A Cup of Cheer

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If you are cold, tea will warm you; if you are too heated, it will cool you; if you are depressed, it will cheer you; if you are excited it will calm you. ~ William Ewart Gladstone, British Prime Minister.

Whether it‘s a delicate green tea or a robust Assam black, a cup of tea is a complex brew of decorative art, industry, tradition and revolution. Travelling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played numerous roles on the global scene. What began as an ancient health remedy and a revered element of cultural and spiritual practices was later to become a valuable and contentious commodity in history, politics, and international trade. Yes, behind this most calming of beverages are gruesome stories of treachery, violence, smuggling and the drug trade. This legendary drink is believed to have first been discovered 5,000 years ago by the Chinese Emperor Shen – Ning, when a handful of tea leaves accidentally blew into his pot of boiling water. Before long, tea became a staple of Chinese culture, becoming commonplace even among the lower classes, with the Chinese government supporting the cultivation of tea and the establishment of tea shops so that everyone could enjoy it. Furthermore, because of its medicinal qualities, tea was adopted into various religious and meditative practices by Zen Buddhists, who celebrated the drink as the elixir of immortality and suggested that it enhanced spiritual concentration.

Buddhist missionaries brought tea to Japan and soon after its introduction, the Japanese created an entire culture around it with the tea ceremony, with the ritual of pouring and serving tea by a geisha hostess becoming a mark of grace. It was not until 1560, when Portuguese missionaries established a trade route with China, that tea was imported to Europe. The initial shipments were expensive and the drink came to signify wealth, therefore increasing its popularity among the elite. Yet not everyone was willing to embrace the new beverage. Doctors and scholars, known as ‘tea heretics’ questioned if the dark, bitter substance was good for public consumption, and academic debates raged for decades with falling prices eventually leading to mass European consumption by the end of the 1600s.

England was a late comer to the tea trade; it was introduced in London in 1662, when King Charles II married a Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza. The Queen turned tea into the drink of royalty and afternoon tea became customary for aristocratic society, often accompanied by bread and cakes, while commoners and could get their tea at the pre-existing and often extremely rowdy coffee houses, which had been in operation since 1652. By 1700, the British were importing more than 240,000 pounds of tea via the East India Trading Company. The government tried to take advantage of tea’s popularity by taxing it and requiring coffee houses to have a license to serve tea. Only men were allowed to enter coffee houses, which were full of smoke and noise, and tea was often the only non-alcoholic beverage choice at inns, hence the name ‘teetotaler’ for those who abstained from alcohol.

Finally, in 1717, the Twining family opened the Golden Lyon, a tea shop that allowed women. The concept of tea shops caught on and became venues for unchaperoned women to meet friends. Later, tea gardens also became popular for the purposes of recreation plus drinking tea and strolling among lawns and ponds. This ensured that tea became even more fashionable to drink, plus they were important places for men and women to meet freely. The taxes on tea were so high that smugglers would traffic it to sell on the black market. In attempts to turn profits during the tea smuggling period, the East India Company began exporting tea to America, where the tea tax in 1767 caused rebellion among the American colonists with ports refusing shipments.

The Tea Act of 1773, which was intended to boost profits for the East India Company by bypassing local tea merchants and selling tea directly to the Massachusetts colonists, was the final straw. Members of the political group the ‘Sons of Liberty’ in Boston, led by Samuel Adams, the future second President of the as-yet-not-created United States, plotted to raid an upcoming shipment of tea and prevent the tea from being unloaded, and on December 16, 1773, a group of protesters decided to dump the tea intoBoston Harbour. Sons of Liberty and a large crowd of Bostonians, the protestors boarded three British East India Company ships and dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbour.

England then retaliated by sending military forces to the harbour and shutting it down, an event that marked the beginning of the American War of Independence, and ultimately the end of British hegemony in the West. Still, the trading partners did not enjoy a cooperative relationship. Claiming that local political instability was disruptive to business interests, the East India Company gradually took over colonial India‘s coastlines, while also pushing out Dutch and French competitors and forcing local workers to produce opium. In the name of ‘‘free trade’ the English then perpetrated one of the most immoral acts in history by importing opium into China in exchange for tea.

This led to the Opium Wars in the early 1800s, during which the British effectively wiped out resistance to their domination of the tea trade. The mid-nineteenth century marked the beginning of the heyday of Indian tea production. With the exception of Darjeeling, which was producing high-quality but low-yielding tea crops, there was little tea cultivation outside Assam. The new British administration in India saw the potential for more widespread cultivation and offered generous land leases to would-be tea planters. In 1888, for the first time, British tea imports from India exceeded those from China.

By 1901, tea had become firmly established as part of the British way of life. This was officially recognised during the First World War, when the government took over the importation of tea to Britain in order to ensure that this essential morale-boosting beverage continued to be available at an affordable price. It was around about this time that tea bags first appeared. They had been invented by New York merchant, Thomas Sullivan, who had come up with the idea of sending tea samples in white silk bags to his customers. With the arrival of tea bags, the price of tea was lowered, and the possibility of drinking tea without special brewing utensils made it suitable for mass consumption.

Meanwhile, Richard Blechynden is credited as the inventor of iced tea. An enterprising English merchant, he was representing Indian tea growers at the opulent tea pavilion at the St. Louis World Fair in 1904. Staffed by Indian men in traditional costume, meticulously trained in proper tea service, Blechynden had been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to introduce the finest black teas India had to offer to the crowd of fair goers, but when a heat wave hit, his hopes for a successful tea party were dashed.

Desperate to showcase his product, Blechynden tried serving the tea cold in glasses filled with ice. The scheme was an instant success, and iced tea was born. Yet it is probably more accurate to describe Blechynden as someone who popularised the drink, for in reality, English and American variants of iced tea – actually cocktails of tea and alcohol known as tea punches – had been in existence since the early 1800s. Today, after water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world, with the scope of the tea industry’s worldwide economic activity standing at over four million tons per year. An evergreen of the Camellia genus, there are two main varieties of the tea plant.

The small leaf variety, known as Camellia sinensis, thrives in the cool, high mountain regions of central China and Japan, while the broad leaf variety, known as Camellia assamica, grows best in the moist, tropical climates found in Northeast India and the Szechuan and Yunnan provinces of China. The plant produces dark green, shiny leaves and small, white blossoms. Only the plant‘s bud and two young leaves are used for processing the tea, but the flowers are also picked, dried and added to the blend to supplement the aroma. Tea picking is still conducted in the traditional manner: the tea leaves are handpicked and gathered into wide baskets on the backs of the tea pickers.

The hand picking ensures that only the best leaves of the tea plant are collected and used for producing the tea. The first crops of each year are called ‘new tea’ and it is rich in flavour and aroma. A common myth about tea is the belief that different types of tea – black, white and green – are produced from different tea plants, while, in fact, all types of tea are produced from the same plant and the differences between them result from the different processing procedures. While Europeans and Americans have traditionally favoured black teas, green teas promise health benefits, including increasing metabolism and reducing some forms of cancer. So, next time you pour that lightly coloured brew into your cup and lift that aromatic drink to your lips, remember that you are continuing a 5,000-year-old practice. And, while you’re at it, ponder on that long and tortuous path that tea has taken to reach the cup in your hand.

RACHEL LOVE

How Reducing Food Waste Could Ease Climate Change

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More than a third of all of the food that‘s produced on our planet never reaches a table. It‘s either spoiled in transit or thrown out by consumers in wealthier countries, who typically buy too much and toss the excess. This works out to roughly 1.3 billion tons of food, worth nearly $1 trillion at retail prices. Aside from the social, economic, and moral implications of that waste – in a world where an estimated 805 million people go to bed hungry each night – the environmental cost of producing all that food, for nothing, is staggering. The water wastage alone would be the equivalent of the entire annual flow of the Volga – Europe‘s largest river. The energy that goes into the production, harvesting, transporting, and packaging of that wasted food, meanwhile, generates more than 3.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide. If food waste were a country, it would be the world‘s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind the U.S. and China.

We tend to take our food for granted in the developed world. Since food is so plentiful, we aren‘t aware of the tremendous amount that‘s wasted and the impact that has on world hunger, political stability, the environment, and climate change. Yet when it comes to looking for ways to curb greenhouse gas emissions, food wastage is a relatively easy fix – the low-hanging fruit, so to speak – and it is literally rotting on our tables. It doesn‘t require any new technology, just more efficient use of what we already have.

Food wastage comes in two forms. About one-third occurs at the consumer level, where we buy too much and throw it away. Approximately two-thirds happens at the production and distribution level. For example, a lot of food rots in fields, or is lost as a result of poor transportation networks, or spoils in markets that lack proper preservation techniques. We can make a big difference by transporting and storing our food under proper temperature conditions
to extend food supplies.

Governments can enact food safety standards where they don‘t exist. This will jump-start the system to properly transport and store perishable foods like meat, fish, dairy, and produce. It will also ensure that more food is safe for consumption. Industry has a role to innovate and scale How Reducing Food Waste Could Ease Climate Change technologies so they are affordable in the developing economies. Industry can also serve a useful role by raising awarenessof the impacts of food wastage. The dividends of avoiding food waste can be historic. We produce enough food to feed everyone on our planet today and the 2.5 billion more people to come in the next 35 years. We have to waste less to feed more. Farming already uses 38 percent of our ice-free land, compared to just 2 percent for cities, and uses 70 percent of our fresh water. We can‘t keep growing more food, and continuing to waste as much, to feed more people. The environmental dividends are no less significant: lower climate emissions from a major source and more water efficiency to combat growing water scarcity.

We can all take small steps that will accumulate to make a meaningful difference. Let‘s buy just the food we need
so we throw away less. Let‘s accept that produce can be top quality and delicious even if it has a slight imperfection in appearance. Let‘s bring meals home that we don‘t finish in restaurants. Small changes will yield big results.

CUTTING THE RIGHT TREES

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True forest sustainability means understanding the supply chain behind a product and how it impacts both producers and users in the design and building industries. Here’s how tropical woods fit into the sustainability puzzle.

When it comes to building sustainable, healthy spaces, leading industry organizations all consider the minimisation or elimination of negative environmental impacts to be integral to the design process. However, true sustainability
goes beyond the specification of eco-friendly products, and extends through the supply chain to the source of the material. An example of the importance of understanding where and how interior products are made can be found in the use of tropical wood.

Many people (falsely) believe that avoiding the use of tropical wood can save the rainforest, but the truth is that tropical wood can be one of the most sustainable products on the market today. Using tropical woods from well-managed sources can reduce wood waste; improve labour efficiency and output; give indigenous people the ability to build schools, hospitals, and roads; and protect the biodiversity of the forest – but only if the source of the wood is a reputable one.

Standing tropical forests are best conserved when they have economic value. The most common reason behind the destruction of the rainforest is the conversion of land to something (assumed to be) more profitable. For example, forests in Indonesia are currently being burned in order to make room for the production of palm oil, which is in high demand. However, that same forest could instead be harvested for timber and nuts using sustainable forestry practices that would preserve waterways, reduce the impact of logging, and sequester carbon, all while still making money.

Industry professionals such as builders and designers can make a real impact by specifying or purchasing tropical wood from producers whom they have verified operate legally and are adopting sustainable forestry practices. The two most important steps in sustainably specifying tropical hardwoods are to become knowledgeable about the international supply chain and to find a responsible supplier.

The supply chain begins with the correct procedure for harvesting the wood. Unfortunately, many conventional loggers do not use the planning and careful extraction methods taught by industry experts like the Tropical Forest Foundation (TFF), a nonprofit organization committed to environmental stewardship and sustainable forest management offering demonstration models and training curricula in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. For example, TFF recommends using a reducedimpact logging (RIL) method that encompasses the entire spectrum of harvesting operations. This includes the careful selection of trees, proper inventory and planning, and post-harvest assessments. The benefits of reduced-impact logging exceed those of conventional logging, ensuring survival of residual trees, wildlife, and rivers, as well as lowering production end-costs by up to 15 percent and waste by 60 percent. Finding a supplier that has adopted these sustainable forestry practices is surprisingly simple. Clients can ask any suppliers or intermediaries, be they construction, design or furniture companies, the following questions:

Do you have documentation of the chain of custody?
Do you specify that you seek legal, sustainable forest products?
Are your products certified?
Are your suppliers adopting improved forest management practices?

Getting satisfactory answers to these questions will ensure that suppliers and distributors are adopting sustainable forest management techniques and that they operate on a legal platform. People are also encouraged to ask and search for producer certifications, such as those from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Programme for Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), or in Indonesia, the V-Legal SVLK system, or the state-owned Perum
Perhutani forestry enterprise, to ensure that their partners are operating ethically and sustainably.

BOB JOHNSTON
Where to look in Bali for companies using only sustainable and certified hardwoods?
PT Touch Wood:A manufacturer of high-quality, prefabricated, wooden houses and pavilions.
www.pt-touchwood.com
Warisan:A producer of top-of-the-range hardwood furnishings
for the home and hospitality industries.
www.warisan.com
8 Degrees South:A company specialising in building modern
kitchens and kit set furniture.
www.8-degrees-south.com

Lombok’s White Sand Paradise

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Once a cherished destination for barefoot budget backpackers the three Gili Islands of Trawangan, Meno and Air off the northwest coast of Lombok, have suddenly found themselves attracting increased property values and a wealthier kind of tourist, creating the perfect environment for high-end resorts and developments to take hold and bring some positive meaningful change to the islands’ future. Di Somerton is one of the old guard who first stepped off the boat into the Gili Islands over 10 years ago at a time when this ‘hidden gem’ was just a slow backwater off the coast of Lombok. Villa Ombak was the only resort on the island and there were just a few dive operations, bamboo shacks for accommodation, and local restaurants selling cheap Indonesian and Bintang beer. “At that time we still had no fresh water, other than bottled water brought from Lombok and had intermittent electricity provided by PLN on mainland Lombok,” explains Di, Partner in The Beach House Resort and Owner of White Sand Weddings Lombok & Gili Islands. “There was no waste collection or recycling, and the more we developed, the more rubbish we accumulated and the more problems we encountered. We loved our unspoilt island paradise though, and we, like so many others, decided to stay and build our own ‚Beach House‘ by the sea. We weren’t the first, and as word got out and offshore investors started to realise the potential to build and develop businesses on the islands, a small surge in land sales began.”

 

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www.exotiqproperty.com

 

Land was changing hands back then for around IDR 15 – 20 million per are and the local landowners started to join in as the development mushroomed. Real estate deals were still few and far between, however, as locals sat on what would turn out to be small goldmines. Consequently, due to high demand, land value shot through the roof. Building a small hotel or private villa by the beach was soon to become the domain of wealthy groups of offshore investors. IDR 100 million per are would buy you land inside the island in 2012, but because of the continual hikes in fuel prices, builders and material from Bali, it would cost you western prices to build your home away from home.”

But why is it happening so fast? The answer lies across the Lombok Strait in southern Bali, where property prices have reached such astronomical heights in the real estate boom that all but the very wealthy are being priced out of the market. This has made land banking and building on Lombok and the Gilis an even more attractive proposition for investment and tourism, as more and more people are lured across the water seeking the paradise that the Gili Islands offer. The fact that access has become so much easier with a multitude of fast boats running between Bali and Lombok daily, the availability of helicopter charters, and the new airport in Lombok bringing in direct flights from abroad, has only helped to increase the islands’ popularity.

Siti Purba of Exotiq Property believes that the current investment being seen in the Gili Islands is still the tip of the iceberg, with Gili Meno in particular in for some big changes. “I believe there is still an incredible amount of capital appreciation to be seen, not to mention investment returns on managed properties; a relatively new concept to the Gilis, but one which will certainly generate interest from further afield and further increase the tourist numbers.” “Tourist numbers to the Gili Islands continue to rise, and while Trawangan is by far the most established of the three islands, with Gili Air also showing significant growth, it is Meno that is set to offer a much more high-end destination for tourism for both foreign and domestic visitors, and to show significant returns for investors. Unlike Trawangan and Air, there are very few smaller pieces of land available on Meno, with the majority of available land of resort size rather than small building plots, and this will only encourage larger developers to move in, further increasing land prices,” says Purba.

In the past, a large amount of the accommodation currently operating in Gili Meno was built cheaply, while land prices were next to nothing, and with the market progressing as it is, there will be a lot of new development to cater for the new demographic of affluent tourist, with places such as BASK resort, a development of 82 luxury villas with a huge emphasis on eco sustainability that will cover 295 metres of white sand beachfront on the island’s eastern side, set to become a real game changer.

George Gorrow is property advisor and creative director for Bask and he explains why they chose Gili Meno for their project: “With Bali constantly exploding, and luxury tourism in Indonesia continuing to grow, everyone is searching for that pristine all encompassing Indonesian experience. And as such, we are seeing neighbouring islands like Gili Meno getting a lot of attention from these luxury travellers. Gili Meno for me is very much what I envisage a classic island oasis to be. A small atoll-like island, surrounded by beautiful eefs, abundant with turtles and sea life, white sand beaches, warm tropical crystal clear waters and a landscape full of palm trees.”

“I believe people are also now becoming more and more environmentally aware and wanting more from their indulgent holidays. They want to know that holiday is causing the least harm as possible to the planet, so they are looking for luxury resorts that are sustainable and environmentally conscious. These requests are pushing everything in the right direction and it’s exactly what we are aiming to deliver with Bask.”

Yes, the Gilis are paradise on earth, but they are not without their problems due to years of unchecked development. But thanks to the local government, organisations like the Gili Eco Trust and the tireless efforts of volunteers and concerned adoptive locals like Di Somerton, the islands and reefs are being resurrected from their once escalating decay.

“Rubbish collection and recycling is improving daily and we are seeing the return of colourful corals and fish and a thriving marine life, that is once again enticing snorkellers and divers to our shores,” says Di. “And we owe it to those who are committed to helping to save the islands from further destruction and lead the way for tourism to continue to thrive and benefit the local communities. That can only be a good thing.”

www.baskgilimeno.com