Steep It Loose

By Aleksandra Crapanzano for Wall Street Journal Venerable brands and upstarts alike are encouraging us to steep and sip our way to vitality, better sleep, even happiness. These delicious brews are the ones worth choosing. Tea has long been considered something of a cure-all. Pick up most any classic British novel, for instance, and you can’t help but notice how many characters count on a cup to allay anything from a broken heart to a serious bout of illness. Though many of the therapeutic benefits attributed to tea have yet to be substantiated by science, both green and black teas do...

By Shayna Harris for Forbes  E-commerce is growing as never before for tea since the onset of shelter-in-place in the U.S. “We have seen a huge spike in home tea consumption via grocery and online outlets. Our customers with a well-established online presence are doing exceedingly well,” says Mo Sardella, director of marketing at the G.S Haly Tea Company. Sardella’s customers saw between a 100% to 300% increase in online sales in April alone.  Bianca Shah, CEO of International Tea Importers, agrees. “We’ve seen that of course brick and mortar location sales are down, but many of our customers’ online sales have...

By Shayna Harris for Forbes    The tea market is experiencing unprecedented shifts in supply and demand due to COVID-19. “What COVID has done is accelerate our existing plans to grow out of grocery and into e-commerce. But we are more concerned now than ever about our inventory,” says Raj Vable, CEO of Young Mountain Tea. Vable sources directly from tea estates in India and Nepal. “Due to our direct-trade model, we have information on what is happening at the tea estates and can monitor the situation closely in a way that others with longer supply chains aren’t able to.”  Vable...

By Maria Uspenski for Tea & Coffee Trade Journal    In this age of the novel coronavirus and a strong focus on wellness, adaptogenic teas are a welcome trend and an opportunity for tea businesses of all kinds, from retailers to beverage manufacturers. In fact, the industry is seeing more adaptogenic tea blends on the market as consumers seek natural substances to reduce stress, provide a sense of calm and reap a variety of health benefits. Adaptogens are natural, botanical substances and include Tulsi Holy Basil, ashwagandha, rhodiola and maca – or more common adaptogens such as turmeric and ginger...