‘Affecting everything’: COVID-19 cracks the tea cup, too By EMMA SKIDMORE, Pittsburgh Post-GazetteJuly 13, 2021 GMT PITTSBURGH (AP) — Margaret Harris has stockpiled $50,000 worth of tea in her basement. Ms. Harris, owner of Blue Monkey Tea Co. in Squirrel Hill, has been in the tea business for 20 years. In March 2020, as the pandemic hit, she realized there were going to be supply chain issues. She relies on shipments from places like China, where COVID-19 was quickly disrupting business as usual. “I had to take a loan from the banks, and I ordered extra stash of teas,” she recalled. “We could barely move in our storage room because we had so much stuff.”