Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491356
STiR tea & coffee industry international 43 ket "will likely come from specialty black tea as well as such innovations as tea pods that cater to increasingly premium-minded Canadian consumers, offering them a new and refreshing way to consume tea." The Main Players The largest wholesale supplier is Metropolitan Tea Co. in Toronto, a 30-year-old im- porter with 7,000 specialty tea shops, hotels like the Fairmont chain, grocers and res- taurants on its client list. In 2013 the company received the Toronto Board of Trade's "Sustainability Award" for its 2,600-panel solar powered facility and innovation in be- coming a carbon negative. Higgins & Burke, headquartered in Toronto, dates to 1912 when the company dis- tributed groceries. Teas from its modern blending and packaging facility in Mississau- ga, Ont., and its ready-to-drink bottling plant are today distributed around the globe. The company's Mother Parkers brand of coffee launched in the 1930s expanded into the U.S. in the 1990s with a roasting operation in Amherst, New York and is now one of the largest in Canada and the fourth largest coffee roster in North America. Mother Parkers owns the largest instant coffee making factory in Canada, operates facilities in Ft. Worth, Tex., and is one of only three companies operating a direct decaffeination factory in North America. Across Canada, there are a growing number of small independent specialty tea stores, tea rooms and online businesses offering a good range of single origin, single estate, blended and flavored teas. In Toronto The Tea Emporium is the first specialty tea company to have a presence in a large supermarket. The company has a space in- side Loblaws, the largest food chain in Canada, and owner Shabnam Weber says, "Hats off to Loblaws for recognizing the value of placing a specialist tea company inside their store. It's very good for the category and other food companies are adjusting to the fact that it makes sense to have in-store tea specialists in exactly the same way that supermarkets have specialist fish, meat and cheese counters." Brendan Waye, The Tea Guy, has opened five of his own shops, helped in the cre- ation and development of 14 others over the past 10 years, and today sells a wide range of specialty teas via his online busi- ness. And among the growing number of new tea businesses, a few big names stand out – Murchies, Teaopia, David's Tea, Teavana and Steeped Tea. Murchies has been around for more than 100 years and has seen tea sales go up and up and since 2007 has been revi- talizing and expanding the business, with new stores, new blends and a new range of tea-related gifts and tablewares. The vision behind Davids Tea, estab- lished in 2008 by David Segal, was to of- fer "great tea, a friendly environment and a colorful modern store. It seemed like a simple idea but we couldn't find anyone else doing it." Before he opened his own shops, he was a regular customer at the Camellia Sinensis store in Montreal and with his growing experience, knowledge and love for tea, he developed the idea of building a chain of tea stores across the country. The company now has 120 loca- tions in the Canada and the U.S. and of- fers 150 mainly flavored blends, both in the shops and online, with trendy packag- ing, monthly specials, and up to the min-