Fresh Cup

OCT 2011

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/43236

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 60 of 70

THE WHOLE LEAF Tasting is believing BY CHRIS CASON I t's pretty much a principle of life that any time something new or exotic is introduced, there is some hesitation about whether to embrace it right away. While an adventurous few may chance to partake, the general public's inclination is usually one of guarded suspicion. Such is almost always the case when tea shop owners introduce a new tea (or line of teas) to their clientele. To understand this rationale, perhaps it's best to consider it through a customer's eyes. From that perspective, where is the reward in taking a gamble? Why spend $5 for a pot of tea that you aren't sure you're going to like when there is already something available that suits your tastes just fine? Just a few years ago, all that most Americans knew of tea (with a scarce few excepted, of course) were the standard blends, typi- cally made from black tea. As loads of higher-quality teas became available, customers soon discovered that better options abounded. But what teas were they going for? In my general experience, they wanted higher-quality versions of the teas they were already accus- tomed to—after all, it's human nature to stick with what you know. 58 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com But this leaves us with a conundrum: There are only so many pots of Earl Grey that one can serve before calling it a day, and there's a limit to how many breakfast blends you can sell before your sales start to stagnate. The answer is simple: Sample. Back when we opened our first Tavalon Tea Bar in New York City's Union Square, we quickly became known as the company that was always outside giving away tastes of our tea. Customers may not have instantly recalled our name after walking by our 400-square-foot store, but chances are they would remember our teas if they came within eyesight of our establishment. We sampled tirelessly, vigilantly and sometimes even painfully. (New York City winters don't always lend themselves well to handing out cups outside.) We knew the teas were good, and we knew that folks would like them—we just needed to give them a chance to dip their feet in the pool before they jumped in. But we quickly realized that we couldn't stop at just handing out free sips. It wasn't good enough to have customers thinking our teas were delicious; we had to show them why they were delicious. CYNTHIA MEADORS

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Fresh Cup - OCT 2011