TeaSource's owner says his two Minnesota stores serve as "an expensive sampling system" for dry tea, which constitutes the bulk of sales.
MORE NUANCE This variety in tea means variety in its taste, which usually
is more than subtle and nuanced than coffee. Differences between coffee varieties tend to be hard for average consumers to discern, especially when they add milk or sugar and/or are in a hurry. "The two beverages are very different," Simrany says. "From
a taste-delivery standpoint, coffee is much more intense, tea is much more subtle. From a stimulant standpoint, tea contains between three-quarters and half as much as caffeine as coffee." That stimulant disparity explains another major difference
between tea and coffee retailing: daypart patterns. Simply put, coffee is more likely to be consumed in the morning, tea later in the day. "Many urban tea drinkers cross over to tea aſter a morning
coffee," Bolton wrote. "Women refrain from coffee in the late aſternoon and evening, preferring tea." The combination of subtle taste and aſternoon consumption
makes tea a more contemplative beverage than coffee. Many successful teahouses, or other retail establishments that brew tea, offer an atmosphere that takes that into account.
"People, contrary to what they think, they do want to
slow down, take time, reflect on life," De Candia says. "From the point of preparation, steeping, scooping the leaves, [tea brewing] takes time. During that period of time, you're more in the moment, you're more present, and that's what the key to what more people probably want—to be more present, more in the now."
FAST OR SLOW? This situation sets up a clear choice for tea retailers: Whether
to go for high-volume, quick-in-and-out customers, or cater to the "contemplative" crowd. Bolton recommends picking one strategy and sticking with it. "Independents oſten end up doing a poor job serving the
customers that want a quick cup of tea and a poor job serving the customers that want to spend 30 minutes exploring and buying bulk loose teas," Bolton wrote. "Owners are advised to pick the customer that is most important to your success and consider the other icing on the cake." Susan Broughton went for the go-slow approach when she and her husband opened All Things Tea in 2006 in Kitchener, Ontario.
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