Last month Adagio Teas launched their “Roots Campaign” with a story about a Chinese tea farmer from Fu Jian province who handled Jasmine Tea.

For October we’re greeted by Niklaas Jakobus Slinger a Rooibos farmer from South Africa. Again, this project seeks to shine a light on the hard working tea cultivators whom Adagio sources from while also giving back to them 10% of the proceeds of sales from their product via Adagio’s website.

Mr. Slinger notes several interesting changes in the tea industry including increased paperwork and the need for many more international certifications due to increased regulation. An interesting couple of anecdotes I feel many of us never think about when it comes to starting our own companies or tea gardens.

I highly recommend participating in this unique venture from Adagio Teas.

From an Adagio release:

Starting on September 1st, we will be launching the “Roots Campaign” on our site. A chance for our customers to meet the individual farmers who produce our teas and to gain an insight on the process of growing and making tea. Each month we will be highlighting a different tea from our product line and featuring the tea artisans that grew and crafted this tea. Users will be able to read about who that farmer is, view photos of their land and family, & read their answers to select questions that we have chosen. To show our deep appreciation, 10% of the sales from the featured tea will be donated back to the farmer it was sourced from.

The project is slated to run for 12 months and will feature 12 farmers from different tea-growing regions around the world. We would be thrilled if you were to inform your readers about the campaign before its release in order to help make these contributions as meaningful as possible. At the end of the campaign, we will be conducting followup interviews to find out just how the farmers were able to benefit from the donations.

Here is a link to the first Roots Campaign from Adagio! It’s a great read!

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org