Every Cup of Tea Tells a Story

Tea is a beverage made from the Camellia sinesis plant. Tea is the world’s most consumed drink, after water. 

In Iran, tea is more than a drink. It’s how we welcome guests, slow down with family, honour moments, and carry tradition through generations.

But behind every cup is a woman, a farmer, a family, part of the 13 million people around the world who rely on tea for their livelihoods. Grown in just a few regions, tea sustains smallholder farmers and entire communities, harvest after harvest.

Today, climate change is making that harder. That’s why UNDP is working with farmers across the world, and here in Iran, to protect water, grow greener, and keep these livelihoods alive.

This Tea Day, let’s honour the ritual and the people who keep it alive. Support local. Because every cup of tea tells a story.

Honouring women around the world, from crop to cup

This year, International Tea Day highlights women and their role in the tea sector. It is also an opportunity to celebrate the cultural heritage, health benefits and economic importance of tea, while working to make its production sustainable “from field to cup” ensuring its benefits for people, cultures and the environment continue for generations.

Tea and climate change

Tea production is highly sensitive to changes in growing conditions. Changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, with more floods and droughts, are already affecting yields, tea product quality and prices, lowering incomes and threatening rural livelihoods. These climate changes are expected to intensify, calling for urgent adaptation measures. In parallel, there is a growing recognition of the need to contribute to climate change mitigation, by reducing carbon emissions from tea production and processing.

Therefore, tea-producing countries should integrate climate change challenges, both on the adaptation and mitigation front, into their national tea development strategies.