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World Tea Expo Announces Tea Tycoon Competitors and “Best of Award” Finalists
World Tea Conference + Expo “Best of Awards” Named Tea News for the week ending March 10
World Tea Conference + Expo Announces “Best of” Award Finalists
| Pakistan is Willing to Barter Rice for Kenyan Tea
| Teaware Manufacturers Adopt Consumer to Manufacturer (C2M) Business Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion
| Study Suggests an EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s| PLUS Entrepreneurs Three-Minute Meditation with Tea
Hear the Headlines
Seven-minute Tea News Recap Listen to Episode 107
Forty-Four Finalists Named, Online Balloting for “Best of Awards” Winners Underway
By Dan Bolton
Finalists in eight categories in the annual World Tea Conference + Expo “Best of Awards” were named last week. Winners will be announced at the event on March 27-29 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Event organizers and a panel of judges named the 44 individuals, tea companies, and associations vying for recognition.
The winners are determined by an online ballot, which is now underway.
Tim McLucas, vice president of Questex Bar & Restaurant Group, said, “We are proud to present the industry with a channel to honor the businesses and individuals who have made a meaningful impact over the past year.”
Categories include Most Innovative Tea App, Best Tea-Inspired Chef, Best Boba Tea Company, and Most Creative Marketing Promotion.
The ballots will also determine the favorite expo speakers, tea YouTubers, the most Sustainably Driven Company, and the most Impactful Global Tea Body.
In addition, ten finalists were named in the Tea Tycoons competition. Three entrepreneurs will individually pitch their products to a panel of experts before a live audience. Categories include tea, innovations in tea, and a sustainable business category where founders explain how they are meeting the needs of the present without compromising future generations.
BIZ INSIGHT – Registration is now open at http://www.worldteaexpo.com. The event is co-located with the Bar & Restaurant Expo. I strongly encourage tea professionals at every level of experience to attend. It’s a great opportunity to learn, see new products, validate trends, and network with professionals worldwide. This will be my 15th year reporting on the show, every one of which was memorable.
See: Complete List of Best of Award Finalists
See you in Vegas at the World Tea Conference + Expo on March 27.
REGISTER TO ATTEND WORLD TEA CONFERENCE + EXPO
C2M creates a direct link between two extremes, writes Gennaro Cuofano. Image FourWeekMBA Teaware Manufacturers Adopt C2M
Consumer-to-Manufacturer Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion
By Dan Bolton
A recent online search for tea utensils returned large selections offered by Temu and Shein, a pair of non-traditional Chinese retailers with unbeatable prices. Instead of Amazon, I ordered several items that arrived within ten days.
The experience suggests why teaware suppliers should consider the C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) business model.
Taylor Smith, chief technology officer at Honeywell Productivity Solutions, described in a LinkedIn post the evolution of the C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) business model from fashion to a much wider range of retail categories.
Feedback is nothing new, he explains. Retailers and manufacturers regularly receive requests for specific and customized products, but C2M leverages technology to quantify community-driven and real-time product demand. Critically, manufacturers learn of orders in real time, are geared to producing small batches and only produce an item when ordered.
C2M challenges the traditional role in which brands dictate demand through switching up designs, expanding product ranges, and flavor offerings. Instead, Smith explains that the community of like-minded consumers seeking to personalize their selections dictates what brands should deliver.
Shein, valued at $100 billion, is the world’s third most highly valued startup. The company operates in 150 countries and is adding 6,000 new products per day.
Shein uses a test-and-repeat model, which first produces small quantities of new designs for its online store and updates production orders based on real-time demand, writes Coresight Founder Deborah Weinswig. The company’s “on-demand manufacturing technology connects suppliers to our agile supply chain, reducing inventory waste and enabling us to deliver various affordable products to customers worldwide,” writes Shein.
Unlike Shein, which holds inventory, Temu employs 10,000 workers to manage a global network of 11 million suppliers in 150 countries. The Temu APP has been downloaded 24 million times with 11 million active users monthly. Sales reached $200 million in January. The company launched in Canada in February.
Shein initially shipped directly from China via air freight but in November 2022, the company opened a 170,000-square-foot office and distribution facility in Toronto to cut the shipping times and decrease the number of packages in the international shipping stream.
Weinswig writes that the C2M e-commerce business model deployed by Temu has “soared in popularity over the past several years.”
Gennaro Cuofano, the founder of FourWeekMBA, explains that “C2M creates a direct link between two extremes: the end customer that buys a product and the manufacturer that makes it. With C2M, they’re dealing directly with the customer.”
The porcelain cups that I ordered were available in eight “virtual” colors. Only after I selected “powder blue” did the supplier know what to make.
BIZ INSIGHT – Temu and Shein as catalysts that will influence teaware trends. Selections were extensive (138 tea strainers and 15 tea scoops). The user interfaces were intuitive (filters include items that are trending, sort by style, material, or occasion. Transactions were frictionless with flexible payment terms. The free shipping threshold was $35, and returns are free. Grand View Research estimates the global teaware market was worth $4.1 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.1% from 2021 to 2028. Tea retailers depend on teaware sales to make ends meet. Amazon and eBay are formidable competitors. Retailers are wise to monitor selections as they reflect consumer preferences in real time.
Tangles of the protein Tau (in blue) spread between brain cells leading to cell death. Image NIA-UK. A New Study Suggests EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s
Researchers funded by Britain’s National Institute on Aging (NIA) found that a molecule in green tea dismantles tangles of the protein tau, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.
Results published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications identified several molecules, including epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), that break down the fibrous tangles that spread between brain cells, leading to cell death, according to the NIA publication Research Highlights.
Brain tissue donated by deceased Alzheimer’s patients was treated with EGCG and flash-frozen in a process known as cryogenic electron microscopy at the University of California, Los Angeles, revealing the process.
According to researchers, the EGCG binds to clefts, or openings, along each layer of the harmful fibers, destabilizing the layers and slowly prying the fibers apart. EGCG is not effective on its own because it cannot easily penetrate the human brain. The molecule also binds with many proteins, weakening its effect. But experiments indicated that a mix of EGCG-related molecules also prevented the untangled tau from spreading and forming new tangles.Researchers caution that more work is needed, but the findings suggest that a mix of molecules that replicate the effects of EGCG can be designed to penetrate the brain and prevent cell death in Alzheimer’s patients.
FEATURES
Wendy Weir (second from left) enjoys fresh green mao feng tea at a memorable tea table with a fish pond in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. Photo courtesy of Wendy Weir. Entrepreneurs Three-Minute Meditation with Tea
By Jessica Natale Woollard
You’ll want to pour a cup of tea for this special live meditation on the Tea Biz podcast. In my porcelain cup is a white vanilla coconut tea from the Banff Tea Company in Alberta, Canada. It’s one of my go-to blends and scents the air with a lovely fragrance to complement the moment of peace we’re about to relax into. In just a moment, we’ll get right into the meditation with our guest, Wendy Weir, but keep listening after the meditation—I’ll chat with Wendy in a few minutes to learn more about her meditative practice and its connection to tea. So, pause what is occupying your mind, rest upon the nearest comfy chair, and let Wendy lead us on a two-minute journey of our home within. Read more…
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Interview with Wendy Weir Three-minute Meditation
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Spotlight
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Unpacking the Future of Tea
Saeed Al Suwaidi, Director of Agri Commodities at DMCC and a respected executive and technologist, shares his perspective on some of the issues to be addressed during the DMCC Global Tea Forum April 25-27.
Need To Know News
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World Tea Expo Announces Tea Tycoon Competitors and “Best of Award” Finalists
Tea Tycoon Competitors Announced | Teaware Manufacturers Adopt Consumer to Manufacturer (C2M) Business Model Pioneered by Fast-Fashion | Study Suggests an EGCG-based Therapy for Treating Alzheimer’s | PLUS Entrepreneurs Three-Minute Meditation with Tea | Episode 107 | Read more
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Pakistan’s Economic Crisis Threatens Mombasa-based Tea Trade
Pakistan offers to barter rice to resolve tea import impasse that has stranded 300 containers at Karachi Port | Asahi Launches SOU, its First New Tea Brand in Decades | Tatcha Unveils Virtual Forest Bathing and Meditation Experience | PLUS Tea Processing Reimagined: Extruded Tea | Episode 106 | Read more
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Logistics Companies Invest to Right the Ship
Logistics Companies Invest to Right the Ship | Newly Elected KTDA Board Ousts Executives | Hain Celestial Streamlines Tea Selections | PLUS Alicia Gentili on the challenges of establishing a new tea garden in the English Channel and Dorje Tea targets India’s domestic market in an attempt to revive Darjeeling’s Selim Hill | Episode 25 | Read more
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Tonnes of Tea Stranded in Karachi
Pakistan Offers to Barter Rice to Resolve Tea Import Impasse Containers of tea from Africa have been piling up at the port of Karachi since December, with more on the way. Ships are unloading briskly for the first time in months, but the government needs $1 billion immediately and $8.5 billion to pay its fuel […] Read more
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Hi, I’m Nish. I grew up on an organic tea farm and founded Nepal Tea Collective in 2016. Tea is not just a beverage for me but a catalyst for social change, sustainably empowering hardworking artisans like my parents for the past 30 years. I’m on a mission to make the whole world aware of the goodness of Nepali teas and the good that comes from supporting growers in this remarkable land.
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Features
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Sinna Dorais Bungalows Balance Comfort and Old World Charm
Tea tourism continues to build momentum in 2023. The assistant manager’s bungalows have been converted for tourist accommodations at three estates owned by the Murugappa Group, in Sakleshpur (Karnataka), Valparai, and the Nilgiris (Tamil Nadu).
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Fresh Thinking for a New Era in Tea
Open up your imagination, don’t be bound by the past. Take our old drink and modernize it and just do fun things with tea, says Brook37 founder Mou Dasgupta. The new era of tea is not just introducing tea it’s also explaining how you consume the tea.
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Brew Good: Grace Farms Seeks to End Forced Labor
Grace Farms Foods is a newly created public benefits subsidiary of Grace Farms Foundation that recently introduced a line of ethically and sustainably sourced teas and herbal infusions. CEO Adam Thatcher says the company will give back 100% of profits from selling its signature coffee and tea to help end forced labor worldwide – forever.
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Tourism Handbook Elevates Immersive Travel
Tea tourism is more than an overnight stay in a quaint tea bungalow and a stroll in the garden. Meaningful interactions introduce visitors to local tea culture, unique tea processing techniques, and natural and historical surroundings.
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Revised TRA Standards Promote Tea Sustainability
The main difference between our standards and those developed by third-party certifiers is that our standards are backed by scientific research carried out by our scientists over the last 111 years. There is scientific evidence for every practical recommendation. – Joydeep Phukan
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Estate-Direct Tea Retail at Scale
Rudra Chatterjee, the dynamic managing director of Luxmi Tea, has expanded and diversified the venerable 30-million-kilo bulk tea producer into direct-to-consumer retail. Luxmi, which operates 25 estates in India and Africa, has shortened the supply chain to deliver fresher tea and now sources herbal infusions and inclusions for blends locally.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why did you consolidate all content on the Tea Biz Portal?
Tea Biz was a simple WordPress blog when it debuted ten years ago. The successful Kickstarter campaign that funded Tea Journey Magazine in 2015 required a more robust content management system, and the weekly podcast added multimedia content in 2021. The Tea Biz Portal enables professionals and enthusiasts to conveniently access more than 1,000 feature articles, news briefs, videos, recorded interviews, special issues, consumer ‘how to’ guides and price reports. Zeen101 powers the Leaky Paywall site and Steeped Content managed social media optimization, marketing, and design, working with Vantage IT Solutions to produce the visually stimulating portal’s user interface and automation.
How are the podcast, magazine, and blog distributed, and what is your reach?
Readership surveys reveal that 56% of our total audience are tea professionals. The remaining 44% identify as tea enthusiasts. Ninety-eight percent say they drink specialty tea. The magazine has the broadest reach, with a base of 16,000 paid and opt-in email subscribers in 76 countries. Geolocation statistics vary by channel, but up to two-thirds of our audience resides outside the US and Canada. Podcast listeners are concentrated in developed countries: 49% in North America, 32% in Europe, 14% in Asia, 3% in Australia, and 2% in Africa. Tea Journey has 25,000 social media followers. The podcast has accumulated 38,421 downloads. The Tea Biz blog circulates to 15,400 WordPress and LinkedIn followers, mainly professionals. In the past 365 days, LinkedIn posts generated 335,202 impressions. A breakdown follows: Owners 9%, Partner & Directors 25%, Senior Executives (MD-CEO) 21%, VPs 14%, C-level (marketing) 11%, Entry-level 14%, and Managers 5.8%.
Question 3
Answer to question 3 here.