At English Tea Shop, love for our people and our planet is at the core of everything we do. Join us for regular chats with our employees and associates, to find out a little about them as individuals. Next up… a cup of tea with Randika, Manager of Farmer Cluster Development & Tea Value Addition here at English Tea Shop. We talk about organic farming, favourite blends and Prajãva.
Your role
Tell us about your role at English Tea Shop. What does your job involve?
I have drive and passion for expanding people’s knowledge of tea and botanicals, I find it captivating. My role consists of having a close relationship with our organic farming clusters, helping to develop their livelihoods, quality of life and knowledge. I look into identifying their issues and find solutions, creating a win-win situation through our shared value approach.
Other parts of my role include: tea tasting, grading, conducting Creating Shared Value projects (Small Organic Farmer community development), organic ingredient analysis, handling customer complaints and conducting Mini Games for productivity enhancement.
What do you love the most about English Tea Shop and the farm-to-cup ethos?
Our farmers happiness. If we are able to develop a better place and a better life for our farmers, it emphasises our commitment and approaches have indeed brought happiness to the farmers and their loved ones.
What does Prajãva or community mean for you?
It’s all about us, all the people of English Tea Shop. From farmers, through to consumers, all are committed towards the greater wellbeing of people and environment, through organic farming and sustainable practices. We work collaboratively to generate economic values and facilitate better lives for everyone and everything (animals, trees, the environment and us humans, too).
What training and support have you been given to ensure you know everything there is to
know about organic farming, enabling you to nurture the land for generations to come?
- Knowledge sharing about sustainable agriculture and organic agriculture
- Beekeeping programme
- Advanced black tea manufacturing
- Organic certification and quality standard
- Fair trade certification
- Organic fertiliser preparation
How do you spark interest in organic living with the younger generations?
The younger generation’s involvement is comparatively low. However, we make it our responsibility at English Tea Shop to identify the gap and find solutions to overcome it. As a company, we are willing to capture new technology and lead with smart organic practices. Currently, we are focusing on graduates who are involved in an organic farming family.
How do you ‘Empower with Knowledge’?
We have a great learning culture in the company, we always help one another to learn and share knowledge with everyone. I learn a lot from open book management, Big Game and our scorecard system while the company supports me to complete my MBA. I also had a chance to participate in a quality and productivity workshop – it was a very great opportunity to polish our knowledge.
Your tastes
What is your favourite blend of tea and how do you enjoy it? Do you prefer loose leaf pyramid tea bags, tea bag sachets, or whole leaf tea?
Cranberry, Hibiscus & Rosehip pyramid tea bags.
It is always a lovely tea, with a rounded maroon cup and an even better scent of fruity, juicy and berry over notes. It gives fresh tones and marries well with the lychee notes.
What blend do you reach for when you’re feeling unwell?
Lemongrass Citrus & Ginger, every time.
What is your favourite ingredient in its natural form, and why?
Lemongrass – it has a very refreshing, present fragrance, with a youthful aroma and kind of peppery note.
Are you more of a tea cup or a mug person?
I’m a tea cup person.
That’s all from Randika for now, we hope you enjoyed the read. Do let us know which part of the team you’d like to hear from next. Until then, why not check out our Cup of Tea with Kanchana: Head of Quality.