The Herbal Café
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TeaBits The Quarterly Newsletter of the Tea Association & Tea Council of the U.S.A., Inc. Editor: Mary McGrail January 15, 2003 Volume 10 No. 1 Best Wishes for a Happy New Year! From Joe Simrany, Jean Singer and Mary McGrail ISLANDS OF THE FUTURE IS NOW TEA ASSOCIATION OPPORTUNITY CHAIRMAN BARRY COOPER IN A TURBULENT SEA LOOKS AHEAD Excerpted below are remarks from Tea Associa- tion of the U.S.A. Chairman Barry Cooper’s pres- The following speech was presennted on October entation at this year’s Annual Convention, held in 17, 2002 by Tea Association/Tea Council of the U. La Quinta, California. Mr. Cooper made exten- S.A. President Joseph Simrany at the 57th Annual sive use of the latest technological advances in Tea Convention held in La Quinta, California. multi-media to make his point that the Tea Asso- ciation has truly entered the electronic age. While __________________________________________ the high-tech features and innovation of the origi- nal presentation cannot be reproduced here, Mr. Welcome, delegates. It’s good to see so many old Cooper’s vision of an aligned, focused and friends and I look forward to making many new ones strengthened Association remains. over the next few days. ___________________________________________ This year’s convention represents a bit of an experi- I consider being elected to the chair of the Tea Asso- ment. It is the first time that we have brought to- ciation of the U.S.A. to be the pinnacle of my career. gether delegates of the Traditional Tea business and It is a true honor to join the ranks of tea men whose delegates of the Specialty Tea business to participate names will echo down through history: Joe in what we hope will be an enriching and enlighten- Wertheim, Toby Fleming, Jack Painter, Peter Goggi, ing experience for all of us. This dual audience will Marty Kushner, Bill Bowron to name just a few. be especially visible on Saturday morning when both Men revered for their judgement, style and exemplary groups will attend the business session. The topics behavior. I am very proud to be counted among we will discuss will have their own particular rele- them. vance for each of the tea disciplines. More impor- tantly, they will show us that the opportunities and The Last twelve months have seen some far-reaching challenges we face now changes for our Association. When and in the future, are (Cont’d on page 2) (Cont’d on page 7) VOL. 10 ISSUE 1 T EAB ITS PAGE 2 Islands of Opportunity (Cont’d from page 1) shared ones. Our ability to take advantage of the op- search portunities and to manage the challenges will be di- showing a rectly related to our willingness and readiness to lev- reduced risk erage the power of our combined strengths and ex- of cancer, pertise. just to name a couple. The tea and health research discussed by The title of this presentation is “Islands of Opportu- the leading researchers and scientists generated 61 nity in a Turbulent Sea.” Despite a struggling busi- million broadcast impressions among consumers ness environment and correspondingly sluggish tea who tuned into shows such as the CBS Nightly sales, we have many reasons to be optimistic in the News where Dan Rather declared that “New re- Tea Industry today. It is true that given our current search says tea prevents cancer and heart disease.” economic conditions, it’s tough to be an optimist. Getting Dan Rather or Paul Harvey to say nice Some optimists -- like the man who believes he can things about tea is an incredible accomplishment marry his secretary and still dictate to her -- have un- because their listeners view them as being ex- realistic expectations. Other optimists are justified tremely credible. You can’t buy that kind of cov- by the facts that support their beliefs. erage for any amount of money. There are many reasons to be For many who attended the Symposium, I have heard varying accounts ranging from satisfaction optimistic about the state of our to exhilaration. It is not unusual to have such a business! wide range of reactions. I recall my own reaction sitting in the audience at the First Scientific Sym- posium during my first month on the job back in For the last decade, the members of the Board who 1991. I recall thinking, What am I doing here and have endorsed the Tea & Health initiative have un- what are they saying? To the uninitiated, uncover- derstood the wisdom of using a health message to ing tea’s health benefits may seem a slow and drive tea consumption. However, as Gerry Doutre complicated process. However, we are making just showed us, it is no automatic slam-dunk! We significant progress as evidenced by the media’s need to be smart about how we convert the positive coverage of our event. We had three national net- news about health benefits into increased consump- work feeds on the day of our Press Conference and tion of tea. many other networks used the information we pro- vided to also disseminate the story. We have a At the recent Third International Scientific Sympo- symposium highlights video that we will show you sium on Tea and Human Health, hosted by the Tea Saturday morning and we will make a personal Council, our optimism was rewarded some 61million copy available to each of our member companies times. That’s the number of TV & Radio publicity after the convention. impressions we generated in the three days following the Symposium – excluding print and the Internet. While the video does a good job of summarizing the event and highlighting the results, it cannot Our next presenter, Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg will go into adequately convey the underlying excitement gen- details about the results of the symposium. How- erated by the Washington, DC venue or the caliber ever, by now most of you have probably seen or of scientists involved in its organization and pres- heard of the news coverage generated by Dr. Judd’s entation. studies on tea and heart disease and Dr. Hakim’s re- (Cont’d on page 5) V OLUME 10 I SSUE 1 T E A B I T S P AGE 3 TeaBits Interview: Laurie Clemans of The Herbal Cafe A Master Blender Cultivates the Art of Tea By Mary McGrail The following is an in- terview with Specialty Tea Institute member Laurie Clemans. Ms. Clemans is President and CEO of The Herbal Café. Her whole leaf tea blends and herb blends include an Estate Vintage Tea Menu, as well as an extensive catalogue of signature green tea blends, white tea, or- ganic black teas, as well as tea accessories, and a tea sommelier and presentation pro- gram. We asked her to tell us about the passion she brings to tea blending, and how The Herbal Café markets its many specialty teas. ______________________________________________________________________________________ How did you get started in tea? What made you want to make tea and herbs your business? ***20 years ago I started making herbal infusions while studying herbal medicine and plant pharmacology at the California School of Herbal Studies. I gained further education through the International Herbal Sym- posiums, the East West School of Herbology and the American Herbalist Guild. I learned how to formulate for specific purposes; from immune building and energy support to the full range of acute and chronic con- ditions. We were trained in the diagnostic and therapeutic principles of traditional Western, Ayurvedic and Chinese herbal medicine. It was gratifying to see how much better people felt from a simple cup of tea. I then started an herbal practice, custom blending herbal infusions for my clients and for local practitioners. Concurrently, I was drawn to and studied the preparation methods, art, history, varietals and health proper- ties of green, oolong and black tea. Five years ago, I saw herbs and green tea splashed on the front pages and showing up on name brand prod- uct ingredients lists. I decided it was the right time to dive in and launch the herbal cafe®, a whole leaf tea company. (I also have a long career in strategic executive marketing, consumer advertising and graphic de- sign which helped in the decision to move forward!) My vision from the start has been to bring exceptional and rare herbal infusions, green tea and blends to a discerning, health conscious, tea drinking audience -- positioned for specific health and well being benefits; surrounding that perspective with sophisticated blending and aesthetics, distinctive flavor profiles, sustain- able sourcing and an emphasis on organic ingredients. How do you feel these qualities work together to strengthen your marketing message? Can you talk about your target consumer a bit? How do you like to reach/educate him or her? Marketing Messaging: (Cont’d on page 12 VOL. 10 ISSUE 1 T EAB ITS PAGE 4 Move Over Nouveau ‘Teany’ Makes Tea Beaujolais— The Real Easy as Pie Race is For The Year’s By Best Teas Mary McGrail The following are remarks by Mr. Gerry Vandergrift on the occasion of a special meeting in Sri Lanka convened on November 21, 2002 by the Tea Board of Sri Lanka at Asia Siyaka warehouse facilities, to Tea Estate winners and international press corps. You could walk right past Teany and not know it. This tea salon/restaurant is small-scale, tucked Mr. Vandergrift is a Tea Association of the U.S.A., away on Rivington Street in New York City’s Inc. Board member, and a member of the Advisory Lower East Side.