2011 Trends
The August 2010 issue of Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine has a story on the Ten 2011 Trends. Although geared mainly for the Coffee industry (Coffee Consumption, Origin and Coffee in Grocery stores), not surprisingly, some of the trends covered tea:
Specialty Tea: Here are some important and interesting points made - Tea sales topped $8.5 billion dollars in 2009 and continue to grow. Teavana, the nation's largest chain tea retailer opened its 100th shop. Tea retailers are able to focus their attention on engaging and educating the customer...there remains a tremendous opportunity for retailers to create a unique buying experience around a product that is healthy, natural, rich in history and culture, and offers far tremendous variety and complexity.
Tight Credit: 61% of respondents surveyed reported difficulty in obtaining credit in the last 3 months compared to 44% in the first quarter. Most noted the situation was getting worse.
RTD Coffee & Tea: RTD = ready to drink. The mainstreaming of tea (and specialty tea) continues to accelerate.
