Comments on: Selecting Your Tea Vendor

By: Kevin D. Johnson

Kevin D. Johnson — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:48:04 +0000

My suggestion is to brew tea by the cup and avoid using a brewer. Much less expensive and less trouble in terms of keeping things clean, etc. May not make your tea vendor happy but if this is the sort of thing that upsets your tea vendor, get another one.

Also, while paper strainers/filters are certainly convenient from the standpoint of making a brewed pot of tea or one or two cups–using standard but high quality metal filters is much more economical and easier to reuse…especially for the coffeehouse owner.

Good quality tea often requires less quantity in the cup than some vendors recommend. Make your teas the way you like them and not the way the vendor may necessarily recommend.

And, if you’re using anything besides actual loose leaf teas, you haven’t really broken into the real specialty tea market. Remember too that there’s just as much politics in the tea world as in coffee so verify everything with your own experience and those you trust.

By: Lilach Manheim

Lilach Manheim — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:19:02 +0000

Thanks, everyone. I’m glad you found this useful. Victor, I absolutely agree with you that brewing tea correctly is crucial- a great tea, much like a great coffee, can be ruined if not made well- but that’s a whole other subject.
A basic approach, that we’ve used in many customer training sessions (wholesale customers) is the 3 Ts: tea, temperature and time. Measure the tea, use the correct temperature water, and brew for the appropriate amount of time. Without going too much further into the complexities and nuances, sticking to these basics provides your staff all they need to brew a great cup of tea.
Equipment, and care for it, is of course very important. In terms of brewing tea, it can be as simple as you’d like to make it- scooping tea into a paper tea filter is quick and easy.
I’d say the one piece of equipment really worth investing in is a hot water dispenser, especially if you will be serving high quality green and white teas.
If you are looking to upgrade your tea offering, check out the world tea expo website, which has a list of the finalists and winners of the world tea championship (http://www.worldteaexpo.com/press-releases/may-12-judges-select-finalists-for-inaugural-world-tea-championshiptm.html , http://www.worldteaexpo.com/additional-events/winners-of-the-world-tea-championship.html ). It’s a great resource- not only does it give a ranking of the top teas, it also rates each one, and has pricing information.

By: Victor

Victor — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:34:18 +0000

Good information on tea quality, but what about brewing technique? Nothing worse than getting served a cloudy glass of tea whether it be high or low quality. Cleanliness of tea brewing equipment is at least as important as coffee equipment.

I know of many a non-coffee drinker that go to coffee houses to drink teas. Some cafes really have this figured out, some haven’t. The two really go hand-in-hand.

By: Ron Cortez

Ron Cortez — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 19:21:11 +0000

Wow. What a great article. I have met Lilach a couple of months ago and I am delighted that She still working on the tea sales. It is admirable to see this level of passion and commitment. I have been selling tea to some of my coffee houses for more than 10 years and I know the founder of Maya Tea in Tucson, by interacting with Him and other tea professionals, I found that the tea equipment is also a driver in order to make a choice on a vendor. Per example we have China Mist (based also in Arizona) that will give you a free tea brewer and dispenser if you buy from them. My advice has always been on buying your own equipment, so you do not “have to” buy if there is a quality issue. Also a very important factor is the water quality. Good tea and bad tea differences are not clearly detected when the water source is tainted. Pretty much like coffee. Thanks Lilach for telling people that tasting before buying is a great practice.