Indie Teas

Jesse Jacobs, the founder of Samovar Life, was on a local ABC station recently talking about tea and pairing it with food. There are some really interesting tips in the video so give it a view if you're interested.

Charles Cain over at TeaRetailer has written a great five part series detailing Wholesale tea that you can buy from grocery stores etc. There were some really important parts after reading them that I wanted to share with everyone.

In Part 1: Overview:

This leads me to my second primary point - buyers often have an irrational focus on everything BUT product quality. In many cases this is because they simply don't know how to tell the difference between a high quality and low quality tea in each of two dozen categories of teas they carry...Buyers of packaged tea products purchase based on the quality of the packaging, price points and low minimum orders.

This explains Lipton's recent change to improve their tea bags and not their tea. Tea education of consumers is so crucial to help people select the best possible tea they can get for their money. Great tea is not expensive but inexpensive tea is in comparison.

Part 2

Quality flavored teas are made with liquid flavoring agents and the inclusions you see are primarily for aesthetic appeal. 

Interesting to see how inclusions (dried flowers, etc) are really just for show and don't provide any real value.

Part 3

Having seen the inner workings of wholesale, internet and retail tea operations I personally would not touch the wholesale market without at least $500,000 in cash.

Fascinating to see how much capital he recommends when starting a wholesale business. 

Part 4

As importantly, your packaging has to be extremely professional. I had a conversation a few years back with a buyer from Whole Foods who said that the customer selects their tea based on two criteria: packaging and price point.

Again Charles reiterates the point that consumers just do not even think twice about the quality of tea leaves. Do they even know there's a difference?

Part 5

The best tea served in typical fashion at even a fine restaurant is mediocre at best.

At most restaurants if I know when I order hot tea I would be getting much more then bagged tea I would definitely be willing to pay extra. I would love to go to a great restaurant that can actually serve a proper cup of tea.

The whole series by Charles Cain is extremely well written and very informative of the wholesale tea business. I highly recommend checking it out.

Image provided by Steep.itA friend of mine recently showed me Steep.it which is a very easy to use internet tea timer. If you want a timer set for three minutes then just go to steep.it/3minutes. What's even nicer is if you know you want to steep black tea then just enter in steep.it/black. My only issue with this is that if I'm using it's predefined time for the different types of tea then it is usually off for my normal preferences. I usually steep most black teas for 5 minutes and most green teas for 3 minutes while Steep.it has it listed for 3 minutes and 1 minute, respectively. Overall though, it's just a very simple timer if you need one for steeping.

In what's turned into a recurring topic on the site, here's another entry in the Great Design category. Check out the other posts here. This design is pretty clever way to market tea bags. See more here.

Image provided by Yanko Design

Image provided by Yanko Design

Fair trade is a social movement that advocates for trading conditions that promote sustainability and payment of a fair living wage to the people working to produce commodities in developing countries.

Alex at RateTea does a great job of describing what fair trade tea is all about. I highly recommend checking out his article if you want to know more. 

The popularity of specialty tea is on the rise, as more consumers are realizing the health benefits of tea drinking. According to market research firm Packaged Facts, U.S. tea sales will double from what they were in 2007, $7.4 billion, to $15 billion by 2012.Image provided by PR Web

To align Lipton with upscale, gourmet tea products and enhance its reputation as an innovative leader in flavored & premium tea, international brand design and development firm, Moxie TM, re-energized the packaging for the company’s line of premium pyramid tea bags. Vibrant colors, real photography (rather than illustrations), and flavor imagery help fulfill the tea’s promise of indulgence and excitement, while upholding Lipton’s reliability for taste and affordability.

So to improve their premium tea bags and capitalize on the growing specialty tea industry, Lipton has decided to improve their packaging? Try improving the quality of the leaves used first before redesigning a box.

You can read the full article here.

Here's another great tea infuser design by Flöz Design. You can buy it here for $24.00.

Image provided by MoMa Store

Image provided by MoMa Store

I'm not going to lie. I'm a huge fan of design. Sorry if you're tired of all my design posts recently but I've been obsessed with finding cool tea related designs online. Check more information on this kettle out here.

Image provided by Yanko Design

Image provided by Yanko Design 

I love this shark inspired tea infuser. Now I only wish I could get my hands on one. Sadly it's just a design and not for sale.

Image Provided LooksLIkeGoodDesign

Image Provided LooksLIkeGoodDesign

Image provided by LooksLikeGoodDesign

Image provided by LooksLikeGoodDesign

Here's some pictures of a well designed tea mug. It's double walled to help prevent scolding your hands. I want to get my hands on one immediately. Find out more information here.

Image provided by Yanko Design

Image provided by Yanko Design

Image provided by Yanko Design