Loose tea: In-House, To-Go and Wholesale sales

To maximize profits with loose tea, you need to know how to: serve loose tea in-house, to-go, and how to repack for your own retail or wholesale customers. I have had versions of this conversation with many of you, so thought I'd spell out some thoughts and steps here. You might be serving X brand of tea now, but want to step it up. Or you've been focused on coffee and tea is new to you. Either way, taking the loose tea plunge is easy and this time of year is perfect. The cool crip air has us all thinking about warm, comforting beverages again.

The actual teas you choose are less important at this stage. Many purveyors are more than willing to send samples to help find the perfect selection for you, and if your supplier has a large selection like we do, changing the menu seasonally or with customer demand should be expected. Tea is a seasonal product, after all, and teas from the same producer will vary season to season as climate and other factors come into play. Tea is a lot like wine in this fashion. Something to keep in mind when etching your menu in stone.

Serving teas in-house. First, you’ll need storage and display options. Our UV-protected glass jars do a bang-up job at this. Light is a major factor in tea blandness so you’ll want to keep your teas out of direct light. This little jar with its sunscreen on will help keep leaves tasting as good as they look. Also new to us are these clear top tins with flip hinged lid. We have them in both 4 and 8 oz sizes, not very large for holding lbs at a time, but nice for allowing guests to take a sniff and peek while keeping runny noses out of your serving stash.

Second, you’ll need something to serve the tea in. If guests are hanging out, a teapot is really nice. Our PersonaliTea teapots are great for the price ($6.99!) and come with matching cups ($4.49 per set of 2). If you like the cups you have, OR only want to serve in single cup portions, our Stainless Steel Infuser is a great tool! Fits most cups or mugs, is easy to clean, and comes with its own coaster to catch tea drips.

For to-go service, we have a few options as well. Since you’re already carrying loose tea, our Paper Filters are the easiest way to go from loose to teabag. Fill with a serving or two of tea, depending on your to-go cup size, add hot water and voila! These ready-made teabags cost about 2 cents each, keeping your margins large and your customers satisfied with the enhanced enjoyment of loose tea on the go.