EP1681 Part 1 of 5 | How Tea Is Processed and Graded (Jem McDowall) Map It Forward

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Episode Description

This is part 1 of a new 5-part series on The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward hosted by Lee Safar. Our guest on the podcast for this series is Jem McDowall, VP at Universal Commodities, a tea importer based in the United States.

For the first time on The Daily Coffee Pro, we’re stepping outside coffee and into the world of tea.

In this episode, Lee and Jem explore how tea is grown, processed, and graded, and where the tea and coffee industries share some surprising similarities.

Jem explains how tea begins as fresh leaf from the Camellia sinensis plant before moving through withering, rolling or cutting, oxidation, and drying. He breaks down the difference between traditional orthodox processing and CTC — cut, tear, curl — and explains why those processing choices create very different finished teas.

They also discuss the distinction between green and black tea, why controlling oxidation matters, and how moisture is reduced to preserve finished tea.

The conversation then turns to grading. Unlike coffee, tea grading is largely a system of sorting leaf by size, with terms such as Orange Pekoe, Broken Orange Pekoe, and fannings. Jem explains why those classifications can vary significantly between origins and why tea grading remains far less standardized globally than coffee grading.

The episode also touches on the extraordinary rise of matcha — a product Jem says represents less than a quarter of one percent of global tea production while attracting enormous attention and value.

This episode lays the foundation for the rest of the series as we begin comparing the structure, economics, challenges, and future of the global tea industry with what coffee has already experienced.

Connect with Jem McDowall here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jem-mcdowall-826932b/

Universal Commodities:

https://uctt.com/

If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.

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About Map It Forward

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