Fresh Cup

FEB 2013

Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.

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Jage admits she's had a good cup of tea that was brewed from a tea bag or sachet, and she's had a bad cup of tea brewed from loose leaves. Quick, somebody alert the blogosphere. But all sarcasm aside (at least for a moment), sourcing the highest-quality whole-leaf tea from gardens around the world for a sachet full of tea is no less complicated than finding quality loose-leaf tea. The pyramid bag is a symbol of quality in its own right, and Rosenfeld says he has watched plenty of tea drinkers convert from loose tea to sachets over the years. "People who are absolutely dedicated to loose tea have begun grabbing sachets of our tea when they're on the go— as in, 'It's what I drink when I'm traveling,'" he says. Early on, Rosenfeld thought his business might be loose leaf only, but an employee of his who was a former barista continually said, "Loose tea clogs the pipes." He laughs at that memory now, but he says it's utterly true—American convenience-driven consumerism will lead people to drop $5 for a cup of coffee, but it's harder to get people to linger in a tea shop with a large staff, where a wide selection of loose tea is properly prepared. "There is absolutely a home for loose tea if you can serve and produce it well," Rosenfeld says. For all of the rest of us, there are whole-leaf tea sachets. Bottoms up. PA M R O S E N F E L D / T WO L E AV E S T E A C O . to producer—is that it's all about the tea inside the bag," Rosenfeld says. "There's so much marketing noise around, and people get so wrapped up in packaging." The pyramid bag is a concept whose time has come. "There has been a revolution in tea packaging in the past 10 to 12 years," Rosenfeld says. "There hasn't always been this kind of focus on tea quality. Some major companies have launched ranges of tea sachets and then discontinued them. I believe it's because the tea inside the sachet wasn't good. Consumers are really looking for a better cup of tea." The upscale variety of the tea bag broke through a new barrier recently at the 2012 North American Tea Championship, where the "Packaged SingleService Tea" category was added to the annual competition. According to the organization's sales and marketing director, Kim Jage, "We believe that single-portion packaged tea is evolving and is no longer viewed as an impediment to a good cup of tea." Mike Spillane, an industry veteran, North American Tea Championship judge and president of loose-leaf purveyor The G.S. Haly Company, says while loose leaf is still his first choice, pyramids are his preferred tea-bag option. "They present a greater selection, and you have a higher chance of getting a specialty tea because it holds whole leaf, unlike the traditional flat-packed tea bags," he says. freshcup.com January 2013 59

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