World Tea Expo 2009 Core Conferences Review Day 3 – Monday May 4

Monday May 4th was the last day of the World Tea Expo 2009.

Bright and early in the morning I had the opportunity to listen to Ronald Eng, the founder of Kopius Teas, discuss Reaching Beyond Your Front Doors for Additional Income.  He began his talk by explaining that we all hit our cap, our limit at some point – whether it is because of the economy or competition, that’s why it’s important to look to other means for additional income.  He talked about how to market yourself in novel ways – his personal examples were holding a tea ceremony in store, doing a tea talk show, donating to local events/charities and really giving the community a reason to talk about you.  I think it amusing when people ask, and Ron answered this pretty well, what are 3 things you think I should and shouldn’t do.  Ron said for things that you should do 1. Write a business plan, 2. Look at the lease agreement of the shop – look at whether it is fixed lease, if their is an option to sell etc. and 3. Have an accurate measure of profitability.  Analyze everything from your teapot to your teabag.

At 9:45 I had the opportunity to listen to one of the most entertaining speakers of the entire show, Melissa Stafford, the co-owner and co-founder of Fava Tea Company along with her husband.  She talk was entitled Market Your Tea As An Affordable Luxury.  She could have spoken about anything and she would have had the audience.  Her 3000 sq ft store in Appleton, Wisconsin boasts over 300+ teas, has 4 full time staff, and 2 part time.  She argued that people are trading down due to the weakening economy and are staying home to reconnect and enjoy the finer things in life.  Affordable luxuries she included were tea, fine chocolates – Godiva, olive oil (I actually bought specialty olive oil from the estate in San Francisco before flying to Las Vegas), specialty pasta and even laundry detergent. She spoke in length about how to create value including having a lower price point, selling an ox at a time and sampling up.  I highly recommend this talk – extremely entertaining and informative.

I ended the core conference with Price It Right, Sell It Smart with Robert H. Hedrick, the president of Holton & Heath Ltd. at 11am.  Near the beginning of the talk when Robert was talking about the big guy vs. the little guy, Robert stated that we don’t buy based on price alone, giving the example of the Ferrari versus the Honda .  It doesn’t mean that price isn’t a factor, but it’s not the only factor!  Prestiguious pricing by companies like Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Bellagio etc. are based on factors like exclusivity and unique customer service.

Tomorrow, I’m going to start posting reviews and musings of interesting things I saw at the show so stay tuned.

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World Tea Expo 2009 Core Conferences Review Day 2 for Sunday May 3

On Sunday I woke up bright and early and had the pleasure of listening to Cynthia Fazekas from Adagio teas talk. Her presentation was entitled Manage Your Inventory.  She talked about managing your inventory properly when running an online business (hint: track everything) and using software on the market to help track your inventory.  Maintaining freshness is so important, as we are in the food and beverage industry, put your newest inventory to the back and push the old stuff up!  It’s important to look at current purchasing trends and predict your ordering quantity accordingly.  Some software that was mentioned during the presentation, some from audience members, included Blue Martini, Mail Order Manager, Microsoft Dynamics, Simply Accounting and Quickbooks.

I then headed upstairs to listen to a Executive Technical Series entitled Mergers and Acquisitions with K. Perry Campbell, the Principal and Managing Director at ACT Consultants Inc..  Very informative session, that was obviously very technical and loaded with M & A definitions.  He even gave the audience his mobile number in case we wanted to ask him anything while he was in Vegas.  Nice.  Perry also gave me a $5 chip prior to the presentation for answering his question correctly – What does the acronym WHIVSIV stand for?  He told me to put it on 8 on at the craps table; which I did, with an additional $10 from my own pocket just incase you were wondering about the low minimums at Mandalay Bay. 

Perry showcased the 2009 M & A Market and then specifically the beverage market, illustrating that the dollar of sales or earning in early 2009 were worth less than it was in early 2008 but was still beneficial as the tea market showed strong growth.  Ready to drink teas (RTD) were growing at 25%/year for Premium RTD.  Strong growth was also projected for organic and speciality teas.  M & A examples were also cited as case examples including Mighty Leaf Tea and Honest Tea.  He also taught the audience how to maximize price and what value drivers for mergers were including the size of the business – the bigger, the higher the multiples.

Just before lunch, I had the opportunity to listen to Richard Guzauskas, a industry consultant who has worked with companies like  Tea forte, Q-trade, Shangri-La Tea, talk about Supply Chain Management and Quality Control.  He explained how important it was to have an easy to read spec sheet and to always have an original control sample of tea that you first ordered from the company.  This way if anything changes you can always return to your control sample and show the supplier.  The spec sheet should include information such as what the tea looks like wet vs dry – the color, size of leaf, the taste of the brew etc..  A large company doesn’t always have quality control; do your own research and never rely on a single supplier.  Great talk; I really took a lot from it.  I emailed Richard for a sample of a spec sheet.  I will post it after he forwards it to me.

At 1 pm I sat down to watch AOI’s presentation on How Matcha Is Made.  The presentation was very informative and a lot of fun.  They covered the history of matcha, how to distinguish between low and high grades of matcha, and even let an audience member up on stage to use the 300 year old stone mill for grinding matcha.  There was even an appearance by Ayano Honda the CEO of AOI Tea Company who flew in from Japan just for the show.

April Corbin from the World Tea Expo Show Daily noted “Tips included: a more vivid color means a higher grade, stronger leaves contain an aroma similar to seaweed, and that purchasers can test the compare piles of powders by pushing some of the powder into a line.  Samples were passed through the audience, and one audience member had the opportunity to come on stage and sip three matchas of varying qualities.”

The day before, Chieko Yamamoto, the VP and COO of AOI, gave me some samples of AOI’s matcha that I am so looking forward to reviewing in a few weeks.

At 3pm I sat down for the Top Tea Cocktail awards.  It was emceed by George Jage, president of the World Tea Expo, and judged by Karen Foley, Publisher of Imbibe Magazine, Michael Politz, Publisher/CEO of Food & Beverage Magazine, and Michael Cardenas, Owner of Innovative Dining Group.

I actually didn’t know George Jage was the emcee until afterward.  I thought he was hilarious.  He definitely kept the audience entertained while the judges were busy sipping drinks.  At one point George Jage asked Michael Politz what he thought of the Chocolate MarTEAni made by two women from the Hale Tea Company, Michael replied “Two girls and chocolate?  You can’t go wrong.”

Max Solano a mixologist for Emeril’s Table 10 and Delmonico Steakhouse took home the World Tea Expo Top Tea Cocktail Award for his cocktail Genevrier Verte.  The recipe for this cocktail can be found below.  Let me know how it goes.

Recipe for Genevrier Verte:

1.5 oz China Mist Pure Blackberry Jasmine Iced Green Tea with Lemonade
1.5 oz of Hendricks Gin
¾ oz of Agwa Coco Leaf
½ oz fresh lime juice
¾ oz of vanilla/clove infused simple syrup (or bar syrup)
1 egg white
Garnish with cucumber wheel and mint

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World Tea Expo 2009 Core Conferences Review for Saturday May 2

SATURDAY MAY 2

• Opening Session: 2009 Tea Trends Report, Lynn Dornblasser (8:00 – 9:30am)
• Flavors: Their Definition and Application, Dolf DeRovira and Wolfbang Boehmer (9:45 – 10:45 am)
• Buying Direct vs. Supplier, A Panel Discussion, Moderated by Heidi Kyser (11:00 – 12:00pm)

SUNDAY MAY 3

• Manage your Inventory, Cynthia Fazekas (8:30 – 9:30 am)
• Mergers and Acquisitions, K. Perry Campbell (9:45 – 10:45 am) Executive Technical Series session
• Supply Chain Management and Quality Control, Richard Guzauskas (11:00 – 12:00pm)

MONDAY MAY 4

• Reaching Beyond Your Front Doors for Additional Income, Ronald Eng (8:00 – 9:30am)
• Market Your Tea As An Affordable Luxury, Melissa Stafford (9:45 – 10:45am)
• Price It Right, Sell It Smart, Robert H. Hedrick (11:00 – 12:00pm)

This is a revised summary of the Core Conferences I attended and one Executive Technical Series session.  I missed two sessions on Saturday because I got so excited exploring the WTE hall that I lost track of time!

SATURDAY MAY 2

The conference started off strong with 2009 Tea Trends Report presented by Lynn from Mintel, a global research company.  Her presentation was extremely informative, solely based on Mintel’s market research and concrete factual data.  She shared with the audience that tea shows growth despite the recession.  She also covered consumer attitudes towards tea including why consumers drink tea – for taste (primarily), fun and function.  She also touched on tea trends outside of North America (including C Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea), antioxidants in products, and environmental attitudes of the public.  The future of tea was indicated as skewing towards people who are interested in drinking tea to make up for an unhealthy lifestyle.  Overall, I highly recommend this talk and think Lynn did an excellent job.  The WTE was wise in choosing this as as the opening session.

I grabbed a cup of tea, sponsored by Peli that day, and headed off to Flavours: Their Definition and Application presented by FDI – Flavors Dynamics Inc.  Dolf DeRovira and Wolfegang Boehmer represented FDI for the talk that day and unfortunately had to rush through their presentation because of about 15 minutes technical difficulties with the convention center.  They discussed everything from what a flavor is by defintion to the differences between artificial vs. natural flavoring.  It was a little hard to follow at times beause I didn’t have the PowerPoint slides that everyone else was relying on and because we had to rush though.  The highlight of this talk though was when everyone was allowed to go up and sample the same flavor with a different base tea.  It was an amazing experience.  We tried for example chocolate flavoring with a china black tea, Nigrili, rooibos then a green tea.  The base completely altered the flavoring.

I debated whether to go to this talk but I’m glad I did.  It was a panel discussion on Buying Direct vs. Supplier.  The talk was between Sascha Karimpour from Detheletsen & Balk Inc., Devan Shah from International Tea Importers, Joshua Kaiser from Rishi Tea and Bachan Gyawali from Jun Chiyabari Tea Garden moderated by Heidi Kyser, the Editor for World Tea News.  The talk laid out both the advantages and disadvantages of buying tea direct from origin vs. buying from a supplier.  The talk was somewhat bias towards buying towards a supplier but they gave excellent points as to why it should be done.  Some advantages for buying direct from origin were you have better product awareness and know the crop situation.  Disadvantages included the difficulty in reexported bad tea into the respective country, and the time it would take to register each and every supplier with the FDA due to the bio-terrorism act.  Advantages of buying from a supplier included the time saved, there is no way you can go direct in every case to obtain your tea.  Disadvantages included having less fresh tea, and more expensive tea.  An audience member, Peter, stated that buying direct can be done but volume, about $50 000 worth of tea, is needed.  Great talk, I think most people when starting a tea company have thought about going direct to the source of the tea versus buying from a supplier.  This talk gave the individual a chance to evaluate the pros and the cons of each area.

Again, after the 3rd talk I had a bit of time before the next talk so I wandered off  into the exhibit hall.  I ended up getting so distracted I missed two of my talks and ended up lugging 4 bags of press material and teas back to my hotel.  Luckily I got back in time for the World Tea Championship.  Rishi Tea dominated this year with 11 awards overall and 9 awards in the hot tea category alone.  In the iced tea category Shangri La Tea Co. lead with 3 awards and ITO EN took home 3 of the 7 awards for the RTDS category.

A List of the 2009 World Tea Championship Award Winners

Hot Tea Category

Assam – Assam Ditchu, Teas Etc.
Black – Zhenghe Golden Monkey (Special), PeLi Teas
Black (Blended/Flavored) – Pineapple Mango, TeaGschwendner USA
Breakfast Blend – Organic/Fair Trade Lemongrass Black, Rishi Tea
Ceylon – Ceylon OP1, Teas Etc.
Chai – Organic/Fair Trade Masala Chai, Rishi Tea
Darjeeling – Jungpana Choice, QTrade Teas & Herbs
Dragonwell – Dragon Well Qingming, Rishi Tea
Earl Grey – Earl Grey No 69, Tea Gschwendner USA
Green (Blended/Flavored) – Sencha Yuzu, Rishi Tea
Green (Dry, Fired) – Wuyang Chanyu, QTrade Teas & Herbs
Green (Steamed) – Yame Hon-Gyokuro, QTrade Teas & Herbs
Herbal – Tartary Buckwheat, Puripan Inc.
Herbal (Blended/Flavored) – Organic Cinnamon Plum, Rishi Tea
Jasmine – Organic/Fair Trade Jasmine Green Tea, Rishi Tea
Keemun – Sechrna, QTrade Teas & Herbs
Matcha – Matcha Rishi, Rishi Tea
Oolong (Blended/Flavored) – Lychee Green Oolong, Naivetea
Oolong (Dark) – Fenghuang Dancong (super), PeLi Teas
Oolong (Green) – Jade Oolong (Golden Leaf Selections), Barnes & Watson Fine Teas
Puer – Puer Tea (Special), PeLi Teas
Sencha – Sencha Spirit, QTrade Teas & Herbs
Flowering – L.T. Grade A Collection, Tea Beyond
Silver Needle – Organic Silver Needle, Rishi Tea
White (Blended/Flavored) – Organic Silver Needle Jasmine, Rishi Tea
Yunnan – Dian Hong (Special), PeLi Teas

Iced Tea Category

Black (Flavored) – Organic Fair/Trade Summer Lemon, Rishi Tea
Green (Flavored) – TIE: Organic Ambrosia Green Iced Tea, Shangri La Tea Co. and Organic Serene Green Citrus Iced Tea, Sungarden Specialty Tea
Herbal (Flavored) – Organic/Fair Trade Tropical Crimson, Rishi Tea
Black (Unflavored) – Natural Organic Black Iced Tea, Shangri La Tea Co.
Green (Unflavored) – Natural Organic Green Iced Tea, Shangri La Tea Co.
Best Value – Walters Bay Black Iced Tea, Walters Bay
Freestyle Herbal – Tea in a Jar, Puripan
Freestyle Tea – Iron Buddha and the Flower, Barnes & Watson Fine Teas
Freestyle Best Presentation –Tea in a Jar, Puripan

RTDS (Ready To Drink) Tea Category

Black (Flavored) – Signature Blend, MarketSpice
Green (Flavored) – Jasmine Green Tea, ITO EN
Green (Sweetened) – Organic Iced Green, Tazo Tea
Black (Unflavored) – Anteadote Organic Black Tea, Adagio Tea
Green (Unflavored) – Oi Ocha Dark, ITO EN
Oolong (Unflavored) – Oolong Shot, ITO EN
Best Packaging – Lemon-Raspberry Gourmet, KimBees

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World Tea Expo 2009 Pictures

I just got back yesterday from Las Vegas.  I’ve been super duper busy as I had to attend Packex with no sleep yesterday morning.

Here is some of the pictures from the World Tea Expo 2009 that I posted on Facebook.

Click here for the photos.  Enjoy and feel free to add me as a friend!

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World Tea Expo Ask The Experts Panel Discussion

This is my first post in a few days.   I apologize it’s been quite hectic flying from San Francisco to Las Vegas and getting everything organized.  I just left the Ask The Experts Panel Discussion, which is a finale to the New Business Bootcamp before the New Business Bootcamp awards ceremony.

A panel of 7 experts were grilled on all types of questions from the audience ranging from “What are your biggest business mistakes” to “How do I know which tea vendors to work with?”.  The session was 2 hours long ending with the speakers breaking off into small groups so that individuals could individually ask the experts questions one on one.  What was really interested was that the discussion was monitored by Jane Pettigrew!  I am a huge fan of hers and love her books.  You can find them on the right side of my website in the Amazon book carnival.

This is was more of an impromptu drop-in on my part so I will give a rough breakdown of intersting things I learned during the Q&A.

• If you are worried about overhead costs when starting a tea business, guage your condiment usage such as milk, sugar, honey etc. by usage per month.
• You should order about 2 months worth of tea.
• It’s better to start a tea business with your dream in mind and manifested on a smaller scale than sacrifice your vision.
• When choosing a tea vendor to work with make sure they fit your business model.  If you want to sell organic teas, make sure the vendor has a good selection.
• Work on your business, not in it.  (Classic point from E-Myth the book, check out my library).
• The industry growth of tea is overshadowing any individual, small scale losses.

The World Tea Expo room is huge so I am super excited.  I won’t be able to post pictures until I am back in Toronto next week for Packex.  Tomorrow is the official Day 1 of the World Tea Expo so stay tuned for coverage!

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Aviva Yerba Mate Newsletter and San Francisco Updates

So as you can see on my Calender of Events I’m in San Francisco!  So I won’t be able to update the website as a frequent as I like and because the time zones are different, it might show up a day later.  A few highlights over the past few days.  Aviva Yerba Mate was kind enough to include my website and tea reviews in their latest newsletter.  Click above for a larger resolution image.

Today was Earth Day and I was lucky enough to be at the California Academy of Science in San Francisco.  I have always wanted to go their ever since they opened as they have an indoor rainforest amongst many other cool things!  The restaurants and cafes inside served Mighty Leaf Tea, so that was pretty cool spotting them!  I also spotted Harney and Sons at the Starbucks in the Barnes and Noble today.  It got cold fast so we weren’t able to go to the tea garden, but hopefully Friday!

10 more days till the World Tea Expo!

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My Picks For The 2009 World Tea Expo Core Conferences and Conference Tips

This is my schedule of attendance for the core conferences at the World Tea Expo May 2-4.  I really wish I could attend all the core conferences!  Some of the ones I really want to attend are in the same time slots as the other presentations.  To learn more about each conference please click here.  Hopefully I will get the chance to blog about the session as soon as possible.  I will definitely be doing a write up for everything I am attending.  What is everyone else attending?

SATURDAY MAY 2

• Opening Session: 2009 Tea Trends Report, Lynn Dornblasser (8:00 – 9:30am)
• Flavors: Their Definition and Application, Dolf DeRovira and Wolfbang Boehmer (9:45 – 10:45 am)
• Buying Direct vs. Supplier, A Panel Discussion, Moderated by Heidi Kyser (11:00 – 12:00pm)
• How to Educate Your Customer, Michael Harney (1:00 – 2:00pm)
• Super Workshop: Matcha and Healthier Lifestyle Marketing, Aiya America (4:30 – 6:00pm)

SUNDAY MAY 3

• Understanding Organic Certification from Cost to Compliance, Beth Johnston and Ramkrishnan Balasubramanian (8:00 – 9:30am)
• Sell Your Tea Online Successfully, Michael Cramer OR Mergers and Acquisitions, K. Perry Campbell ( both are at 9:45 – 10:45 am)
• Supply Chain Management and Quality Control, Richard Guzauskas (11:00 – 12:00pm)

MONDAY MAY 4

• Lessons from the Front: Modeling a Successful Tea Shop, Charles Cain (8:00 – 9:30am)
• Market Your Tea As An Affordable Luxury, Melissa Stafford (9:45 – 10:45am)
• Price It Right, Sell It Smart, Robert H. Hedrick (11:00 – 12:00pm)

CONFERENCE TIPS

I was looking online for useful tips for attending conferences and I found the following useful article. I will be applying these points to the Total Health Expo as well coming up April 17.  Points that I found most useful are:

• Put a note on your card before you give it away to help the recipient remember what you talked about  and when someone gives you their card do the same, write on it.  I found this point particularly useful; I remember most cards I collect but occasionally there will be the odd card that I cannot remember how I obtained.
• Write down questions you’d like answered, or goals you’d like to accomplish.
• Meet as many people as you can.
• Avoid co-workers and existing customers.
• Charge your gadgets and devices (PDA, phone, laptop) to 100% each morning
• You’ll probably be stuck in a few lines for registration, lunch, coffee breaks etc. Take a chance to talk with people in line with you.
• Dress so you look smart and professional but are still comfortable. There’s no point wearing a suit and expensive business shoes if they’re uncomfortable and the suit gets crumpled from you sitting all day. **Note. When I went to the CRFA show I saw some women wearing 3-4 inch heels.  Super ouch if you’re going to be walking around the whole day.  I personally will be wearing my signature Jack Purcell Converses.

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