by Heidi Kyser 

Members of the specialty tea industry have been asking for it, and finally, World Tea Expo is letting them have it: a second World Tea event for the East Coast. Dubbed a “regional conference and pavilion” by producer SFG Group, the new World Tea East will co-locate with Natural Products Expo East, Sept. 23-26 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.

“We’ve had numerous requests to offer our program to people in the Northeast United States, but we didn’t want to have a second, independent show,” said George Jage, president of SFG Group, which owns and produces World Tea Expo (as well as World Tea News). “Our partnership with Natural Products Expo East is a perfect solution to fill the needs of the industry through a more robust platform.”

The 7-year-old World Tea Expo is held annually in Las Vegas during the late spring or early summer (next year it’s scheduled June 11-13). It is the largest trade show dedicated to the specialty tea business.

The new satellite event will feature some of the same components as the annual show on a smaller scale, such as a pavilion of exhibits within the Natural Products exhibition Sept. 24-26 and a general conference program Sept. 23-24.

However, for the Boston event, World Tea will produce a similar sized New Business Boot Camp Sept. 22-24. The three-day series of workshops for people starting new tea businesses has been a popular feature of the Las Vegas conference program, because it offers a chance for intimate group interaction with established leaders in the industry.

World Tea East will also include something not done in Las Vegas: the World Tea Championship Winners Tasting. At this evening event, attendees can taste teas that won in the World Tea Championship, an independently judged competition that rates teas.

Jage and Alan Peterson, vice president of New Hope Natural Media (which produces Natural Products Expo East), agreed that synergy between the specialty tea and natural products industries made the co-location a logical one.

“Specialty tea is a rising star in the natural products industry, so it makes perfect sense for us to partner with the leaders in the specialty tea community,” Peterson said.

In addition to access to the natural products market, participants in World Tea East gain an event that falls at a good time in the buying cycle of tea, Jage said. Having a September event will provide them with an opportunity to shop for holiday teas.