World Tea East Wraps up Inaugural Co-Location

World Tea East, our regionally-focused east coast trade show, just wrapped up in Atlanta with great education and a solid start to pairing tea with foodservice.  In its inaugural year as a co-located event, the Atlanta Foodservice Expo and World Tea East attracted over 2,000 foodservice professionals and tea purveyors. Our New Business Boot Camp successfully graduated another 28 future “tea-prenuers”. Angie Loizides from Charleston, South Carolina was one of the graduates who commented, “When I found out what tea teaches people about culture and respect, I was inspired to find a way to start a tea business.  New Business Boot Camp allowed me to gather a tremendous amount of information to help me move my vision closer to reality.”

East offered great educational opportunities for its attendees by again featuring its newest Skill-Building workshop: Tea Processing.  Fresh leaf was flown in direct from Tea Hawaii & Co. for students to hand-process the tea over a two-day period to create finished tea. John Anderson of Victorian House Scones noted, “It was a wonderful show. We wrote orders, reconnected with lost customers, and generated a lot of new leads.”

Highlights of World Tea East

• The U.S. League of Tea Growers held their inaugural meeting to move towards forming an official association.
• The East Indies Tea Company offered buyers an innovative way to taste their tea through tea-infused popcorn.
• Early winners of the Buyers’ Choice for the NATC Winners Tasting Circle included TeaSource, Teas Etc. and Firsd Tea.