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The Food Chain

Factual: Food & Drink

Examining what it takes to put food on your plate

The Food Chain examines the business, science and cultural significance of food, and what it takes to put food on your plate.

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The Food Chain: The Real Value of a Cup of Tea

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The Real Value of a Cup of Tea

18/05/2017 GMT

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, The Real Value of a Cup of Tea

Coffee addict Dan Saladino sets out to understand what a cup of tea is really worth. Do we pay enough?

In south west India, food writer Vanessa Kimbell gets up close to the leaf and hears the reality of a hard day’s work from a team of tea pluckers 6000 metres above sea level. From there we move to the Assam region in the north east to hear about an investigation into working conditions on a tea plantation. 

Will Battle, author of the World Tea Encyclopedia and a professional tea taster, explains how the global demand for tea has shaped where it’s grown and how it’s traded.

Next, after the long journey from field to cup – what’s the best way to consume a cuppa? Tea tutor Caroline Hope is visited by people from all over the world to learn how the British drink tea. 

Finally, we enter a new realm of tea-drinking. Tim Doffay of Postcard Teas in London tells us about some of the world’s most expensive brews.

(Photo: Cup of tea and saucer with gold spoon. Credit: Getty Creative)

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