Today’s source about already prepared iced tea (ready-to-go) read more like a press release than a news story and since it’s listed in a “releases” folder in the site’s url, it probably is. There were some interesting items presented within that have to do with Canadian tea drinking. Among these are:
- cold tea growth of 10% yearly
- negative growth of hot tea (which means it’s declining)
- Nestea is the favorite brand in Canada (well, it is a Nestea press release)
- Nestea has introduced an ready-to-go iced line called Nestea Vitao
- Nestea Vitao uses a hot fill process meaning no preservatives are used (cool!)
- Nestea Vitao adds vitamins C and E and real fruit juice
- Nestea Vitao offers Canadians ready-to-go teas in white, green and red with fruit juice
- Canadians drink 7 billion cups of tea a year
- Canada is third in iced tea consumption world wide. Austria and Japan are 1 and 2. (so where is the US? and here I thought we drank so much iced tea. hmmm)
Source: http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/May2008/07/c5657.html
Filed under Tea by on May 9th, 2008. 
China is moving up as a producer of black tea. Although billed as the largest tea producer in the world, China has mostly produced green tea. Now they have become a major player in black tea as well.
China grows tea on 12,000 hectares which is roughly equivalent to 30,000 acres, which according to our source today is 2.5 times the amount of Indian land being cultivated for tea. Of the 3,527 million kilograms produced in 2006, China provided 1,050 of that. The industry is growing at a 9.5% rate each year.
This week a workshop is being put on by the Tea Science Society of China to discuss the Chinese tea industry. Some attendees are hoping for field visits to actual tea gardens and factories. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture will also be presenting a paper at the workshop being held in Hangzhou.
I hope we will hear some interesting news come out of this workshop.
Source: http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/11/stories/2008051155471500.htm
Filed under Tea Events by on May 12th, 2008.
In a press release dated 12 May, Revolution Tea announced that they will be partnering with Kraft Foodservice to distribute their tea products. This will include their whole leaf teas as well as their iced tea products.
Revolution Tea believes that using Kraft Foodsevice’s distribution network will allow its brand to be served at “some of the most recognized eating establishments in America.” The Kraft business manager, Juli Anne Barry, said that tea is following the same trend now that other premium beverages have in the past and that we are seeing an increased demand for high quality tea products.
Who knows how many other small tea companies will find themselves either becoming a part of a large corporation trying to buy into the growth of tea and ready-to-go iced tea products? Seems they are either being bought outright, they are selling off a chunk of their small tea companies, or they are using the large corporation’s distribution service. I wonder if the use of the distribution service is just the first step to actually buying the tea company?
Source: http://sev.prnewswire.com/food-beverages/20080512/LAM02812052008-1.html
Filed under Tea by on May 14th, 2008.