By WTN Staff

Teas Etc has finalized a deal to import and exclusively distribute Bolivian specialty tea from ChaiMaté, a farmer-owned cooperative just outside La Paz. Teas Etc will present its new find at World Tea Expo taking place this week, June 11-13, at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Tea Etc, a direct trade supplier of specialty teas, will be offering tastes of ChaiMaté’s 100-percent organic black and green teas at its booth during the Expo. They range from whole-leaf to broken orange pekoe (BOP) grades.

According to Teas Etc, the new partnership brings Bolivian specialty teas to North American tea drinkers.

“The environmental attributes of the area are obviously conducive to producing quality specialty teas,” said Beth Johnston, founder and CEO of Teas Etc, in a statement.

The company claims Bolivian tea is unlike any other, because it is produced by chilled air flowing from the snow covered Andes Mountains that meets heated air from the Amazon Rainforest. The teas are hand harvested by cooperative of farmers comprising 90 percent of Bolivia’s tea growers.

Johnston noted that in Bolivia, “historically the lack of concern and commitment to honoring the local farm families and the absence of integrative training and education has resulted in failure to nurture and maintain tea in viable way.”

The Bolivian farmers’ cooperative gained understanding of sustainable production of organic teas from seedling to cup after the third consecutive failure to maintain tea production in 2001.