Greetings, friends. Maria, Jessica, and I are back into the swing of things after attending the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas. It was great trip (pretty darn hot though), we had a lot of fun and met a lot of people. Overall, it was wonderful to put faces to the names of our customers, importers, and friends in the industry. I think we were all reminded of how lucky we are to be working in the tea industry, where nearly everyone we do business with is a friend. The Expo had more the air of a cocktail party than a business meeting–everyone was excited to see what others brought with them.
Highlights for me include: tasting oolong with Devan Shah and the ITI team, trying out a delicious white tea grown in Hawaii, and tasting perhaps the best gyokuro of my life (my favorite cribbing) brewed by the man who farmed it himself.
At any rate, the World Tea Expo provided us with an excellent chance to premiere two new products. The Mod Teapot (pictured below), in stunning new colors, will be out soon, and was received quite well by those who stopped by. Not only is it a gorgeous and sturdy teapot, but it’s got a gigantic infuser. If you know The Tea Spot well, you know we’re all about large volume infusers, and this pot is no exception.
Our second exciting release was the Brewlux, which we’re distributing exclusively. I could ramble for days about how revolutionary this product truly is, but I’ll try to be brief here and link you to the Brewlux Video we just put together. Long story short, it’s a large volume infuser designed for to-go tea service in coffee + tea shops. That’s cool, but let me drop your jaw a little more: Brewlux is completely biodegradable, made from US grown corn, and produced locally. You know those cool compostable to-go cups you’ve been seeing around? They’ve got a new best friend.
I’d like to wrap up by congratulating Steven Donner (a customer of ours) of Sipping Streams Tea Co. on his win in the Tea Sommelier competition at Expo! We’ll have to try his matcha sometime…