by Heidi Kyser

Citing high registrations and positive feedback from attendees, organizers of the World Tea East Conference & Pavilion said the inaugural event last week at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center confirmed that there had been previously unmet demand for a specialty tea event in the region.

George Jage, president of World Tea Expo (and publisher of World Tea News), estimated that he and his team were responsible for 4 to 5 percent of the overall attendance at the Sept. 23-26 event, including the co-located Natural Products Expo East.

According to preliminary registration data, nearly 700 buyers registered through World Tea for the combined World Tea-Natural Products event. “And we accomplished this while only representing 0.7 percent of the total floor plan,” Jage said, referring to the pavilion of a dozen World Tea East exhibits within the larger Natural Products trade show floor.

He believes the draw was due to a high number of professionals in the area that are interested in the specialty tea category but may not have the need to go to the larger, annual World Tea Expo that takes place in Las Vegas in June.

“We are very excited about the turnout and the feedback we got as we explored extending our brand to the East Coast,” he added. “While we’ll be evaluating our specific future plans, we will have some offering in the Eastern United States again in 2010.”

Attendees interviewed by WTN said they were glad to have a regional alternative to the annual World Tea Expo.

“I live here, so I was glad to see something on the East Coast,” said Laurie Bell, chef and educator at Great Falls Tea Garden in Great Falls, Va. “I think having an event in this part of the country was an important facet.”

Bell added that she liked the smaller format because it allowed her to spend more time one-on-one with suppliers, building relationships.

One such supplier that exhibited in the World Tea East pavilion was Virginia Dare, a flavor manufacturer best known for its vanilla extract, but which also has an extensive line of tea concentrates.

“We wanted to get the message out there that we’ve been in the business 80 years,” said Paulette Kerner, director of marketing for Virginia Dare. “People don’t think of us as doing tea, so we wanted to demonstrate how good our tea tastes and how high-quality and versatile an ingredient it is.”

Having brand awareness as a goal, Kerner said she was surprised at the high number of good leads she got at the event.

“It was worthwhile to see new people that we really don’t see at the other shows we exhibit in, and are under our sales team’s radar,” she added.

Perhaps the most pleased with the show was Kathleen Kern, owner of Churchill’s Tea Room in Cincinnati, Ohio. That’s because Kern was the winner of the “I Want to Pluck!” Giveaway. Of the hundreds of entrants who stopped by the World Tea Expo booth to have their badges scanned and pick up an “I Want to Pluck!” badge, Kern was the one randomly selected to receive a 10-day tea tour of Japan to be led by World Tea Tours next April.

“My daughter is getting married the following month, in May, in London,” she said. “But this was just too good to pass up.”

Kern said she has toured only the Charleston Tea Plantation in South Carolina – never a tea estate overseas – and has never done as detailed a trip as the one to Japan promises to be.

“I can’t believe I’m going to be right there,” she said. “I grew up in a tea culture, but it was black tea, and I didn’t get into specialty tea until I opened the shop a few years ago.”

Kern said she was at the Boston event to immerse herself in products and education on specialty tea.

“I really enjoyed it,” she said. “I love mingling with other tea enthusiasts.”

Bell, who has been attending World Tea Expo nearly since it began seven years ago, agreed.

“No matter how many classes you take, there’s always something to learn,” she said.