LOS ANGELES – Is tea stepping out of the shadows from coffee? Or are consumers looking more at tea leaves than coffee beans? Those are a few assertions posed over the weekend in the L.A. Times.

David DeCandia at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in L.A. makes no bones about coffee being the brew that keeps his employer brewing — with 90% of the revenue — but he also says that it’s time for tea. "The tea industry is going straight up, and at some point, it will reach the level of coffee," he told the newspaper. "It's time. People have maxed out on other types of beverage."

Drinking tea may also become the beverage industry’s “sexiest new offering,” with domestic tea sales in restaurants and grocery stores up nearly 32% since 2007, according to Packaged Facts. The demographic is also widening, with aging boomers and younger consumers expected to buy more tea, writes the newspaper.

Beverage giants such as Coke and PepsiCo have been taking notice of tea, with brands such as Fuze, Honest Tea and Brisk. And even Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is betting on tea with a $1 billion investment in Tazo Tea, as well as the coffeehouse chain’s first Tazo Tea retail location. The newspaper adds that Starbucks also invested $620 million for tea retailer Teavana, which it plans to expand from 300 to at least 1,000 locations. 

"We could do for tea what we've done for coffee," Schultz recently told investors. "This is a big, big opportunity."

Although tea has a long way to go before it catches up with Joe, it is growing at a faster rate in the U.S. than coffee, according to IBISWorld. “In the last decade, the amount of tea consumed by the average American grew 22.5% and will rise an additional 3% in the next five years. Coffee slumped 1.9% between 2003 and 2013 and will grow less than 1% through 2018,” writes the newspaper, adding that two years ago, “a record 281 million pounds of tea was imported” into the United States. 

According to the National Restaurant Association, specialty iced teas, such as Southern sweet tea, tea lattes, Thai teas and Taiwanese boba, are increasingly common on menus. And as the beverage becomes more portable, tea is a hot choice among on-the-go consumers.

As more coffee shops as well as c-stores sell more tea, QSRs are taking notice of the trend, too. Sonic Drive-In recently launched a new line of iced green teas with flavor combinations.