Tea Bags Lose Their Stodgy Baggage

With surprising speed, tea has mimicked coffee’s almost comedic transformation from simple morning jolt to hip have-it-your-way drink. (Will it be organic soy froth or hormone-free, fat-free cream with your shade-grown, fair-trade dark roast?)

Those reliable bags of black tea your grandmother carried in her purse have given way to a rainbow of hues, a cornucopia of flavors, satchels of all sizes and shapes, and a whole new language for describing the minutia of it all.

“In the next couple years you’re going to see movies and TV shows making fun of people who drink tea the way they do now about people drinking lattes,” says Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council, which tracks tea trends.

The growth of the tea market has been impressive, going from a $1.8 billion industry in 1990 to $6.5 billion last year, according to the Tea Association of the USA. And the group predicts continued strong growth.

Why now? Studies touting tea’s good-for-you qualities are a big part of it. But so, too, is the insatiable American appetite for the new and the different. And when consumers came looking for better options than the bitter brews of the past, the industry answered.

So basic black has been joined by red, white, green and a plethora of herbal blends. And they come in traditional bags, spacious conical sacks, perforated foil tubes, loose leaves, even as whole dried flowers that “bloom” as they unfurl and fill your teapot.

Of course, there also are the hugely popular bottled tea drinks, which account for the majority of tea consumed in the U.S. And though they represent a small piece of the market, organic and fair-trade teas are lining up to tempt the socially conscious drinker.

While spending on tea is up, with the exception of breakfast tea, consumption across the day has been mostly flat, say Harry Balzer, of market research firm NPD Group. Consumption of tea during breakfast has seen modest growth.

Whether the industry takes big or baby steps in coming years, the budding interest has prompted serious innovation in a beverage that otherwise has been mostly unchanged for thousands of years.

This article was taken from: The Enquirer