Traveling For Tea: Inside Eat The Change’s 60-Hour Journey To The Tea Fields Of Mozambique

When it comes to the crossroads of culture, food, and drink, few culinary concepts have had as large an impact on modern society as tea. Believed to have originated eons ago in modern-day China, the concept of soaking Camellia sinensis in hot water has left a truly mind-boggling mark on nations all across the globe. While the beverage has enjoyed a lasting legacy across Europe, becoming one of the cultural cornerstones of daily life in England, it also served as one of several catalysts for the American Revolution, with massive shipments of tea plunging deep into the waters of New England during the Boston Tea Party—and in the modern era, people are willing to go to extreme lengths to procure high-quality product, as Eat The Change founders Seth Goldman and Spike Mendelsohn experienced at the beginning of 2023.

A longtime veteran of the tea industry, Goldman served as a co-founder of beverage brand Honest Tea, first launching the product in 1998. While the company enjoyed immense success over the decades, with roughly 1.5 million cases sold in 2006, Honest Tea’s acquisition by Coca Cola in 2011 ultimately spelled doom for the brand. Just last year, the corporation made the decision to discontinue Honest Tea permanently, prompting Goldman and Mendelsohn to pursue a new venture through Eat The Change in the form of Just Ice Tea. Dedicated to sourcing organic ingredients produced on Fair Trade-certified farms, the pair set out on a journey to the depths of northern Mozambique’s Zambezia Province, working tirelessly to secure visas and ultimately embarking on a lengthy expedition that clocked in at 60 hours from departure to arrival.

Beginning in London, Goldman and Mendelsohn flew to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi before touching down on Mozambique soil—and once they made landfall in the nation, the pair faced a six-hour drive through tangled forests along winding dirt roads before arriving at the destination. While the journey itself was difficult to pull off, the pair were met with some of the most splendid landscapes in all of Mozambique: the sweeping tea fields of Cha de Magoma. Dormant for decades due to a lengthy civil war that devastated the nation, the area has been revitalized and converted into a fully organic operation—and while there’s no pollution source to be found for hundreds of miles, the local community has long suffered from the turmoil of the national conflict.

“Apart from the 60 hours of travel, I think one of the most challenging aspects was really witnessing extreme poverty firsthand,” says Mendelsohn. “It really puts your life in perspective and the good fortune you have had.” Working closely with the tea facility’s Fairtrade representatives, the pair are facilitating the implementation of clean drinking water, more sufficient education facilities, and an ambulance for use within the community, all echoing Eat The Change’s philosophy of imparting a positive impact on the planet through their products.

Northern Mozambique is home to a wealth of spectacular landscapes, but it’s far from the only part of the nation that’s renowned for its beauty. In the southern reaches of the country, Bazaruto Island serves as one of the country’s top destinations for ecotourism, with marine creatures like bottlenose dolphins, leatherback sea turtles, and even dungongs all calling the region home. For those hoping to spot iconic megafauna in the flesh, Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park is a particularly popular safari destination, while the capital city of Maputo is home to dazzling luxury hotels like the Polana Serana—but for the founders of Eat the Change, few destinations can compare to verdant Cha de Magoma.

“The tea is amazing, but the most inspiring part of the trip was seeing the villagers live in such incredible landscapes,” says Goldman. “A vibrant and diverse ecosystem truly in balance with no external inputs needed to grow and support such a vibrant crop of tea.”