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.