As ancient as it is, there’s no question that tea culture has been transformed in the digital age. With tech like AI, AR and VR, and more finding their places in the tea industry, tea is able to reach more consumers than ever before – and in all-new ways.
There’s also a growing number of tea-related apps. If you search for “tea” in your mobile app store, a number of results will come up. You’ll find tea timers, tea-themed games, and apps to track healthy tea habits.
A free app called Steeped, based in Germany and available worldwide, takes an integrative approach with the goal to serve both tea consumers and tea retailers.
The Steeped app helps tea drinkers figure out the optimal brewing parameters for dozens of types of tea. Users can input certain custom preferences and Steeped will use that data to prepare step-by-step instructions.
For instance, if today you’re in the mood for Bai Mu Dan (white peony), first you’ll select it from the list of teas in the Steeped app. Then select your brewing method – maybe Western style with a teapot, or cold brew, as a couple of examples. Next, tell Steeped how much tea you want to make in milliliters, and how strong you want the taste to be. Then Steeped will tell you what temperature your water should be and how many grams of loose-leaf tea you should measure into your vessel. At the tap of a button, it will even start a timer for you.
Steeped has been on the app market for about three years. Its three co-founders are now 21, 22 and 23 years old. They represent the rising generation of tea enthusiasts, and Steeped is one way they invite their peers to join them.
When Tristan Otto was a teen, he came across a package of white tea bags at the grocery store. He was familiar with black, green and herbal teas, but he had never heard of white tea before. He was intrigued and took it home.
“I drank it and instantly fell in love,” he said.
Things were difficult for him during those years, but the tea helped him relax and calm down. He started researching tea more and more – a process he recalls as “going down the rabbit hole” – and specialty tea became like a hobby for him.
Just a few years later, Otto met Marcel Bechler at their high school. The two noticed they both kept bringing tea to school that was a step above the standards for typical commodity tea sold in Germany. They became fast friends, started ordering samples of different teas together, and tracked their tea reviews in a shared document.
“Our tea journey got way deeper because before that time, I and Marcel, we didn’t have anyone we could talk to and share our experience with tea,” Otto said. “This helped me a lot, to share experiences and learn from each other.”
One afternoon as the pair headed home from school, Bechler – who was already working for an app agency at the time – surprised Otto by showing him a design prototype he had made for an app about tea. They decided to pursue the idea seriously. They needed a backend developer, so they brought in Janek Wunderlich to help with coding, and Steeped was born.
“I had thought, if the opportunity should come that I can combine my interests for business and tea, I would take it,” Otto said. “And this was the moment.”
The main purpose of Steeped is to make information about tea easily accessible. Otto said he has heard from a lot of new tea enthusiasts that they were afraid to buy expensive loose-leaf tea because they might ruin it by messing up the brewing method. But Steeped can help people avoid that problem. Whatever tea they are making, all they have to do is pull up the app on their phone and they’ll instantly get a trusted recommendation of how to brew it.
The team at Steeped also facilitates a community on Discord, which currently has about 350 members. They talk about tea experiences, ask questions, and share memes or videos about tea.
“If you get started with tea and have somebody to talk about it with… that’s so valuable,” Otto said. “That’s why having an online community nowadays is super important, so people can exchange ideas, questions, experiences.”
E-commerce and Collaborations
Steeped collaborates with Europe-based tea merchants, such as Paper & Tea, Friends of Tea, Rivers and Clouds and others, to offer themed tea subscription boxes. The boxes are available now to customers around the world, including in the United States. But this is only the first step in the company’s plan for e-commerce and B2B partnerships.
The app currently offers brewing instructions for general types of tea, but sometimes it’s better to use even more specific instructions recommended by the particular brand whose tea you’re brewing. So Steeped is working with a few tea merchants to put a QR code on tea packages that will open the full brewing instructions for different methods in the Steeped interface, without requiring the consumer to download the app.
Steeped is also developing a marketplace function to allow tea merchants to sell individual products through the app. About 40 tea merchants across Europe have already signed up to sell their products on the marketplace, which will launch soon.
And because not everyone has the expertise to develop their own online shop, the marketplace also will serve small tea shops by giving them an accessible e-commerce platform.
“We couldn’t find any tea marketplace available that’s really specialized for tea,” Otto said. “There are coffee marketplaces; there are general marketplaces such as Amazon and so on… but I think that’s something that’s still lacking for the tea industry.”
To learn more about the Steeped app, visit Steeped.app.
Cat Kerr has been involved with local cafes in Orlando, Fla., as a public relations manager and barista since 2018. She writes about food, tea and culture. She’s also a contributor to Questex’s World Tea News and Bar & Restaurant.
Plan to Attend or Participate in the
World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023
To learn about other key developments, trends, issues, hot topics and products within the global tea community, plan to attend the World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023 in Las Vegas, co-located with Bar & Restaurant Expo. Visit WorldTeaExpo.com.
To book your sponsorship or exhibit space at the World Tea Conference + Expo, or to enquire about advertising and sponsorship opportunities at World Tea News, contact:
Ellainy Karaboitis-Christopoulos
Business Development Manager, Questex
Phone: +1-212-895-8493
Email: [email protected]
Also, be sure to stay connected with the World Tea Conference + Expo on social media for details and insights about the event. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.