Category: News

Real tea parties can win with calm nerves

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010 by Kyser Heidi


Like most of you, I’ve been following the discussion going on in the specialty tea industry about the political tea party and its impact, if any, on tea’s image.  I had resolved to stay out of it, but the topic (like the tea partiers) just won’t go away.
Most recently, the emergence of a coffee party [...]

TeaClass - Replacing misinformation with solid knowledge

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010 by Cain Charles


Fact: Consumer unfamiliarity and uncertainty are the primary obstacles to the growth of the specialty tea industry.
Fact: The tea industry is strewn with competing information, myths, and unsubstantiated claims.
Solution: TeaClass.com.  OK, so it’s not all the way there yet, but it’s a BIG step in the right direction.  TeaClass is a powerful and dynamic tool [...]

Using tea parties to encourage philanthropy in young girls

Thursday, January 21st, 2010 by Beck Cheryl


Inspired by The New York Times best-selling book, Three Cups of Tea, Tea Party Angels is an innovative concept that turns a girl’s tea party into a fundraiser for girls’ education around the world.  Imagine thousands of young girls hosting tea parties across the country and asking their friends to bring a small donation - [...]

Concepts to keep an eye on in 2010

Friday, December 25th, 2009 by Ritchey Sam


The consumer research firm Mintel recently released predictions for 2010 trends in consumer spending.  Reading these is like reading your horoscope - you naturally question the wisdom of statements so malleable as to bend to any number of realities.  Their flavor trend predictions, on the other hand, are far more concrete.  Here at least there [...]

Paying for what you get

Monday, December 7th, 2009 by Kyser Heidi


In a couple weeks, World Tea will launch a new WorldTeaNews.com.  It will be like the existing web site in terms of the quality and depth of content, but will differ in a couple significant ways.  The most important is that it will include some content you can only access with a paid subscription.
Lots of [...]

Steve Smith…where are you?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 by Michelle Rabin


Steve Smith…where are you?
I’ve been following tea super star Steve Smith’s new Portland start-up activity since last May when The Oregonian did a piece on him.
It sounds like Steve was getting a bit bored during his year-long visit to France, and I suspect his do-not-compete clause was probably running out with Starbucks, so he was [...]

Washington T.E.A. group…NOT

Thursday, October 1st, 2009 by Michelle Rabin


I have a bone to pick with a local political group in Washington.  They call themselves “T.E.A.”.  Of course, this has nothing to do with tea; it stands for “taxed enough already”.  When I read about this organization, I was not surprised that they’ve inappropriately adopted “tea”…they just don’t get it.  They’re opposed to Obama’s [...]

Stand up for tea

Monday, May 11th, 2009 by Nancy Murphy


Why did the people who were protesting excessive spending with tax-day “tea parties” pick tea as their symbol?  Clearly, it was an effort to hearken back to the Boston Tea Party, a protest by colonists against taxation without representation.  But were there other reasons?  Is tea such a luxurious commodity that they thought it represented [...]

Will the powers of tea overcome the powers that be?

Friday, December 12th, 2008 by Hasas Adela


What happens to a good-intentioned company that sells herbal supplements & natural tisanes…and makes the grave mistake of claiming these products are healthy? The FDA sends US Marshals to raid the warehouse and seize thousands of dollars worth of company property and products, of course.
I recently read about the FDA’s seizure of $71,000 worth of [...]

Who could ask for anything more?

Thursday, November 20th, 2008 by Michelle Rabin


There are a number of perks associated with having a tea blog.  Perhaps my favorite one is having the opportunity to sample innovative new products.  The folks at Ceramcor sent me one of their gorgeous new ceramic Tea Potles, part of their Xtrema teaware line.  This ain’t your grandma’s kettle.  I was immediately drawn to [...]