Mike Morath, the Texas Commissioner of Education, interacts with students on their classwork in a science class at Lucyle Collins Middle School in Lake Worth on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.
Christopher Torres
ctorres@star-telegram.com
The application deadline for the Lake Worth school district’s state-appointed board of managers passed Friday after it was extended 20 days due to a low number of applicants.
Just 14 people applied for the state-appointed board of managers, with more of those applicants living outside the district than inside of it, according to data provided by the Texas Education Agency.
Ten applicants reside outside the Lake Worth district, and four live in the district. Five applicants have a bachelor’s degree, three hold a master’s, three have a doctorate, and one holds an associate’s degree, TEA data shows.
Thirty-one percent of applications have or have had students who were enrolled at Lake Worth, and 31% are or were employed by the district.
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Lake Worth’s applicant total is significantly lower than other districts that had a state-appointed board of managers application period in recent months and years. Fort Worth, which closed applications for its state-appointed board of managers on Dec. 1, had 286 total applicants. Lake Worth is exceptionally smaller, with a student population of around 3,300, according to district data.
Lake Worth’s low application totals come after parents of students who attend the district told the Star-Telegram that one of the main issues plaguing the struggling district is parent apathy and a lack of overall involvement.
Lake Worth’s school board, which will be replaced by the state-appointed board after the interview process concludes, has seven seats. Half of those who applied will earn a seat on the board, if another application window is not opened.
Candidates will be interviewed for Lake Worth’s board March 2-13 and TEA Commissioner Mike Morath will decide who will be named to the board shortly thereafter. There is no official timeline for Morath’s decision.
TEA took over Lake Worth in December when Marilyn Miller Language Academy received a fifth consecutive F grade by the state in its yearly accountability ratings. That triggered a Texas law allowing Morath to replace the school board and superintendent and name a conservator to oversee the takeover process. Morath has already appointed Andrew Kim, a former superintendent who is a co-conservator at an El Paso area school district, as Lake Worth’s conservator.
Lake Worth’s seven school board members unanimously voted at a meeting last month not to appeal the TEA takeover, instead blaming itself for taking “too long” to name a superintendent when the search began in September 2024. The board did not hire Superintendent Mark Ramirez until May 2025.
Had the current board appealed, it would have delayed the state-appointed board of managers process even further.
Samuel O’Neal is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram covering higher education and local news in Fort Worth. He joined the team in December 2025 after previously working as a staff writer at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He graduated from Temple University, where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the school’s student paper, The Temple News.
The Arlington ISD Board of Trustees began conversations about closing the East Arlington Blanton Elementary School on Jan. 8, 2026. The school board, shown in this screenshot of the meeting livestream, must make a decision by Jan. 31, 2026, per Texas Education Agency guidelines.
Courtesy of Arlington ISD
Arlington ISD is considering closing a 70-year-old underperforming elementary school.
The school board held its first public conversation about the potential closure of Blanton Elementary School on Thursday night.
The Arlington ISD administration has recommended closing the campus and repurposing part of it for another use because of the school’s significant repair needs, declining enrollment and underperformance. Blanton Elementary currently has a failing grade on the Texas Education Agency report card despite a high attendance rate.
About 58% of the East Arlington campus is in need of repair or replacement to uphold Arlington ISD’s values and expectations, according to an administration report. The school has been open since 1956.
Blanton Elementary is designed to serve about 800 to 900 students but only has 456 students enrolled. The overwhelming majority of the students are economically disadvantaged and predominantly Hispanic, TEA data shows.
According to the 2025 TEA accountability ratings, Blanton Elementary’s academic performance has been declining since 2013, when it was better than or as good as 76% of other similar schools statewide. In 2025, the school academically outperformed 6% of peer schools.
Parents, students and staff have been told the school may be shut down but will receive a written notice on Friday. The district will also be starting a webpage at aisd.net/futureuse to provide additional information and a space to ask questions.
Roughly 20 parents spoke to the school board Thursday night questioning what would happen if Blanton closed. All of them were opposed to the potential closure.
There will be a parent information meeting on Jan. 14 at Blanton Elementary as well. The next scheduled Arlington school board meeting is set for Jan. 22, but board president Justin Chapa said he will recommend a Jan. 20 meeting that will focus solely on the Blanton campus’s future. A translator will be available at each meeting related to the potential closure.
Chapa said there is only a short time allotted by the state to improve the school’s ratings. If that is not done in time, the state will close Blanton Elementary School. By closing the school now, Arlington ISD would be able to keep the conversations close to home and allow parents access to those discussions.
“The reality is, if we do not take action ourselves, it will be done for us,” Chapa said.
Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.
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The Fort Worth Independent School District Administration building located at 7060 Camp Bowie Blvd. in Fort Worth.
Chris Torres
ctorres@star-telegram.com
Parents and community members in the Fort Worth Independent School District voiced skepticisms and concerns about the pending takeover of the district to a state education official during a community meeting Thursday night.
The Texas Education Agency hosted its third meeting in recent weeks to provide information and answer questions regarding state intervention in Fort Worth ISD, which was triggered by five consecutive years of poor academic performance at a now-closed campus.
More than 20 speakers grilled Steve Lecholop, TEA’s deputy commissioner of governance, with questions and critiques about how Fort Worth ISD’s takeover would compare to the state’s takeover of Houston ISD, in addition to decision-making processes, curriculum choices and teacher autonomy. The informal meeting at Fort Worth ISD’s administration building was well attended with a packed audience in the school board’s meeting room.
Edriana Cofer, an English I teacher at Dunbar High School, told Lecholop that she currently has no autonomy in how she’s able to teach lessons to students through the current district curriculum. She asked if that framework will continue under the takeover. She also noted how her curriculum doesn’t include studies of books, just excerpts from them.
Other speakers, including the district’s 2022-23 Teacher of the Year Ale Checka, also spoke on the practice of teachers being discouraged from using full book texts in their classes.
“Will the curriculum be made by district personnel? Will it be curriculum put together by TEA?” Cofer asked. “My biggest fear is increased lack of autonomy because I don’t have that.”
Lecholop’s response to Cofer, in addition to most speakers, was reiterating how the appointed superintendent and board of managers would be in charge of making decisions for the district regarding curriculum and other matters.
Some speakers referenced news coverage by Texas Monthly and the Houston Chronicle reporting that students were being pushed into less rigorous math and science classes in Houston ISD, thus inflating STAAR test scores, since its state takeover.
“I know that you have not been open to, maybe, us explaining our skepticism with the numbers, but if you work in public education… that kind of data can be so easily manipulated,” Checka said. “And somebody like me who consistently puts in not just a 90% passing rate, but 100% passing rate in a different venue, I could tell you how another campus can do that by just changing which students take which classes without a single child ever being a stronger reader and writer.”
Lecholop outlined statistics of Houston ISD’s academic growth throughout the meeting. There were 55 F-rated campuses in the district in 2023 at the beginning of state intervention. This year, there are no F-rated campuses in the district.
“For the first time in generations in Houston ISD, kids are learning. Poor kids are learning,” Lecholop said. “If you look at other assessments given by Houston ISD, the same data is reflected. NWEA math is a really good example of this.”
Jeremiah Taylor, a student at Young Men’s Leadership Academy, was one of only two speakers who spoke with optimistic about the takeover, noting how change is needed in Fort Worth ISD while referencing the academic improvement seen in Houston ISD. The other speaker thanked Lecholop for answering questions from the community.
Taylor, who also attended last week’s TEA community meeting, said he didn’t appreciate how others were “coming at” Lecholop with their comments while he’s doing his job.
“The definition of insanity is doing something over and over and expecting something different. And five years and still failing is the best description for that word. So I hope the new board of managers can stay in their lane and help our kids succeed,” Taylor said.
Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath notified Fort Worth ISD in October of his decision to take over the district by replacing the elected school board with a state-appointed board of managers and conducting a nationwide search for a potential new superintendent. Current Superintendent Karen Molinar will be considered as a candidate. District officials have eight days left to appeal Morath’s decision; the school board will be discussing responses to the takeover during its next regular meeting on Tuesday.
Morath has already appointed a state conservator to oversee the takeover transition and monitor turnaround plans for low performing schools. The conservator, Christopher Ruszkowski, began the job immediately after his appointment one week ago.
Graham Brizendine, a Fort Worth ISD parent and graduate, asked Lecholop if TEA would commit to a requirement that appointees to the board of managers must live in the boundaries of Fort Worth ISD. Lecholop said state law doesn’t require those appointees to live in the district.
“We want to appoint a board that represents the Fort Worth community… the benefit of not being bound by the boundaries of the district is that if a great applicant applies, who happens to live on the wrong side of the street, they are not excluded from service on this board,” Lecholop said.
The state takeover was prompted by the Leadership Academy at Forest Oak Sixth Grade campus receiving five failed accountability grades in a row from TEA. When this happens, state law requires the state education commissioner to either close the campus or replace the school board with an appointed board of managers. Fort Worth ISD closed the campus after the 2022-23 school year
Lecholop encouraged attendees to continue engaging with current district leaders as processes move forward. He said it would be likely for the current school board to stay in place for the foreseeable future if it chooses to appeal the takeover decision, which would start a 90-120 day process, he said.
“The appointment of the board of managers isn’t imminent. It has to wait until the legal process concludes. So over the next few months, what’s likely to happen is that the same board members will continue to govern the school district,” he said. “I would encourage everyone in this audience tonight, and anyone listening online, to show up at board meetings, raise your voice, make your voice heard in an appropriate manner. This will continue to happen once the board of managers is appointed.”
Lina Ruiz covers early childhood education in Tarrant County and North Texas for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. A University of Florida graduate, she previously wrote about local government in South Florida for TCPalm and Treasure Coast Newspapers.
Debunking cannabis in candy and other Halloween myths: what parents really need to know
Curious about the cannabis in candy and other Halloween myths? Every autumn, a familiar rumor surfaces on social media and in group texts: “Someone’s handing out weed candy to trick‑or‑treaters.” But here’s the short version: no credible evidence supports the claim. What’s actually going on is a modern twist on a long history of candy‑tampering folklore.
Long before cannabis entered the public conversation, concerns about Halloween treats were dominated by tales of razor blades hidden in apples, pins in chocolates, or poison in candy. Those fears are largely urban legend.
Where did it start? By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as candy production grew industrial, some doctors and commentators began warning food adulteration was a hidden menace. The shift from small‑scale confectioners to mass manufacturing fueled distrust of what lurked inside sweets. In 1959, a California dentist, Dr. William Shyne, distributed laxative pills to trick‑or‑treaters in candy coatings—more prank than poison, but it entered the lore.
In 1970, a New York Times op‑ed asked whether the “plump red apple” might conceal a razor blade, feeding parental fear.
The most infamous case came in 1974, when an 8‑year‑old in Texas died after consuming a Pixy Stix laced with cyanide. But the twist is the child’s own father, Ronald Clark O’Bryan, was convicted—and later executed—for planting the poison to camouflage a murder as a “random” trick‑or‑treat crime.
Folklorists like Joel Best have traced dozens of reports of candy tampering from 1958 to 1983; but after investigation, none could be confirmed as a stranger’s random act of harm. Many turned out to be misattributed, hoaxes, or even children themselves adding dangerous objects and calling attention to it.
Over time, the razor‑blade apple myth became a cultural shorthand for parental anxiety. Ironically, apples were once common Halloween treats (candied or caramel apples). But the myth contributed to their decline as mass “give‑aways.”
The razor blade story is far from the only tale in the haunted folklore of Halloween sweets. Some of the persistent legends include:
Needles or pins in candy bars: Occasionally reported, but often traced to local pranks or “copycats” rather than sinister strangers.
Poisoned candy or drug‑laced treats: Tales of cyanide, lye, or drugs in sweets persist. But documented cases of poisoning via “random Halloween candy” are effectively non‑existent.
“Blue star” lollipop tattoos or poisoned tattoos: A variant rumor claims temporary tattoos handed out include psychoactive or toxic compounds—another version in the “urban legend about drugs” canon.
Mass poison scares tied to other events: For instance, after the 1982 Tylenol poisoning scandal (cyanide in over‑the‑counter pills), public fear of tainted consumables spiked—including Halloween candy warnings.
These legends flourish because of what folklorists call availability cascade—when a vivid fear is repeated often, people assume it must be true.
So where did the weed candy myth come from? It’s essentially a new costume draped over an old scare. As legal cannabis markets have emerged, the idea someone might hide THC or marijuana edibles in trick‑or‑treat bags has gained traction online — yet it fails under scrutiny:
No documented cases. No credible report shows strangers distributing cannabis treats to kids on Halloween.
Cost is prohibitive. Legal THC edibles are expensive under regulation and taxation—handing out full doses to many kids isn’t cheap.
Strict regulation and packaging. Dispensaries are required to use child‑resistant packaging, labeling, and maintain records—anonymously distributing to random children would breach every rule.
Severe legal risk. Distributing THC to minors is criminal; any plausible motive is overshadowed by the consequences.
Counterfeit vs. real product confusion. Some rumors mix in fake or illegal edibles mimicking mainstream candy, creating fear, but they are not part of regulated cannabis commerce.
Derived from older tampering myths and amplified by digital echo chambers, the cannabis candy scare is a modern variant—but one without substance.
A practical Halloween safety checklist might include: supervise routes, cross at well‑lit streets, have children wait until home to open candy, discard unwrapped or suspicious items, and of course, check for choking risks or allergens.
The myth someone is secretly giving cannabis candy to unsuspecting trick‑or‑treaters is more frightening than factual. It’s a modern reincarnation of a much older folklore of tainted treats, one built on fear, not evidence. The razor in the apple may be a chilling image, but it remains a legend, not a reality. This Halloween, the real risk is not a phantom dose of THC—but a car, a broken sidewalk, or too much sugar.
Let’s protect kids with real caution, not ghost stories.
Hemp is being helped by GOP Senator Rand Paul, boldly tying government funding to hemp’s survival
In a surprising twist of Senate strategy, hemp is being helped by GOP Senator. Randy Paul has positioned himself as the unlikely champion of hemp — threatening to keep the federal government shutdown alive unless protections for the industry are secured. With the Republican Party controlling the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives, this move shows how intra-party battlegrounds can shape policy and put unexpected players into the spotlight.
With Republicans holding the presidency oand congress, the GOP nominally holds the power to end the shutdown. But power isn’t the same as unity. While GOP leaders are pushing to fund the government, the details of what gets included in the continuing resolution remain hotly contested. Sen. Paul has effectively leveraged that dynamic by tying the fate of government-funding legislation to the fate of hemp policy.
Paul warned that unless the hemp industry’s interests — particularly around hemp-derived THC products — are expressly protected, he may withhold his support for bringing the government back online. According to industry coverage, he’s told leadership that “we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is I give my consent, and the hard way is I don’t.” The result: a fresh sense that even with unified Republican control, the party must manage internal dissent if it hopes to reopen the government.
Back in 2018, the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 (part of the larger Farm Bill) removed hemp — defined as cannabis sativa with less than 0.3 % THC — from Schedule I drug status, opening the door for industrial uses and new product development. Since then, the hemp industry has evolved far beyond fiber and seed. Now, hemp-derived cannabinoid products — including gummies, beverages, extracts and even low-dose THC items — have flooded the market, gaining significant consumer traction.
One of the key sticking points in Washington is the proposed language in appropriations bills that would redefine “hemp” by eliminating any “quantifiable amount” of THC or THC-adjacent cannabinoids. The industry argues that such a definition would effectively bury the current hemp-derived products sector. Paul, fending for his state’s hemp farmers, said a tighter definition would “devastate” Kentucky’s hemp economy.
It’s not just niche farms anymore. Hemp-derived products are moving into mainstream retail channels and becoming a consumer trend. For instance, Total Wine & More now features hemp-derived THC beverages and other innovative hemp products on shelves, marking a signifier of how widely accepted the category has become. Retail articles highlight that “mainstream retailers like … Total Wine … are joining the THC Beverage Retail Revolution, signaling that hemp-derived cannabis drinks have officially entered the mainstream.” The combination of broad availability and elevated consumer demand helps explain why Paul is motivated to keep fighting for protections — this isn’t a fringe industry anymore.
Paul’s core demand: don’t let the appropriations process or continuing resolution sneak in language that guts hemp-derived products by redefining hemp in a way that would ban many existing products. Instead, he proposes that Congress delay sweeping changes, conduct studies, and give the industry breathing room. Marijuana Moment+1 For the hemp industry — and for retailers — the stakes are high. A ban on “any quantifiable THC” could force many products off shelves, disrupt supply chains, jeopardize investments and cost farmers and businesses tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Photo by traffic_analyzer/Getty Images
For younger and middle-aged consumers, this isn’t just about farmers and policy wonks. Hemp-derived products tie into wellness trends (CBD, functional beverages), alternative consumables (micro-dose THC drinks), and retail culture (finding such items in familiar stores). The mainstream move of hemp means suddenly your local beverage aisle or specialty store might carry hemp-derived options alongside other lifestyle products. So when Paul threatens to use a shutdown as leverage, it’s more than politics — it’s about whether your next casual drink could be a hemp-derived beverage, or whether those products could vanish or shift dramatically in how they’re regulated.
As the shutdown drags on and GOP leadership wrestles internal divisions, Paul’s blockade of hemp-related changes creates a scenario where even a party with full control doesn’t necessarily have full command of the agenda. If he holds out, the shutdown could persist until either leadership makes a deal on hemp — or until Paul relents. For hemp brands, retailers and consumers, the message is: Washington is watching. The definition of hemp, the regulation of THC-adjacent products and the channels of mainstream retail are all in flux. Millennials who have embraced hemp as lifestyle, beverage or wellness category should keep their eye on Capitol Hill — because their everyday options might hinge on how this fight resolves.
In the land of majority rule, one senator is reminding his party control doesn’t equal consensus — and the hemp industry just became the rope he’s pulling on.
The perfect cup of cannabis tea, a warm, relaxing autumn drink to reduce anxiety, better than alcohol for women.
As the leaves turn amber and the air gains a crisp autumn bite, many of us reach for a steaming mug of something warm. Traditionally, it might be wine, cider, or a fancy cocktail—but this fall, there’s a new contender stealing the spotlight. Let us introduce you the perfect cup of cannabis tea. Beyond its comforting warmth, cannabis tea offers a gentle way to relax, ease anxiety, and skip the post-drink hangover.
Cannabis tea is quickly becoming a wellness staple for Millennials and Gen Z women seeking a calm, cozy ritual. Unlike alcohol, which can disrupt sleep, spike anxiety, or leave you groggy, cannabis-infused tea can provide a soothing, mindful experience. Its cannabinoids interact with your endocannabinoid system, helping to regulate mood, reduce stress, and create a gentle sense of calm—perfect for autumn evenings when Netflix and fuzzy socks are calling.
Photo by underworld111/Getty Images
For those new to cannabis tea, there are two popular ways to brew it depending on your taste preference.
The Classic “Weedy” Brew
If you enjoy the signature earthy cannabis flavor, this is your go-to. Start by gently simmering 1 gram of decarboxylated cannabis in a cup of water with a teaspoon of coconut oil or butter (to help absorb cannabinoids). Let it steep for 15–20 minutes, strain, and sip slowly. The result is a robust, herb-forward tea with a calming buzz perfect for winding down after a hectic day.
The Light & Floral Option
Not a fan of the “weed” taste? You can soften it with complementary flavors like lemon, rose, or chamomile. Brew your cannabis with dried chamomile flowers, a slice of lemon, or a few rose petals. Add honey or your favorite natural sweetener. This version masks the cannabis flavor while keeping its calming effects, making it a chic, Instagram-worthy wellness drink.
Beyond taste, cannabis tea is versatile: you can enjoy it morning or night, hot or iced, solo or with friends. And unlike cocktails, it won’t leave you dehydrated or foggy—making it ideal for women balancing careers, social lives, and self-care routines.
As the season shifts, swapping a glass of wine for a cup of cannabis tea could become your new autumn ritual. It’s cozy, calming, and comforting—a simple way to sip your stress away while embracing the cooler months.
Apple has removed dating apps Tea and TeaOnHer from the App Store for violating rules related to content moderation and user privacy. The company told TechCrunch that it pulled the apps as they broke several of its rules, including one mandating that apps can’t share or otherwise use an individual’s personal info without getting their permission first.
Apple said they also violated a rule concerning user-generated content, which stipulates that apps need to allow for reporting offensive or concerning material, an option to block abusive users and the ability to filter “objectionable material from being posted.” In addition, Apple claimed the apps broke rules related to user reviews. It told TechCrunch they had an “excessive” volume of negative reviews and complaints from users, including ones related to minors’ personal details being shared. The company noted that it raised these issues’ with the apps’ developers, but they were not resolved.
As it stands, both apps are still available on Android through the Google Play Store. Tea (which is formally called Tea Dating Advice) enables women to post details about men they’ve met or dated. It allows them to post and comment on photos, look up public records on individuals, carry out reverse image searches, share their experiences and rate or review men. Users can, for instance, say whether they’d give a man a “green flag” or a “red flag.”
TeaOnHer flips that format on its head, with men sharing info about women. Both are pitched as dating safety apps, with Tea telling users they can “ask our anonymous community of women to make sure your date is safe, not a catfish and not in a relationship.”
Tea first emerged in 2023 and it went viral this year. In July, hackers breached the app and leaked tens of thousands of images, including around 3,000 selfies and photo IDs that users submitted to verify their accounts. The other images included posts, comments and private messages. A second hack exposed more than a million private messages.
Days after TeaOnHer went live in August (ripping off text from Tea’s App Store description in the process), it emerged that app had its own security issues. It was possible to view photo IDs and selfies that users had submitted for account verification, as well as their email addresses.
The matcha drinks at Kin Bakeshop are so popular that some customers wait hours for their fix.
The little Santa Barbara cafe was going through more than four pounds of the Japanese tea on its busiest days when it started getting tough to get a reliable supply.
This summer, the matcha dealer called to say that after a decade of importing from Japan, she had been forced to start rationing supply. There was no longer enough of the potent powder for everyone.
Kin Bakeshop found new supplies and hiked its prices, but the customers kept coming, said Tommy Chang, owner of the cafe.
“It’s like the harder that it is to get your hands on it, the more people want it,” he said. “They just need their matcha. They’ll come here no matter what.”
A growing thirst for matcha is roiling a delicate supply chain from Japanese tea farms to California’s cafes. The tea leaves are grown in the shade, specially processed and then stone-ground into the bright green, earthy powder used in drinks and desserts.
Tea farm owner Masahiro Okutomi in Sayama, Japan, in June 2025.
(Philip Fong / AFP/Getty Images)
As matcha’s bold aesthetic and health benefits have taken social media and consumers by storm, Japanese production is under strain from an aging population and hotter climate. That’s sent prices surging, and businesses scrambling to secure supply.
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that coffee shops are doubling and tripling down on their demand by heaping more matcha in drinks, said Lauren Purvis, who supplies Kin Bakeshop and other local cafes with tea and matcha. Traditionally, she has trained shops to use three grams of matcha in one serving, but recently she said some are using as many as nine grams, a fact that shocked her producers.
“A lot of my producers are like, ‘We have never seen a moment like this in the history of Japanese tea,’” she said.
Before the recent matcha boom, Japanese tea farmers were struggling to keep the industry alive. Younger Japanese have abandoned tea fields to work in cities and generally prefer coffee over tea. But signs of a shortage began to emerge in the summer last year as demand skyrocketed overseas.
Barista Julia Peng sifts matcha powder for lattes at Kin Bakeshop on Oct. 21, 2025 in Santa Barbara. The store no longer uses matcha in desserts, reserving it for beverages due to a shortage.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Purvis, who founded Mizuba Tea Co. in 2013, first felt the effects in December. An order was months late because one of her usually reliable Japanese suppliers didn’t have enough of the specialized tins used to package the matcha.
Then her producers told her that as much as 30% of their spring harvest was lost due to abnormally hot temperatures. When the tea leaves went up for auction in the summer, prices tripled.
Those increases have started to hit U.S. consumers, who are facing an added cost due to 15% tariffs on imports from Japan.
The Japan Tea Export Promotion Council has warned that shipments to the U.S. have been delayed by tariff processing. Some shipments have been stuck at customs and are at risk of being disposed of or sent back.
“Tariffs are just the icing on the cake,” Purvis said. “Matcha is just going to get a lot more limited and a lot more expensive.”
When Chang started Kin Bakeshop in 2020, he only needed a couple of bags per week. Now he buys them by the dozen, with extra orders whenever he can get it. After the first time the store ran out of matcha, he started keeping emergency stores, though those are often empty too.
“I’m in shock that it’s happening,” he said.
Matcha has taken over his menu. It now includes a strawberry matcha latte, black sesame matcha, and coconut matcha cloud.
When he learned that the supply of his usual matcha was restricted, Chang decided to spend about $135 per pound, or 70% more, on a higher grade of matcha that was less prone to shortages.
The store used to serve matcha desserts too, such as lemon yuzu mochi doughnuts dusted with matcha, but now saves the precious powder for beverages.
A matcha latte with whipped cream at Kin Bakeshop. Historically, the U.S. has been the largest consumer of Japanese tea.
(Juliana Yamada / Los Angeles Times)
Historically, the U.S. has been the largest consumer of Japanese tea. But as matcha demand has gone global, U.S. businesses are increasingly competing with buyers from Europe to the Middle East to Southeast Asia.
The Japan Tea Export Promotion Council estimates that the total volume of tea exports increased by 154% in 2024 compared with a decade earlier. The U.S. went from accounting for 45% of exports to 32% in the same time frame.
To meet market demand, the Japanese government has encouraged tea farmers to increase production of tencha, the tea used to make matcha, sometimes at the expense of other types of tea.
Other countries such as China, Vietnam and South Korea are also growing more tencha. But new plants take years to cultivate, and suppliers said there is deep penchant among buyers for Japanese matcha, which is seen as the highest quality.
The scarcity has prompted some businesses to resort to extreme measures. Purvis said one producer she works with had a stranger show up and refuse to leave without matcha.
Jason Eng, who works in business development and partnerships for Kametani Tea in Nara, Japan, said buyers are asking to sign annual contracts to secure matcha for the following year.
“Our buyers and partners overseas, they are all running dry, and they’re panicking,” he said. “Even new clients are asking for a ridiculous amount of tea. It’s completely unsustainable.”
Luke Alcock, founder of Premium Health Japan, a matcha supplier in Uji — a city near Kyoto famous for its fine tea —said he’s gone from simply facilitating sales to buying and holding his own stock to ensure he can supply brands through next year’s harvest.
Although about 40% of his clientele is in the U.S., he’s gotten increasing inquiries from the Middle East and Europe, even with rising prices.
He’s also been careful to protect the privacy of his suppliers, since buyers are so eager to get more matcha.
He’s also been careful to protect the privacy of his suppliers, since buyers are so eager to get more matcha. One customer requested the contact information of a manufacturer, which Alcock assumed was for customs clearance. That customer then used the details to reach out to his supplier and do business directly.
“People are just ruthless,” he said. “We’re still seeing how the market reacts, but it’s showing that people are going to keep buying.”
Though oolong tea is low in nutrients, it’s packed with plant compounds that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects in the body. It’s a concentrated source of polyphenols, including theaflavins3, theasinensins, thearubigins4, epigallocatechin (EGC), and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), all of which have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Mackenzie Filson is a food & beverage writer and native Floridian. Her work has appeared in PUNCH, Eater, The Kitchn, and TASTE, among others. You can read more of her writing in her newsletter, Grocery Store Wine, where she often pairs books with wine (her one party trick.)
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Most of the time, I choose coffee over tea — but a warm cup of masala chai can persuade me otherwise. I usually keep a box of tea bags next to my Keurig so that I’m set whenever the urge for a soothing cup hits. The box there right now is Vahdam’s Sweet Cinnamon Masala Chai. I recently decided to give it a try, and now it’s become a staple in my afternoons.
What’s So Great About Vahdam’s Sweet Cinnamon Masala Chai?
It features just three ingredients — black tea, cinnamon, and cardamom — all of which are sourced in India. You can choose from a box of 30 tea bags or 100, if you’re a big chai fan. The 30-count box is perfect for me and costs $14.99, which means each mug is just under $0.50. Hard to argue with that!
My Honest Review of Vahdam’s Sweet Cinnamon Masala Chai
As soon as I smelled this tea’s warm, cinnamon-y aroma, I knew it was going to be good. Cinnamon definitely is the main flavor, which I love — especially this time of year. The cardamom adds a fragrant, slightly peppery note that goes so well with the cinnamon. Together, these two spices make for such a comforting cup of tea. Plus there’s a bit of caffeine in it, so it’s a great afternoon pick-me-up as it gets darker earlier.
I usually steep the tea bag in hot water for five minutes (the box’s instructions say three to five), and then mix in my favorite vanilla coffee creamer. You could totally add milk, sugar, or honey instead, but I love the combined sweetness and creaminess I get from the creamer. That hint of vanilla flavor also rounds out the warm spices really beautifully.
Vahdam also suggests that you could make it iced. On one of the warmer fall days, I might just have to give it a try.
What’s your favorite tea to make at home? Tell us about it in the comments below.
An elixir for youthful skin sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But when you really think about it, plenty of natural herbs, spices, and teas can supply your body with the vitamins and nutrients you need for a healthy glow. Beauty elixirs are all around us if you take a closer look.
Never let it be said that Houston ISD Superintendent Mike Miles hesitates about the big stuff, especially when it leads to a crescendo ending at one of his power point presentations. Tuesday he demonstrated that when he pledged that “By August 2027, all schools in HISD will be A or B-rated.”
As part of what he’s calling The Houston Promise, Miles says the remaining C and D-rated schools (there were no F-rated HISD schools in the state’s latest assessment) will improve to A and B status with a continuation of his approach to education which he says involves rigorous standards and quality teaching.
At a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Miles showed chart after chart tracking the considerable academic progress shown by HISD students on standardized tests in the last two years. He’d covered most of the material in earlier presentations with a few new specifics. But he saved his boldest statement for last by promising that within two years all campuses would be in the top two tiers as assessed by the Texas Education Agency. .
“We went from 93 A and B campuses to 197,” he said. “We have thousands more kids reading at grade level than ever before. We have thousands more kids doing math at grade level than ever before. “
In the 2025 school ratings from the TEA, 18 schools got a D rating and another 50 a C. The number of C-rated schools has stayed pretty much the same over the past three school years, but the number of D-rated schools has significantly decreased. Meanwhile the number of A and B-rated schools significantly increased.
To Miles’ mind (his contingent of detractors do not agree), he has shown the right way to turn a school district around. Asked what strategies other school districts up for possible takeover (Fort Worth ISD a likely candidate) should employ, he repeated his basic mantra of academic rigor and quality instruction.
A Q&A session followed his prepared remarks and in response to one such question, he said that experienced New Education System teachers whose own schools are determined to have excess staff, may be offered positions at the C and D-rated schools this school year.
He also talked about his efforts to enlist a number of community partners to help certain campuses.
Asked to explain what that support would look like, HISD Chief of Public Affairs and Communications Alex Elizondo responded on Miles behalf:
“There are 64 schools that are district-run right now that have a C or D rating. So we’ve asked these organizations, businesses, non-profits, anyone who wants to participate in this to sign up to sponsor a school. What that is is two teacher appreciation lunches, a student celebration and campus cleanup or beautification day — whatever the principal thinks makes the most sense — and a donation that the principal can use at their discretion towards academic needs of students.”
Asked if HISD is going to participate in a pilot program for the development of the new state tests to replace the STAAR as the Texas Legislature voted to do, Miles said “I don’t know if we’ll participate.” He said with the kind of instruction and testing HISD students have now, they will continue to grow (as in the number of them reading and doing math on grade level) and they shouldn’t have any trouble with any new test from the state.
A follow-up question from one reporter — “What happens in 2027 … if the district doesn’t meet that goal of all A and B schools?” — gave Miles a moment’s pause as he considered and rejected his unsaid initial response. But then, collecting his thoughts, he rallied:
“Look, we’ve already made history. That’s No. 1. No.2, this is the biggest goal and and challenge that any urban district has ever made. And if we fall a little short, so what? We already have 197 A and B schools Let’s say we fall five short. We’re going to have 255, 260 A and B schools? That’s incredible. We’re going to call that a win.”
“Clearly, in spite of the widely held ‘belief’ in the health benefits of M. oleifera [moringa], the interest of the international biomedical community in the medicinal potential of this plant has been rather tepid.” In fact, it has been “spectacularly hesitant in exploring its nutritional and medicinal potential. This lukewarm attitude is curious, as other ‘superfoods’ such as garlic and green tea have enjoyed better reception,” but those have more scientific support. There are thousands of human studies on garlic and more than ten thousand on green tea, but only a few hundred on moringa.
The most promising appears to be moringa’s effects on blood sugar control. Below and at 0:55 in my video The Efficacy and Side Effects of Moringa Leaf Powder, you can see the blood sugar spikes after study participants ate about five control cookies each (top line labeled “a”), compared with cookies containing about two teaspoons of moringa leaf powder into the batter (bottom line labeled “b”). Even with the same amount of sugar and carbohydrates as the control cookies, the moringa-containing cookies resulted in a dampening of the surge in blood sugar.
Researchers found that drinking just one or two cups of moringa leaf tea before a sugar challenge “suppressed the elevation in blood glucose [sugar] in all cases compared to controls that did not receive the tea initially” and instead drank plain water. As you can see here and at 1:16 in my video, drinking moringa tea with sugar dampened blood sugar spikes after 30 minutes of consumption of the same amount of sugar without moringa tea. It’s no wonder that moringa is used in traditional medicine practice for diabetes, but we don’t really know if it can help until we put it to the test. People with diabetes were given about three-quarters of a teaspoon of moringa leaf powder every day for 12 weeks and had significant improvements in measures of inflammation and long-term blood sugar control. The researchers called it a “quasi-experimental study” because there was no control group. They just took measurements before and after the study participants took moringa powder, and we know that simply being in a dietary study can lead some to eat more healthfully, whether consciously or unconsciously, so we don’t know what effect the moringa itself had. However, even in a moringa study with a control group, it’s not clear if the participants were randomly allocated. The researchers didn’t even specify how much moringa people were given—just that they took “two tablets daily with one tablet each after breakfast and dinner,” but what does “one tablet” mean? There was no significant improvement in this study, but perhaps the participants weren’t given enough moringa. Another study used a tablespoon a day and not only saw a significant drop in fasting blood sugars, but a significant drop in LDL cholesterol as well, as seen below and at 2:27 in my video.
Two teaspoons of moringa a day didn’t seem to help, but what about a third, making it a whole tablespoon? Apparently not, since, finally, a randomized, placebo-controlled study using one tablespoon of moringa a day failed to show any benefit on blood sugar control in people with type 2 diabetes.
So, we’re left with a couple of studies showing potential, but most failing to show benefit. Why not just give moringa a try to see for yourself? That’s a legitimate course of action in the face of conflicting data when we’re talking about safe, simple, side–effect–free solutions, but is moringa safe? Probably not during pregnancy, as “about 80% of women folk” in some areas of the world use it to abort pregnancies, and its effectiveness for that purpose has been confirmed (at least in rats), though breastfeeding women may get a boost of about half a cup in milk production based on six randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
Just because moringa has “long been used in traditional medicine” does not in any way prove that the plant is safe to consume. A lot of horribly toxic substances, like mercury and lead, have been used in traditional medical systems the world over, but at least “no major harmful effects of M. oleifera [moringa]…have been reported by the scientific community.” More accurately, “no adverse effects were reported in any of the human studies that have been conducted to date.” In other words, no harmful effects had been reported until now.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) is probably the most dreaded drug side effect, “a rare but potentially fatal condition characterized by…epidermal detachment and mucous membrane erosions.” In other words, your skin may fall off. Fourteen hours after consuming moringa, a man broke out in a rash. The same thing had happened three months earlier, the last time he had eaten moringa, causing him to suffer “extensive mucocutaneous lesions with blister formation over face, mouth, chest, abdomen, and genitalia.” “This case report suggests that consumption of Moringa leaf is better avoided by individuals who are at risk of developing SJS.” Although it can happen to anyone, HIV is a risk factor.
My take on moringa is that the evidence of benefit isn’t compelling enough to justify shopping online for something special when you can get healthy vegetables in your local market, like broccoli, which has yet to be implicated in any genital blistering.
What are the risks versus benefits of drinking kombucha?
Is Kombucha Tea Good for You? is one of my first videos. It was featured in a blog entry entitled “NutritionFacts.org: the first month,” where I marveled the video had reached nearly 100,000 people. You can see it below and at 0:20 in my video Kombucha’s Side Effects: Is It Bad for You?. I’m honored to say that we now reach more than 100,000 people a day.
In that first kombucha video, I profiled a report published in the Journal of Intensive Care Medicine of “a case of kombucha tea toxicity” in which a young man ended up in an acidotic coma. The authors concluded, “While Kombucha tea is considered a healthy elixir, the limited evidence currently available raises considerable concern that it may pose serious health risks. Consumption of this tea should be discouraged, as it may be associated with life-threatening lactic acidosis.” And this was just one of several case reports of “serious, and sometimes fatal, hepatic [liver] dysfunction and lactic acidosis within close proximity of ingestion.”
For example, there were two cases in Iowa of severe metabolic acidosis, including one death. There was also a triggering of a life-threatening autoimmune muscle disease that required emergency surgery and was “probably related to the consumption of a fermented Kombucha beverage.” Another patient presented with shortness of breath, shaking, and a movement disorder “after consumption of tea and no other medications,” and a middle-aged woman complained of xerostomia, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, headache, and neck pain,” and her symptoms recurred on reingestion of the tea. There was another case of severe metabolic lactic acidosis, as well as a case of hepatotoxicity (liver toxicity) that resolved after stopping kombucha.
Why these sporadic cases? Maybe some unusual toxins developed in a particular batch. I mean, it is a fermented product, so it’s possible there was just some contamination by a bad bug, like the time people smeared kombucha on their skin because they were told it had “magical healing power.” What it had instead was anthrax. So, even though such reports were rare, I concluded ten years ago that we should probably stick to foods that haven’t put people in a coma. But what about its risks versus benefits? Maybe kombucha is worth it. After all, it’s “reputed to cure cancer,” “eliminate wrinkles,” “and even restore gray hair to its original color”—as “marketed by alternative and naturopathic healers throughout the United States.”
“Currently, kombucha is alternately praised as ‘the ultimate health drink’ or damned as ‘unsafe medicinal tea.’” It’s been “claimed to be a universal wonderful drug…a potion which improves awareness and concentration, slimming, also purifying, regenerating and life extending.” Which is it? Is it “potion or poison?
Back in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, there were several medical studies conducted by recognized physicians confirming all sorts of beneficial effects, as you can see below and at 2:55 in my video.
I couldn’t wait to read them. Dufrense and Farnworth were cited, and when I went to that paper, I saw the same claim, citing Allen 1998. When I went to that source, I saw the citation is for a random kombucha website, as shown below, and at 3:10 in my video. And guess what? That website’s been defunct since 2001, and “much of the Kombucha information” posted came from comments on some mailing list.
Finally, in 2003, a systematic review of the clinical evidence that had been published was conducted. “The main result of this systematic review, it seems, is the total lack of efficacy data…No clinical studies were found relating to the efficacy of this remedy.” We just have these cautionary tales, these case reports. So, based on these data, it was concluded that the largely undetermined benefits do not outweigh the documented risks of kombucha. It can therefore not be recommended for therapeutic use.” That was back in 2003, though. How about a 2019 systematic review of the empirical evidence of human health benefit?
“The nonhuman subjects literature claims numerous health benefits of kombucha,” with “nonhuman” meaning mice and rats. We need human clinical trials, yet there is still not a single controlled human study. (I did find one uncontrolled study purporting to show a significant reduction in fasting and after-meal blood sugars among individuals with type 2 diabetes, though, as seen below and at 4:19 in my video.)
“Nonetheless,” despite no controlled trials, “significant commercial shelf space is now dedicated to kombucha products, and there is widespread belief that the products promote health.” So, we are left with this extreme disparity between science and belief: “There is no convincingly positive clinical evidence at all; the [health] claims for it are as far-reaching as they are implausible; the potential for harm seems considerable. In such extreme cases, healthcare professionals should discourage consumers from using (and paying for) remedies that only seem to benefit those who sell them.”
A few times a day, drink two cups of cold water on an empty stomach for weight loss.
After drinking two cups (half a liter) of water, you can get a surge of the adrenal hormone noradrenaline in your bloodstream, as if you had just smoked a few cigarettes or had a few cups of coffee, boosting your metabolic rate up to 30 percent within an hour, as shown below and at 0:22 in my video Optimizing Water Intake to Lose Weight. When put to the test in randomized controlled trials, that appeared to accelerate weight loss by 44 percent, making drinking water the safest, simplest, and cheapest way to boost your metabolism.
Now, this entire strategy may fail if you’re on a beta-blocker drug. (Beta blockers are typically prescribed for heart conditions or high blood pressure and tend to end with the letters lol, such as atenolol, nadolol, or propranolol, sold as Tenormin, Corgard, or Inderal, respectively.) So, for example, as you can see below and at 0:59 in my video, if you give people the beta-blocker drug metoprolol (sold as Lopressor) before they drink their two cups (480 mL) of water, the metabolic boost is effectively prevented. This makes sense since the “beta” being blocked by beta blockers are the beta receptors triggered by noradrenaline. Otherwise, drinking water should work. But what’s the best dose, type, temperature, and timing?
Just a single cup (240 mL) of water may be sufficient to rev up the noradrenaline nerves, but additional benefit is seen with drinking two or more cups (480 mL). A note of caution: One should never drink more than about three cups (710 mL) in an hour, since that starts to exceed the amount of fluid your kidneys can handle. If you have heart or kidney failure, your physician may not want you to drink extra water at all, but even with healthy kidneys, any more than three cups of water an hour can start to critically dilute the electrolytes in your brain with potentially critical consequences. (In How Not to Diet, I talk about a devastating, harrowing experience I had in the hospital as an intern. A patient drank himself to death—with water. He suffered from a neurological condition that causes pathological thirst. I knew enough to order his liquids to be restricted and have his sink shut off, but I didn’t think to turn off his toilet.)
Getting back to it. What kind of water are we talking about? Does it have to be plain, regular water? It shouldn’t matter, right? Isn’t water just water whether it’s flavored or sweetened in a diet drink? Actually, it does matter. When trying to prevent fainting before blood donation, drinking something like juice doesn’t work as well as plain water. When trying to keep people from getting dizzy when they stand up, water works, but the same amount of water with salt added doesn’t, as seen below and at 2:40 in my video. What’s going on?
We used to think the trigger was stomach distention. When we eat, our body shifts blood flow to our digestive tract, in part by releasing noradrenaline to pull in blood from our limbs. This has been called the gastrovascular reflex. So, drinking water was thought to be a zero-calorie way of stretching our stomachs. But, instead, if we drink two cups (480 mL) of saline (basically salt water), the metabolic boost vanishes, so stomach expansion can’t explain the water effect.
We now realize our body appears to detect osmolarity, the concentration of stuff within a liquid. When liquids of different concentrations were covertly slipped into people’s stomachs via feeding tubes, detection of plain water versus another liquid was demonstrated by monitoring sweat production, which is a proxy for noradrenaline release. It may be a spinal reflex, as it’s preserved in people who are quadriplegic, or picked up by the liver, as we see less noradrenaline release in liver transplant patients (who’ve had their liver nerves severed). Whichever the pathway, our body can tell. Thought we only had five senses? The current count is upwards of 33.
In my Daily Dozen recommendation, I rank certain teas as among the healthiest beverages. After all, they have all the water of water with an antioxidant bonus. But, from a weight-loss perspective, plain water may have an edge. That may explain the studies that found that overweight and obese individuals randomized to replace diet beverages with water lost significantly more weight. This was chalked up to getting rid of all those artificial sweeteners, but, instead, it may be that the diet drinks were too concentrated to offer the same water-induced metabolic boost. As you can see below and at 4:29 in my video, diet soda, like tea, has about ten times the concentration of dissolved substances compared to tap water. So, plain water on an empty stomach may be the best.
Does the temperature of the water matter? In a journal published by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, an engineering professor proposed that the “secret” of a raw food diet for weight loss was the temperature at which the food was served. “Raw food, by its very nature, is consumed at room temperature or lower.” To bring two cups (480 mL) of room-temperature water up to body temperature, he calculated the body would have to dip into its fat stores and use up 6,000 calories. Just do the math, he says: A calorie is defined as the amount of energy required to raise one gram of water one degree Celsius. So, since two cups of water are about 500 grams and the difference between room temp and body temp is about a dozen degrees Celsius, it’s about 500 x 12 = 6,000 calories needed.
Do you see the mistake? In nutrition, a “calorie” is actually a kilocalorie, a thousand times bigger than the same word used in the rest of the sciences. Confusing, right? Still, I’m shocked that the paper was even published.
So, drinking two cups of room-temperature water actually takes only 6 calories to warm up, not 6,000. Now, if you were a hummingbird drinking four times your body weight in chilly nectar, you could burn up to 2 percent of your energy reserves warming it up, but it doesn’t make as much of a difference for us.
What about really cold water, though? A letter called “The Ice Diet” published in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that eating about a quart (1 L) of ice—like a gigantic snow cone without any syrup—could rob our body of more than 150 calories, which is the “same amount of energy as the calorie expenditure in running 1 mile.” It’s not like you directly burn fat to warm up the water, though. Your body just corrals more of the waste heat you normally give off by constricting blood flow to your skin. How does it do that? Noradrenaline.
If you compare drinking body-temperature water, room-temperature water, and cold water, there’s only a significant constriction in blood flow to the skin after the room-temperature water and the cold water, as seen below and at 6:39 in my video.
What’s more, as you can see here and at 6:45 in the video, neither the warm nor tepid water could boost metabolic rate as much as cold (fridge temperature) water. Our body does end up burning off more calories when we drink our water cold (at least indirectly).
So, two cups of cold water on an empty stomach a few times a day. Does it matter when? Yes, watch my Evidence-Based Weight Loss lecture to see how you can add the benefit of negative-calorie preloading by drinking that water right before your meals.
Too good to be true? No. Check out my other three videos on water and weight loss in the related posts below.
.JPG "Mike Morath, the Texas Commissioner of Education, interacts with students on their classwork in a science class at Lucyle Collins Middle School in Lake Worth on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025.")
People with diabetes were
