Our source today, which is a BusinessWeek article, contains an interview with Gene Dunkin, president of Tea Forte. Tea Forte is a high end tea company that markets in stores such as Neiman Marcus, Harrods, Saks Fifth Avenue and Origins. None of these type of stores is available in my small local town of 100,000+, so I guess that leaves purchasing through the Internet. Too bad BusinessWeek didn’t give Tea Forte’s website a anchor link to pass some PR.

Dunkin used to be with Godiva so he knows something about quality luxury products. It is a very interesting interview that gives some statistics on how fast the business is growing, their distribution and a bit of talk about their pyramid nylon tea bags. Hopefully, Tea Forte will take the remark about not being able to compost the bags to heart. It’s an interesting interview and worth the read.

Source: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/jul2008/id2008079_583541.htm

Probably most of you who read this blog’s news are not in the business of selling tea to customers. You, like me, just like to drink it and love all the health benefits that come as a result.

However, our source today provides a great look at some tips, provided by Lilach Manheim from TeaGschwendner, on choosing a tea vendor. This would, of course, be the one that supplies the different teas to a tea shop.

The article/interview supplies tips about the quality of the teas giving us mere tea drinkers some insight into the sourcing of tea. Tea brought into the U.S., for instance, is usually not imported by the small tea vendors due to shipping cost considerations. Therefore, an importer does the job and usually works with one or more wholesalers or distributors. Manheim says it’s important to understand the supply chain of your tea product. For my taste, I would rather have a tea that was bought directly by the vendor if at all possible.

Other things were discussed such as quality controls, freshness, the experience of the tea buyer, how they keep track of their inventory to provide in demand teas or make proper substitutes, and what type of services they provide to the vendor.

As I said it was an eye opening interview/report. One I think I will tuck into my own files to be reviewed again at some other time.

Source: Selecting Your Tea Vendor

Usually all you find is lots of good news about the health benefits of tea. It’s seems to be good for just about every part of your body from brain on down. But in today’s source, I found one part of the body that may not be too happy if you drink lots of iced tea.

It seems that iced tea contains high concentrations of oxalate which is a key chemical leading to the formation of kidney stones. These stones are actually crystals that can form in the kidneys or in the ureters which are the tubes that drain urine from the kidney to the bladder. Men are the ones who are most at risk for kidney stones being more than four times more likely than women to form them. It gets worse when they hit their 40s.

Most people who are prone to the kidney stones are told to keep their liquid consumption up. Some turn to tea due to the many health benefits but it turns out it is not so healthy for them. Kidney stone prone people are best off with pure water with a squeeze of real lemon juice which inhibits the growth of the stones.

Check out our resource for more information: http://www.newsmax.com/health/iced_tea_kidney_stones/2008/07/23/115433.html