My husband and I were reading a foodservice survey done about a major coffee chain which concluded that consumers valued taste, cleanliness, and convenience almost equally. So, if you have the cleanliness and taste, but not the convenience . . . problem.
As anyone in retailing knows, it’s all about location. Cleanliness doesn’t cost a thing but some elbow grease. I think location has been one of the problems in getting loose tea concepts going for the average, unfunded proprietor. Most have had to settle for ‘B’ or worse locations simply because of the cost.
There’s convenience in location and then there’s convenience as in ‘fast.’ Loose tea is many things, but most consumers don’t see it as convenient, aka “fast.” There aren’t drive-through windows and pots and ceramic cups handed out through the opening.
Why even bring all this up? Because I read a discussion on a professional industry board the other day, where the question was asked – it seemed almost hopefully or longingly: “Is there a good future for loose tea?” where even specialty tea industry professionals were talking about convenience. Lately, I have seen companies I never thought would go “pyramid bag” do so because they want and/or need to get foodservice business. And, I’ve read the controversy that the nylon in praymid bags doesn’t degrade for decades – maybe not in our lifetimes – which makes the bags not eco-friendly. But they sell.
On the large scale, what appears to be happening is that the coffee chains are bringing in more loose tea, but are batching it, and sugar-ing it up, and doing it mainly as specialty beverages because “tea is hot” (but not really – it’s iced). 85% of the tea sold in the U.S. is, indeed iced and black.
Panda Express is doing a new tea bar concept with boba and specialty blended tea drinks, Dunkin’ Donuts was seen looking around World Tea Expo, and all of foodservice is hopping on the “specialty tea” bandwagon. So what are tea purists who want to start a pure loose tea business to do?
There are always niche possibilities, but for the foreseeable future, and it almost hurts me to say this because I’ve been such a heels-drilled-into-the-ground-loose-tea purist: we have to accept that a few may do very well in certain urban or trendy areas with loose tea businesses, but even some of the established and “purist” loose tea wholesalers are heading in the direction of convenience.
More on this in a future installment, but I’d love to hear comments from tea business owners. We are in the process of expanding our vision to sync with the trend. How about you? What is your experience, your observations? I know there are loose tea brewing appliances and we are about to introduce ours (“about” meaning having taken a long time and not until we believe it’s completely ready and the time is right). Talk to me, my tea industry friends. Talk to me. Are your heels drilled in, are you refusing to budge, are you determined that we will show people the light on loose leaf? Tell me you are and why. Or tell me how your vision is changing, if it is.
Diane, although I’m not a shop owner, I have been to countless tea shops and of course, I share your frustration and passion for whole leaf tea. I like the way Steve Smith is doing it at his Portland store. He serves tea bags BUT prominently sells loose leaf tea. My observation is that over time, patrons start to inquire about the loose leaf options and often make a switch when purchasing tea to take home. Not only is loose leaf tea less expensive, but it lends itself to repeat steeping. It’s interesting to note that they don’t include the tea bag into the pot of tea, but do the brewing correctly before bringing the tea to the customer, thus ensuring a perfect cup of tea. Even when purchasing a flight – it is done with tea bags. For both of us, our goal is to convert tea drinkers to whole leaf tea drinkers. I think, with patience, that can be accomplished.
Michele, we always brewed everything for the customer as well. Now that we have found a way to make loose tea friendly for foodservice with quick brewing by the cup and no messy filter/leaf disposal problems, I’m excited that loose leaf will finally be accessible, any, even a Formosa oolong by this method.. and tastes as good or better than traditional steep. I’ll be talking more about that here in the future.
First to Diane’s comments about the sachets “made of nylon and not degrading in 10 years or even in our lifetime” is just not correct. Ours are made of corn starch and will biodegrade in compost with the proper moisture and temperature over 3 – 5 years. Now to loose tea – what we put in our sachets is full leaf tea – the same that is used for loose tea, and the leaf looks exactly the same and tastes the same. We use sachets in the shop because all the teas are pre-measured within 1/10 of a gram for a perfect cup of tea, and they are over-wrapped to protect them from other aromas which could compromise taste. My question is bagged high quality full leaf teas or loose tea – shouldn’t we let the consumer decide, and isn’t the real goal to get more people discovering and drinking better tea where they live and work? The easier it is to get them engaged the better.
Thanks for taking the time to respond Steve. As you know, not all tea bags are created equal. The vast majority of pyramid bags are not made of corn starch. Ultimately I do agree that it is the customer who will decide. For me however, I didn’t really become a tea “geek” until I made that transition to loose leaf tea and really discovered TEA. I must confess to always have a few bags of Smith Tea in my purse to have available at a friend’s house who isn’t a tea person and offers me 10 year old tea boxes to choose from or the restaurant that still doesn’t carry good quality tea…….You’re doing a great job in Portland with an ever increasing number of good restaurants that offer your teas. Thanks for that and Congrats!
Steve, I was talking about sachets with nylon, not corn starch. And, am ‘about’ to call you again because we are ‘about there’ and ready to start showing our 1 min. by the cup brewing system…’about’ for us is when we are confident there is nothing more to ‘tweak’. I’ve appreciated talking with you a few times by phone and your stating you’d taste test. We have had what I consider are other ‘top palates’ who have been amazed. And there will be no messy filters to clean.
By the way, when I mentioned to Beth at Teas Etc. when we stopped at her booth at World Tea Expo, who had taste tested our appliance, and then mentioned a few more, she said..’you had me at the first one’.
I would like to say first of all that the term “loose leaf” does not speak to the issue of quality. When I say quality I am referring to the Chinese definition of I is that considers the intact nature of the leaf. This significantly changes the conversation about whether or not the tea is in a bag or its loose. Especially when it comes to convenience. What could be more convenient than tea leaves in a glass or cop and pouring water over them. When it comes to the food service industry they are looking for convenience in a different context from consumer convenience. Still after paying more than couple of hundred dollars for dinner check and to be offered a collection of teabags to choose from 10 only be insulting to a customer expecting that their tea matches the quality of their food. The food service industry isn’t wild about espresso machines, but it’s common to find them in good quality restaurants. Why should it be different with tea? Why should we even care about the food service industry if what we are promoting is is quality tea?
Is serving bagged tea in a restaurant convenient? I used to wait on tables when I was younger and there is nothing worse than having to serve tea. It includes one of those funky little metal pitchers, filled with water at the wrong temperature, on a saucer with a slice of lemon and a little pitcher of milk, plus the cup and saucer that will hold the tea. There is no way to gracefully balance that mess, so it requires many time a trip to the kitchen for that alone. Convenient?
Speaking as a small tea business owner, Diane, working in a very tough local market, Tucson, Arizona, we have existed for 13 years, with growth for every one of those years, without having to put any of our teas in any kind of bag. It’s very convenient for us to make and serve tea this way whether it’s in a pot and a glass or some other vessel, it’s just water over tea leaves and rinse out the pot.
I asked John Harney many years ago what he thought the future of tea bags was. He said there will always be two bags. I asked them why. He said jokingly that people in prison or asylums had no choice.
The tea bag business is enormously profitable. When you compare the cost per cup between teabags that you buy in the grocery store and a good quality Chinese tea, I’m talking about a very expensive tea, the difference is only a couple of cents per cup. Of course nobody wants to get a mouthful of broken tea leaves.
So far we’ve taught many thousands of tea drinkers how to make tea, we’ve also taught good restaurants how to make tea without creating a burden for their serving staff, and we have taught quite a few high-end coffee businesses, some of our best customers, how to make tea to keep their customers happy, as they compete with Starbucks, and have to do a better job just to stay alive. So far after being taught how to pour water over tea leaves, none of them have gone back to tea bags, because of the “convenience”, and the really good ones have dumped the iced tea machines as well.
Absolutely critical to small businesses like ours Diane, is quality products, and kick ass customer service. Looking at what a big coffee chain has to say that relates to small teas businesses, unless you are trying to replicate their model, isn’t really relevant in my opinion.
I don’t turn my nose up at a tea bag, if I am in an airport, or some restaurant where that is all they have, or I’m trapped in London at an Ethical Tea Partnership meeting. I’m a tea lover after all. In those situations, as John Harney said, I don’t have a choice.
Ah, this is rich, Austin. This is exactly what I was looking for from a tea business ‘veteran’! We had a 5 star Yelp rating for the entire 4.5 years we had our Temecula shop (and letters of congratulation from the Yelp President) because we served our customers loose leaf tea that tasted amazing and they didn’t have to brew it themselves. They came to us for great tasting tea, and the way it tasted to them when we handed it to them ready to drink prompted the sales of our loose leaf tea (for take home brewing by them) to become 80+% of our total business, which included coffee (by the cup), as a minor part…it was really all about showing people a ‘new way’. We closed that store because we wanted to devote our time to developing something we saw was needed in the business, and we have. Someone you probably know and respect as a renowned palate in the industry didn’t believe we could brew tea in 1 min and have it taste like it should, so brought their own teas with them. The first was Formosa oolong. While theirs sat in the pot steeping, we brought a 1 min. brewed cup over. The comment was ‘you cracked the code.’ This is what we live and breathe: Making great tasting quality loose tea accessible, in a very practical (and time/volume) friendly way to the foodservice industry, by the cup, no waste, no mess…this is our goal, and we are not stopped easily. Your comments are so what we have lived feet on floor. We have found/developed a way to brew tea quickly, by the cup, in multiples, that tastes amazing and has no waste or mess. And is affordable…you don’t have to sell your home to buy the machine. Taste has been and always will be, for us…the main thing.
Congratulations for your innovation and for not giving up.
Thank you Austin, that means alot. What’s giving up?