Waddington says that in the three teahouses that TeaSource
owns in Minnesota, dry sales are so important that brewed tea sales amount to "a sampling program." And one that seems at times like more trouble than it's worth. "There are so many days I wake up aſter dealing with the
health inspectors or having the hot water boilers blow up on me, I go, 'Next store, I'm not making the darn tea. I'm just going to sell in bulk,'" Waddington says. "But then I sit and crunch the numbers. Prepared tea is basically the most expensive sampling system you could ever put into a retail store. And it works."
HANDFUL OF TABLES The sale of dry tea is so important to MonTea, a shop in
Lexington, Ky., that when it opened about 20 months ago, owner Danielle Montague made the decision to have just a handful of tables. She estimates that "tea to go makes up 15 to 20 percent of my business and the rest is take-away brewing." The shop now carries close to 80 varieties of tea, and also does a brisk business in teaware. Montague says the decision to concentrate mostly on
takeout means she had to do without food sales. There are several formal tearooms in Lexington with complete tea service, and she made the decision early on not to compete with them. Even though some customers have asked her to
READY-TO-DRINK TEA IS THE
FASTEST-GROWING BEVERAGE SEGMENT Change in volume from 2009 to 2010
Segment RTD tea
Sports drinks RTD coffee
Energy drinks Bottled water
Value-added water Fruit beverages
Carbonated soſt drinks
% change 2009-10 12.5% 9.4% 8.1% 5.4% 3.5% 0.2% -2.0% -0.8%
TOTAL LIQUID REFRESHMENT BEVERAGES 1.2% Source: Beverage Marketing Corp. via World Tea News
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