Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/178110
FROM THE EDITOR Gone sugaring LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Fresh Cup welcomes letters to the editor at comments@freshcup.com. Letters must be 250 words or less. Authors must provide verifiable phone number and city and state of residence. 12 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com how much things have changed in the last few decades. As RTD maker Walter Apodaca says in the article, soft drinks had a near monopoly on grocery store shelves into the late-'80s. And with those drinks in the power position, many Americans—me included—consumed them regularly without a second thought. I'm not sure exactly when I stopped drinking soda, but I know I didn't think too much about it. The health factor did play a small role in my decision-making process, but it wasn't the main reason. Rather, I stopped drinking soda because I began gravitating toward other beverages—coffee and tea included. From their taste to their health effects and beyond, coffee and tea became more appealing beverage options to me. And while my job and immersion in this industry may have helped sway me toward this conclusion, I am clearly not the only American to have arrived here. As the article discusses, RTD teas are roughly a $4 billion market now, while coffee is an even more present part of Americans' beverage routines. RTD may not be part of your business, but its success can be beneficial to anyone with a specialty tea or coffee shop. As the article states, many high-quality RTDs are emerging in the marketplace, and RTD drinkers are gravitating toward quality. It's a natural jump for them to go from grabbing an RTD off the shelf to nabbing a fresh cup of tea at their local tea or coffee shop. Consumers have come a long way from the soda chuggers they once were, and that evolution may have an upside for our industries. STEPHANIE KREUTTER T his summer, while on a long drive, I stopped at a gas station and bought a soda. This may sound like a fairly innocuous decision to draw attention to, but it was the first soft drink I'd consumed in years. I can't pinpoint exactly why I opted for a soda—maybe part of it was my subconscious saying: "You're on vacation. Go for it." Whatever the reason for the purchase, I drank the 20-ounce Squirt and found it to be delicious. But while consuming it, I couldn't shake another message my subconscious—or maybe it was my taste buds—was screaming at me: "Wow, this is sugary!" Having not had a soda in years, the sugar dose was overwhelming. I filed this experience away without thinking about it much until we began working on the issue of Fresh Cup you currently hold in your hands. In the article "More Than Convenience" (p. 32), we look at the booming market for ready-to-drink teas, which have benefitted from consumers' mass exodus from soft drinks and toward healthier beverages. It was while conducting interviews for that story that I began to ponder the full unhealthy extent of soda. In the article, George Jage—founder and director of World Tea Media—points to a July report from the American Heart Association offering recommended maximum daily dosages for sugar: 36 grams for men, 24 grams for women. According to the Nutrition Facts on the Squirt I drank this summer, that 20-ounce bottle contained more than 63 grams of sugar. I came relatively close to doubling my recommended daily intake—for just 30 minutes of sugary pleasure. Of course, my intention in bringing this up is not to shame anyone who regularly consumes soda, but rather to point out