Q&A Conversations over Tea: Blending Cultures, Expertise, and Tea Formulas in Guatemala

Q&A Conversations over Tea: Blending Cultures, Expertise, and Tea Formulas 

In March 2023, Partners of the Americas' Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program partnered with ARSO Corporation (ARSO) based in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala to brew up innovative ideas and flavorful concoctions related to tea and infusion products. 

ARSO co-owners and brothers, (L to R) Hildán and Andrés Argueta, evaluate tea blend formulas. Quetzaltenango. Guatemala. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

Since the 1930’s, ARSO has operated as a family-run agribusiness that has farmed products such as coffee, rubber, African palm, and other products. By 1997, ARSO, under the leadership of brothers Hildán and Andrés Argueta, diversified into producing exotic fruits, such as rambutan and mangosteen to supply local and international markets. 

To this end, the ARSO team was very excited about the arrivals of Dr. Rachel Meyer and Dr. Ashley DuVal, a first-time F2F volunteer team with vast experience in tea blending and infusion formulation. As ethnobotanists, Rachel and Ashley are passionate about fostering a human connection to and love for plants, while also honoring and respecting traditional knowledge.

To help the company explore new value-added methods, the F2F team advised ARSO on the development of tea blends and/or drink infusions to eventually introduce them into local and international markets, including wholesale buyers such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Walmart in the United States. F2F Guatemala hosts, Hildán and Andrés, have years of experience already built up having industrialized their traditional and exotic fruit line products using freeze dry technology. 

During this two-week F2F volunteer experience, the ARSO headquarter offices transformed into creative hubs where curiosity and invention merged with technical experience and innovation resulting in the birth of seven new flavorful tea products using high-quality local and exotic fruits. Moreover, it forged new friendships and lasting partnerships from distant lands with shared interests and passions, while preserving Guatemala’s cultural and environmental richness. 

The following excerpts are conversational Q&As on host and volunteer perspectives of these fruitful experiences.

 

F2F Host, Hildán Argueta, Market Development Manager/Co-owner, ARSO Corporation 

ARSO co-owner, Hildán Argueta, experimenting with tea blend formulas. Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

Q: Why is the type of work that F2F carries out so important for agribusiness producers like yourself? 

A: In our country, we don’t get a lot of help from the government. It is not like in the U.S. where you get support from subsidies or grant programs. Here, you are really on your own and when you have programs like F2F, for us, it is like you have been under water this whole time and suddenly you get to breathe a little. It is a lot of help because otherwise it would be very expensive to bring people with this type of expertise. 

Q: Did the F2F experience meet your expectations? 

A: It surpassed them. The F2F volunteers have a lot of knowledge in blending. The experience has been very productive for us. They opened our eyes to what we had not considered before, for example, about what people like in the United States because we already know what people like in Guatemala. Our taste buds, our culture, what we eat here, the spices we use, the aromas, it is all very different here. We may have an idea of what we want to produce, but that it is solely based on what we have been exposed to our entire life. 

Bringing people from other places opens your mind to different concepts and understanding the markets of where we want to go to. In these types of projects, we look to see if the flavors are too sweet or not. We consider if people in the United States know what rambutan is. We are also learning about all the benefits that people in the United States are looking for to know what we should put on our labels. In our culture, people don’t read the label. As much as you can place the benefits of the product, they don’t care. They just go directly to the price point. 

Q: How has your outlook changed with the new knowledge you acquired? 

A: With F2F, we can start thinking more about this new tea blending project. We feel like we have reliable support if we really need something. Sometimes, you can have ideas, and, in our case, we can have the money to buy a machine that we want to start a project, but if we don’t have the knowledge that is where everything ends. Being able to bring the expertise with the volunteers, it makes us want to grow more, go to the U.S. to see the trends, and build new businesses. The volunteers now have been amazing because they gave us the base of what you can do and not do regarding formulation. 

F2F Volunteer, Dr. Ashley DuVal, Plant Genetics and Breeding Scientist

Q: What excited you about the proposed project prior to arriving? 

A: What really excited me about this assignment was the immersive nature of the work, a clear timeline with deliverables, and the opportunity to focus all attention and time on just this project! We have been consulting on blend formulation and development with a range of clients in different countries, but a key difference is that much of this work has been done remotely and to do an iterative process with feedback from all stakeholders can span over many months, involve shipping, and lots of conference calls. The projects are usually tended to whenever time is available, including nights and weekends. Our ideal scenario is to move towards more immersive and community-based formulation, and this assignment gave us a great opportunity to develop a model for doing exactly that. We were also excited to be able to work on formulations while immersed in the flavors and products of Guatemala, and to be able to delve more deeply into the narrative power of the different ingredients and their cultural contexts. 

Q: Once you met the team, what capacity strengths or opportunities did you discover that you felt you could directly build upon? Conversely, what challenges or unexpected nuances did you identify in meeting your goals as you progressed with your work together? 

Tea taste sampling with Hildán Argueta (L) and F2F volunteer Dr. Rachel Meyer (R). Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

A: By the end of the first day after everyone enjoyed a nice lunch together, we realized what an amazing energy and chemistry this group has together! Partly because our clients were family or had worked together for many years, there was a very playful and open dynamic from the get-go that made every day a fun and joyful experience. We were not expecting to form such a strong connection with our hosts in such a short time, and I feel like we have made friends for many years to come, and I feel invested in the launch and success of their products. 

I was also surprised to learn how much thought and creativity they had already put into the concept of the tea blends. Some ideas were around packaging, others around naming and flavor combinations, that had been milling around in their minds and imaginations for years. We helped to create a platform for sharing but many of the ideas had been conceived years ago. This really helped us build quickly. We also came to realize quickly that our Partners of the Americas' F2F Field Officer, Otto Rivera, was an amazing asset to our assignment. He was an amazing person to work with, full of knowledge of Guatemala, food, agriculture, and culture and had a very sensitive pallet. He participated with us every day and was very critical in the formulations and brainstorming. He was also able to translate any nuanced concepts and ensure that nothing was lost in the mix.

Q: Can you share a little about the synergy developed through your working partnership? What is exciting about their vision and potential? 

F2F volunteers Dr. Ashley DuVal and Dr. Rachel Meyer carry out tea taste testing as they assist the ARSO team in developing tea formulas. Photo Credit: Monica Gonzalez

A: An exciting aspect about ARSO’s vision and potential to create these fine teas with fruits and functional qualities is that they have an incredible degree of vertical integration – from farm to factory operations. This allows them to be very agile and versatile as well as take risks on new product categories and quickly scale through existing suppliers. The synergy was great! They brought a lot of expertise in business, operations, and we were able to pair this with science, structured exploration, recommendations around services, and networking. We both know the challenges and growing pains of entrepreneurship as well, so there was common familiarity with many processes. 

Q: What do you think were the most valuable skills and experiences gained by your hosts that can carry them to the next level? 

A: Perhaps the recognition of their own sensory experience and preferences, and how that validates their contributions to formulating. As the time progressed, they also developed a common lexicon to speak more specifically and descriptively about the blends, their likes, and their dislikes. A month later, I learned that they are still meeting weekly and have continued to develop the nine blends we left them with and have begun work on the marketing and packaging. It is fun to see the momentum carry on even after the assignment is complete for us!

USAID-funded Partners of the Americas’ John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) in Guatemala provides technical assistance from U.S. volunteers to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, and other agriculture sector institutions with the goal of promoting sustainable improvements in food security, agricultural processing, production, and marketing.