Tea Biz
This is a behind-the-scenes look at the tea business, from plantations and processing facilities to retail shops and restaurants.
GROWING TEA
Tea leaves mixed with other styles of tea or other ingredients, like Earl Grey, or raspberry hibiscus green tea.
WORLD TEA EXPO
The World Tea Conference and Expo is a huge annual trade show for people in the tea business.
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An open letter to restaurants about tea
I love going out to eat, but the dining experience at most restaurants is less than stellar for a tea drinker. In this open letter, I lay out why and suggest how to improve.
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Innovation in tea
A Quora user posted the question, “Why don’t you get innovative tea shops like you do with coffee shops?” I wrote a short response to it, and then decided that it would make the starting point for a good Tea with Gary article, so here we are!
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How to be an awesome indie tea shop customer
The U.S. doesn’t have a “coffee culture,” but there’s a Starbucks culture, and people are so nervous about it that they read blog posts about how not to be a bad Starbucks customer. They don’t want to embarrass themselves. We need to make sure this never happens in the tea world.
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Tea Shops for the Younger Crowd
I came across a Quora question asking, “What advice is there for starting a tea shop … that is targeted to a younger crowd?” I’d been thinking a lot about that demographic since my Millennials & Tea article last month, so I wrote an answer and then expanded and transformed into this article.
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Millennials & Tea
When a study comes out, it’s interesting to see who spins it how. YouGov released a survey comparing American consumption of tea with coffee. Their headline was “Coffee’s millennial problem: tea increasingly popular among young Americans.” World Tea News reported that same survey with the headline, “America’s Youth Embrace Tea.”
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The Logic of Tea Bar Redesign
It all started simply enough. Gwen looked at the jars of tea and said, “This cubbyhole-based system is too constricting. We have space for nine oolongs. If we want to add a new one, we have to drop one. What if we went to a more open system?”
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The intimidation factor in tea
In terms of consumer education, the tea industry is where the coffee industry was a couple of decades ago. Nobody went into a coffee shop in the 1970s and ordered a vente half-caf no-foam skinny vanilla latte with a shot of white chocolate and a half-pump of peppermint.
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Teavana: That was a disappointment
I love visiting other tea shops and other bookstores, especially shops that carve out their own niche. When visiting other people’s shops, I get great ideas for our own tea bar, learn new things, taste new teas, and get an opportunity to chat with other people who share my obsessions. I’ve heard a lot about […]
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Copywriters and tea marketing experts
These days, you can’t be too careful what you say on a tea website. Last year, Unilever was warned by the FDA for claims they made about “Lipton Green Tea 100% Natural, Naturally Decaffeinated.” A week later, they warned Dr. Pepper Snapple Group about claims they made concerning “Canada Dry Sparkling Green Tea Ginger Ale.” […]
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Ice, Ice, Baby!
When starting up a new venture, it’s a good idea to minimize the amount of cash you put in until you’re sure it’s going to work. In keeping with that philosophy, when we started our tea bar at the bookstore, we bought what the health inspector said we had to buy (e.g., a triple-basin sink […]
Tea With Gary 