03.11.10
Harnessing Americans’ competitive spirit to advance tea
posted by Maria Uspenski | 7 comments
Last month I thought I’d take a rest from overeating and drinking with my little diet blog post and that (unexpectedly, I must say) brought on great discussion with my tea industry colleagues. So this month, I’m actually asking for input. Just food for thought, intended primarily for tea compatriots – what do we all make of it?
This week, a release hit the tea news wires from the budding U.S. Tea Giant, TeaGschwendner. Initials no coincidence, huh? Their website’s even tgtea.com. The release stated that “loose leaf tea is gradually becoming a way of life for millions of consumers nationwide”.
True - loose-leaf tea is a healthy (pun fully intended) growing niche. But is it a way of life for most Americans? No, not yet (I guess Tea G did, quite appropriately, use the qualifier gradually…).
Tea G’s news release also states that “Globally, more than 3 billion cups of tea are consumed every day”. The Tea Association of the U.S.A. Inc. reported that in 2007, 55 billion servings of tea were drunk by Americans. Even if we give tea a 15% growth rate (steep, eh?) over the past 2+ years, we Americans would presently be consuming about 75 billion servings annually, about 7% of the tea consumed on the earth today. Sounds right in line with our share of the world’s population (5%), but not really. I think we all know that we Americans are out-of-control consumers. When we compare our per-capita consumption of tea with, for example, water and energy (we consume 6X the world average of each of these), meat and fish (5X), paper (8X), and automobiles (18X), it becomes very clear that tea still has a lot of catching up to do to in the U.S. consumer market*. No wonder companies like Tea G, Itoen, Unilever, and Tata are cool with wetting their toes in the U.S. waters while consumers gradually get enlightened about tea.
I’ll leave you with an actual solicitation that was posted in a tea forum a few years ago. It stunned me to read it, because we Americans don’t like to think we’re ever near the bottom of any consumption totem pole…but read on:
“We are Ukrainian Import-Export wholesaler. In our country we supply military bases, prisons and other Governmental Institutions. We mostly interested in cheap (low quality) BOP tea, but not CTC tea. At present we urgently want to buy 18t of black tea (BOP). Place of origin we are particularly interested in is Shri-Lanka or China. We can accept both bulk or packed. But we prefer packed into consumer boxes by 100g. Please send us your offer with FOB price per 1pcs (100g box) or per 1kg.”
Given the Tea Association of the U.S.A.’s statistic that 65 percent of tea brewed in the United States is in tea bags, odds are you are drinking lower-quality tea than a Ukrainian prisoner. But you’re eating a lot more meat and sugar, scribbling on more paper, and probably driving a cooler car than he is. Happy sipping!
* World Bank Development Report 2007
March 11th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Oh Maria, what a good discussion. A young woman was disappointed because we serve real chai and not powdered sugar with some kind of spicy powder tea in it today. People ask about
tea in sachets and bags. It’s nothing but education on a daily basis. We Twitter about loose leaf, we Facebook about it, we preach it in the store to everyone who listens. We won’t even have bags or sachets in the store. A few tea co’s on Twitter (including us) are talking about your topic by Direct Message…what else can we do…and are trying to be creative . Thanks for
asking for input and I hope others have suggestions. The big tea companies with the dollars have the headstart but hopefully the message will get out..it does after people taste the difference!
March 11th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Aargh, I’d rather have a worse car, actually, today, it is, but I see signs everywhere that people are becoming more aware of tea. Unfortunately, it is often bagged - although some of that is pretty good. Even worse, in my opinion, which is never humble! is all the flavored, berried, apple pied, cream bruleed chocolate covered peanut butter cup tea that doesn’t taste like tea any more. I admit I do like some flavors - Earl gray, jasmine, but please, let us have tea and notthat stuff.
March 13th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
I believe that new tea companies, like Tea Smith, who craft small batch teas are putting excellent quality tea into their satchels/bags. I think you’re talking about super market bagged tea. Yes, the consumer needs to learn about issues of freshness and quality - I do believe it’s possible, as Steve Smith is showing us, that bagged tea can be very good - and this from a woman who doesn’t drink tea bag tea.
March 13th, 2010 at 2:49 pm
The key word in the request from the Ukranians is “cheap”, so I think the writer has it wrong. We do know that the majority of tea consumed in North America is bagged, and most of it not of any great quality. That said, I’ve had almost as many disappointing experiences with loose tea when dining out as I have had with bagged tea. When you’re presented a loose tea menu, you expect more out of the experience. Just because it’s loose doen’t mean it’s fresh or that it even began its life as a quality tea. Loose is not necessarily an indicator of quality - the indicator we should rally around to grow awareness and acceptance of better quality teas is flavor - whether bagged or loose.
While Smith Teamaker is in the business of blending and packing only high quality loose leaf teas in sachets (as well as selling loose, unpackaged teas) there is a reason that Tazo Awake continues to be the best selling black tea in the natural channel - it tastes good and delivers on the promise of quality at a relatively inexpensive price.
March 13th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Excellent point Steve about “cheap”. I also agree with your observation about variable quality of loose leaf tea at restaurants/cafes. Not only can the tea be of lower quality, but the water can be poor and of the wrong temperature for optimal results, along with steeping issues…..
March 14th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
The quality of the tea can be bad whether it’s loose or in a bag/sachet. The brewing of the tea, however, will affect it as well. Marketing and marketing money can sell alot of tea, good, bad, indifferent, in bags or loose. The big money has gone to marketing tea bags/sachets and may continue to but some incredible importers/blenders refuse to sell anything but loose leaf and it has cost them sales, yet they are staying true to what they believe. McDonald’s continues to sell more hamburgers than anyone in the world, but is that because they taste better and are great quality? I agree that flavor is imperative, but if those with the best taste don’t have the marketing dollars, the amount of sales is meaningless, isn’t it?
March 18th, 2010 at 1:54 am
You are right Steve in pointing out that just because it is loose, doesn’t mean it will be better. Neither is all bagged tea terrible.
I have had atrocious loose tea served to me in the fine dining sector. As I see it, the problem is easy to fix though, because the two common shortfalls are that the staff do not know what they are serving, nor how to make it correctly.
If the tea is old and stored in a clear jar perhaps, then it will certainly be gad awful….err stale.
The only real issue I have with bagging tea is all the throw-away packaging. So many steps and energy are added to the equation when the fresh leaves get divided up into smaller sachets. I will probably always see it as wasteful and unnecessary.
I did though, enjoy most of what you sent Mr Smith.
Thank You Kindly