability in very specific ways.
Too much heat can place plants under duress. Too little rainfall can limit and shrink growth. Excessive rainfall can contribute to erosion, flooding, disease, and damage to the plants and surrounding soil.
Research examining tea production in Kenya (IOP Science study) found that tea yields are strongly influenced by soil moisture and temperature. One modeling study estimated that rising temperatures alone could reduce Kenyan tea yields in coming decades, although changes in soil moisture could offset some of that decline depending on how climate patterns evolve.
The implications extend far beyond the tea plant.
A smaller or less predictable harvest can mean lower income for farmers. It can mean greater financial uncertainty for farming families. And when production becomes more difficult, the cost of producing tea can rise throughout the supply chain.
For tea drinkers, it may eventually mean something else as well:
The teas we know and love may become harder to grow.
The People Behind the Leaves
Tea is deeply connected to rural economies.
Millions of families around the world depend on tea cultivation and processing for income and employment. In Kenya alone, FAO has identified more than 650,000 smallholder producers living in tea-growing regions whose livelihoods are connected to the crop.
These farmers are not simply producing a commodity.
They are preserving agricultural knowledge.
They are maintaining traditions.
They are caring for landscapes that have been cultivated for generations.
And increasingly, they are being asked to adapt to environmental changes they did little to create.
This is one of the most important dimensions of the climate conversation surrounding tea.
Climate change is also a human story.
When we talk about protecting tea, we are talking about protecting the people whose knowledge, labor, and stewardship make our tea possible.
And Then There Are the Emissions
The relationship between tea and climate change goes in both directions.
Climate change affects tea production—but producing and moving tea also creates greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions can occur at multiple points along the journey from field to cup: cultivation, fertilizer use, processing, heating and drying, packaging, transportation, storage, and preparation.
FAO has reported estimates of approximately 15–19 kilograms of CO₂-equivalent emissions per kilogram of tea, depending on the stages and systems included in the assessment.
This does not mean that tea is inherently an environmentally harmful beverage.
It means that, like virtually every agricultural product, tea has an environmental footprint.
And understanding that footprint gives the tea industry an opportunity to do better.
From the Tea Garden to the Teacup
The good news is that tea-producing communities, researchers, governments, and organizations are already exploring ways to make tea production more climate-resilient and lower-carbon.
Adaptation can include practices such as improving soil health, protecting water resources, strengthening shade systems, diversifying crops, selecting climate-resilient tea varieties, and improving farm management.
Mitigation focuses on reducing emissions.
In China, for example, FAO has supported pilot projects examining the carbon footprint of tea from cultivation through retail and exploring approaches to carbon-neutral tea production.
Kenya is also working toward approaches that could reduce the carbon footprint of its tea sector while strengthening its resilience to climate change.
These efforts matter because sustainability cannot simply mean asking farmers to produce tea differently.
It must also mean giving farmers the knowledge, resources, technology, and economic incentives to make those changes possible.
What Can Tea Lovers Do?
It is easy to feel powerless when faced with something as enormous as climate change.
But consumers have a role.
We can become more curious about where our tea comes from.
We can ask how it was grown, who grew it, and how it moved from garden to cup.
We can support tea companies that prioritize traceability, responsible sourcing, sustainable agricultural practices, and relationships with growers.
We can choose quality over quantity.
And perhaps most importantly, we can recognize that the cup in our hands represents much more than a beverage.
It represents land.
Water.
Climate.
Labor.
Tradition.
And human ingenuity.
A More Thoughtful Cup
At Symphony of Leaves Tea Co., we believe that luxury should never be defined solely by how something looks or tastes.
True luxury is knowing the story behind what we consume.
It is knowing that the leaves were cultivated with care.
That the people who grew them matter.
That the landscapes that produced them are worth protecting.
And that the traditions surrounding tea deserve a future.
The climate conversation reminds us of something tea has taught us all along:
Everything is connected.
The mountain is connected to the soil.
The soil is connected to the plant.
The plant is connected to the farmer.
The farmer is connected to the community.
And eventually, all of those connections arrive in our teacup.
So the next time you brew a cup of tea, pause for a moment.
Look at the leaves.
Notice their aroma.
Taste the character of the place from which they came.
And remember that enjoying tea can also be an invitation to become more conscious of the world that makes that experience possible.
Sip purposefully.
Because protecting the future of tea begins with understanding its story.
Explore our Khumbu Valley Gold Black Loose Leaf Tea — sourced from the high-altitude gardens of Nepal.
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Resources
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab70be
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7109314/
— Renee S. Rubens