Introducing Masala Chai, our rich and flavorful new Masala Chai concentrate supporting the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI).

This new Masala Chai is an organic and Fair Trade Certified™ microbrewed blend of energizing spices and rich vanilla, infused with a full-bodied, single-origin, forest-grown black tea. Proceeds from each sale of Masala Chai support the Institute, including Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, its global environmental and humanitarian program for young people from preschool to college.

Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE, founder of the Institute that bears her name and a UN Messenger of Peace, is a celebrated primatologist, conservationist and humanitarian. In 1991, she established Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots with a group of Tanzanian students. The Roots & Shoots program is about making positive change happen—for our communities, for animals and for the environment. With tens of thousands of young people in more than 120 countries, the Roots & Shoots network connects youth of all ages who share a desire to create a better world. Young people identify problems in their communities and take action. Through service projects, youth-led campaigns and an interactive website, Roots & Shoots members are making a difference across the globe.

Organic
Each of the ingredients in our Masala Chai is certified organic. Hand-harvested from the wild-grown tea forests of China’s Mannong Manmai villages, the main ingredient, black tea, goes beyond the strictest organic standards.

Located in the birthplace of tea (China’s Yunnan province), Mannong Manmai is a place where tea trees grow in a biodiverse, subtropical ecosystem. Descended from seed stock that arrived in Mannong Manmai more than 1,500 years ago, these heirloom tea trees receive bountiful nutrients from the soil without the use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. This perfectly symbiotic relationship has refined itself over the course of these many centuries; the trees get precisely what they need and the soil never becomes overtaxed. This contributes to the tea’s flavor, balance and health benefits, but also translates to healthier soil, cleaner air and water, and safer villages.

Unique to Rishi Tea
One of the critical issues we have found with the majority of the teas produced in the hill tribes in Yunnan is the lack of processing equipment. The relationships that we have developed with the farmers have allowed us to increase the quality of the products with clean processing centers. By working side by side with the village tea artisans, we were able to learn about their teas, experiment with new flavors and develop new styles of tea. The black tea used in Masala Chai is inspired by classical Chinese black tea processing but has been fine-tuned to the unique characteristics of the local heirloom tea trees to promote a robust, malty tea that holds up to milk and sugar.

Fair Trade
Although Mannong Manmai villages are rich in ancient tea culture and traditions, they are also underdeveloped and poor. Many villagers go without education and health care services. The Mannong Manmai Ancient Tea Association has used funds generated by the sales of Fair Trade tea to establish environmental and social initiatives, from clean water distribution and better educational opportunities to improved transportation. Learn more about our Fair Trade projects.

Our Slow-Brewing Method
Slow-brewed Chai requires the very best spices and tea. Each ingredient is specifically sourced during the annual harvest and meticulously selected from dozens of origin samples for its outstanding quality. Each crop year we taste and reject dozens of organic ginger and cinnamon samples before selecting those that best fit our flavor profile. We steep and infuse our Chai with whole leaf, single-origin tealeaves, tailor-made for Rishi Tea, to have a rich, lively character that is well-suited to our robust Chai profile. We never use soluble tea extracts or chemical extracts of any kind.

Timing is key to our craft-brewing approach. We cook the spices according to their specific extraction rates, adding each ingredient to the kettle at specific times, simmering them together in small batches in a process that takes about 20 hours. When the spices are totally infused, we add the tealeaves and steep them for an exact amount of time. Controlling the steep time of the tea adds a layer of rich, malty flavor with a deep caramel finish, which prevents any harsh or bitter flavors that can result from poor tea infusing techniques. Then we sweeten it all with organic pure cane sugar, organic molasses and organic vanilla and stabilize the recipe with organic lemon juice. This fine-tuned, slow-brewing technique results in a more authentic and complex array of richer and fuller flavors.

Links
Learn more about the Jane Goodall Institute and its Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots program here:
www.janegoodall.org
www.rootsandshoots.org

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