Point of View
This year has been a head-spinning whopper of a ride. Shortly after we welcomed a new decade with toasts for the actualization of our goals, the Covid-19 pandemic swept us all off our feet, and not in a good way. The coffee and tea industries — our industries — have been some of the hardest-hit, along with the restaurant sector, leisure and hospitality, and construction (which each have many possible intersections with coffee and tea).
As journalists, we call it like it is, neither sugar-coating nor providing readers with more fodder for doom-scrolling. For every heartbreaking tale of loss or insurmountable challenge, there is an invention, a pivot, a paradigm shift — and these are the stories that document this time, which will go down in history as one of unprecedented intensity.
Trends are emerging that will likely continue into next year, and beyond: at-home consumption of coffee and tea, subscription services, technological interventions on the harvesting side, consolidation/buyouts among larger corporations, a push to keep coffee and tea prices low, a pushback by farmers (and their advocates, including conscious consumers) to raise prices, efforts to mitigate climate change, and other sustainability efforts that will benefit everyone along the supply chain.
STiR covered all of these trends in 2020. In this, our last issue on the year, we look at how blockchain technology can be critical to transparency in. Dan Bolton does a deep analysis of China’s reclamation of its historic role as the world’s top tea supplier by way of its investment in non-traditional growing regions. Thomas Schmid looks at the burgeoning world of home roasting equipment whose sales have recently skyrocketed in an apparent Covid-related windfall.
On the sustainability front, Peter Keen considers biopesticides, the science of organic alternatives to chemicals, as well as the curious subject of tea waste and its many uses. And Schmid surveys the landscape of single-serve technology as it inches ever closer toward practical, everyday compostability, which has long been elusive.
It’s impossible to foresee what the future holds for the coffee and tea industries, but if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that they are among the most resilient and creative out there. Whatever your relationship to these sectors — whether it be as producer, manufacturer, supplier, wholesaler, importer, exporter, or retailer — best of luck in 2021. We here at STiR coffee and tea magazine will be right here alongside you.