AdagioXL invites clients to join a private Business Forum on TeaChat, a welcoming online space for tea professionals to connect, collaborate, and grow. Members can share sourcing experiences, retail insights, challenges, and customer outreach ideas. To request access, email cynthia@adagio.com and help nurture a thriving tea community together with us.
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Share your tea wishes with our new Product Suggestions form on adagioXL.com! Click the top-right button, type in desired herbs, wares, blends, or flavors, and help guide future offerings. Our team reviews, researches, and tracks every idea, ensuring client feedback shapes popular products and keeps us ahead of trends together.
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Teavana’s Starbucks-backed concept store may unsettle specialty tea retailers, but its marketing muscle can steep broader awareness. Flavored blends, though scoffed at by purists, welcome novices, some of whom will graduate to oolongs, senchas, and local artisans. There’s room in America’s teacup for chains, independents, and every traveler alike. Cheers!
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May flew by, and June brings the World Tea Expo, June 7-9 in sunny Las Vegas. I’m looking forward to seeing tea-friends and clients at booth 528, joined by Linda Wong from Adagio retail training. Please stop by, meet Linda, share your business news, and plans for the future soon!
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Big news in specialty tea: Starbucks has acquired Teavana while launching its first Tazo boutique, signaling serious attention to tea. Though veterans wonder how brands will coexist, Teavana may ride Starbucks distribution. If successful, the industry gains mainstream awareness, proving coffee remains king, but tea is queen of the ball.
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Back for its second year, World Tea East returns to Philadelphia October 2-3, gathering east coast tea professionals. Adagio Teas will be at booth 201, showcasing new teaware like personaliTEA colors, stainless infusers and activiTEA tumblers, plus bestsellers. We’re eager to greet customers and new purveyors. See you in Philly!
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The long-rumored news is finally here: Starbucks will open a Tazo teashop in Seattle this October, confirming industry whispers after hiring Charles Cain. The move signals growing confidence in America’s tea market, may revive Tazo’s appeal among serious drinkers, and could inspire big retailers to cultivate even more tea fans.
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On the road to the World Tea Expo, the Steam Punk beckoned: four gleaming crucibles where bean and leaf whirl under pressure. Alpha Dominche’s brewer coaxed swift, nuanced cups from coffee, tea and tisanes without astringency or carryover, offering commercial speed, consistency, elegance, theatre—and delicious justice for both rivals.
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At the 10th World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, bustling aisles brought customers, friends, and new discoveries to Adagio’s booth. Argo, Takeya, Zealong, Mountain Tea, and Thistledown charmed with bottles, wares, oolongs, and cozies, while suitcase leaves promised future cuppings. Kudos and thanks to the Jages for gathering tea hearts.
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Fabulous February arrives with optimism after a lively Winter Fancy Food Show, where comforting flavors like chocolate, vanilla, caramel, citrus and floral shine. Tea friends reconnect, chocolatiers inspire blends, and beloved IngenuiTEA plus elegant glassware return to shelves. Valentine tins debut, Mother’s Day gifts loom, and leap year adds fun!
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Another year turns, with 2012 arriving amid economic uncertainty, election jitters, and the familiar ups and downs of recovery. Yet tea remains comforting, and hardship has revealed generous hearts. May kindness spread, businesses adapt, confidence return, and the New Year bring health, prosperity, and brighter winds for all dear readers.
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World Tea East in Philadelphia pleasantly surprised attendees despite rough weather, drawing lively East Coast tea businesses, old friends and new professionals. The cozy convention center, reception honoring John Harney, and Bunn’s promising Trifecta brewer kept conversations steeping. Overall, the show recharged tea batteries and proved passion truly contagious again.
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Eastern US tea professionals are heading to Philadelphia this month, September 9-10, for World Tea East, a trade show and educational conference for networking, sourcing, tastings and marketing insight. Adagio Teas will greet visitors at booth 214, while Charles Cain presents “Tea 201: Finding Profitability.” See you in Philly soon!
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Specialty tea is finding fresh paths through focused niche blends. Beyond broad catalogs, new companies like Teamotions, Tiesta Teas and Crazy Bitch Tea offer teas for grief, lifestyle needs and feminine balance. Evocative, functional or funny, these selective spotlights help mainstream customers connect with tea, one need at a time.
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Since World Tea Expo, talk keeps steeping around Teavana’s IPO—big, big news for specialty tea. Its success may open doors to loans, leases, investors, and growth, riding comfort-cup enthusiasm with Dunkin and Chef Warehouse. Yet expansion needs broader tea education. Cheers, tea friends—don’t stop believing in Shangri-La for everyone soon.
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Last week’s World Tea Expo sped by, jam-packed with lively tea conversations. Our stronger loose tea presentation drew many visitors, from realistic newcomers to resilient established businesses. Though some regulars were absent, perhaps awaiting World Tea East, the show re-energized us, showcasing collegial competitors and a flourishing specialty tea industry together.
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We’re steeping with excitement for World Tea Expo, transforming Sin City into (Camellia) SINensis City! Expect bootcamps, tastings, workshops, Aureole’s tea luncheon, Infusion Challenge fun, Championship sips, and Adagio appearances. Charles, Suzette, and yours truly will teach, blend, and celebrate with tea-peeps from everywhere. Come say hello over tea, naturally!
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Will you be attending the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, June 24-26? Register by April 22 for free admission and seminar savings. We’ll be exhibiting at booth 225 and teaching blending. Enjoy vendors, products, classes, industry news, networking, and STI certification opportunities. Email Cynthia, and come join us there!
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Eleven years on, the fine tea dream is nearing fruition: great tea appearing in everyday establishments, propelled by a generous, collaborative young industry. Tearooms, shops, commercials, celebrities, health chatter and private labels abound. With green tea spreading and seasoned business minds arriving, American enthusiasts edge closer to tea’s Promised Land.
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June's bustling trade shows left Adagio energized, with strong turnouts signaling renewed business confidence and tea’s upswing. Restaurants are trading dreary fannings for loose leaf and premium pyramid bags. Award-winning Anteadote bottled teas, artisan Masters Collection, and new organic pyramid flavors are drawing delicious attention for 2010 and optimism ahead.
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Trade show season is here, and Adagio Teas is hitting the road! Visit us at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago, World Tea Expo in Las Vegas, and Fancy Food Show in New York. Stop by our booths, meet Charles Cain, talk tea, discover resources, and sample something wonderful, too!
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Each summer, New York’s Javits Center hosts NASFT Fancy Food Show, a tour of gourmet trends. Tearoom owners can refresh menus with artisanal cheeses, tea-infused sweets, olive oils, chocolates, clotted creams and crackers. The SOFI finalists offer inspiration for tastings, while Adagio welcomes visitors in New York or San Francisco.
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The U.S. specialty tea industry is taking wing, growing from novelty to serious business. Its future depends on cooperation, honest education, smarter competition and caring service. By partnering locally, celebrating tea’s enjoyment beyond health claims, and guiding customers truthfully, businesses can lift one another and keep fine tea flourishing daily.
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Want to make your tea shop greener? Recycle brewed leaves for gardens, donate aging tea and surplus food, choose recycled paper, avoid plastic, reward reusable tins, laminate lasting materials, use wipe-off boards and e-mail, review daily waste, and invite customer ideas. Small local habits save money and our world's resources.
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Difficult economies ebb and flow like tides, so don’t panic! Be patient, observe, and evaluate before making drastic moves. Tighten wisely, question stock, staff, space, and service. Tea offers comfort, affordable luxury, and oasis moments. Treat customers warmly, smile, listen, and make your business the respite weary souls seek today.
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Fava Tea Company opened in Grand Chute, Wisconsin, after Bryan and Mellisa Stafford’s European tea inspiration revealed a local need for quality loose leaf. Careful yearlong planning, a prime high-traffic location, trained enthusiastic staff, and 170 teas fueled early success. Only more seating is wished for as customers linger happily.
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Happy New Year! Don’t coast after the holidays: winter is prime tea time. Offer customers healthy sips, quiet oases, cozy spiced, vanilla, nut and tropical blends, plus comforting greens like Genmai Cha and Dragonwell. Use January inventory to review winners, retire laggards, and communicate plans with vendors for mutual success.
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What? A tea business runs on passion alone? Ha! The Smart Tea Person drinks, tastes, learns, obeys regulations, masters numbers, markets relentlessly, trains staff, stays present, knows customers, and keeps everything spotless. Tea takes time, discipline, curiosity, and follow-through; ignore details and things go kaplooey, along with profits fast too.
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Tea, ancient and perfect, is nevertheless bustling toward a lively American future. Tradition still whispers water, leaves, vessel; the devil waves bubble tea, chai, flavors and ice. Retailers, teahouses, accessories, green and white teas, and university crowds promise vitality. What is new about tea? In a word, everything, gloriously indeed.
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