Could Lady GaGa Help Increase Tea Sales?

Will Lady GaGa Help Increase Tea Sales?
by Elaine McFadden

You may or not be a Lady Gaga fan, but the results of the “Top 10 Most Searched People for 2009” are in, and you can find Lady Gaga on all of them.

Who would guess that along with the crazy outfits, the world is fascinated with her love of tea, and her choice of how to drink it.

This isn't an isolated incident since Lady Gaga has been seen repeatedly holding fancy china cups and sipping tea. While in England, the curiosity got the best of the Brits, and they just had to ask in an interview, “what’s with the teacup?”

She responded, “I take her (teacup) everywhere because it makes me feel at home. I used to have tea with my mother every day, you see.”

“I’ve made a habit of drinking out of china because it makes me feel grounded. I don’t think it’s a good lifestyle to always be eating and drinking out of paper. It’s very wasteful.”

No way to measure if Lady Gaga alone will significantly influence tea sales, but as a role model, she is reinforcing a momentum that was already exploding within the tea industry. With a single comment she not only made it "cool" to drink tea out of a fancy teacup, but was able to spin the practice into an environmental contribution as well!

Joseph P. Simrany, President of the Tea Association of the USA, Inc., has projected growth in several areas of the tea industry.

• Ready-to-drink tea will continue to grow in popularity with annual dollar increases in the range of 12%-15%.
• Foodservice sales will continue to grow, spurred by an increase in customer demand, increased promotion on the part of operators, the expansion of tea offerings to include specialty and herbal selections, increased awareness of the profitability potential of tea, and improved delivery of hot tea. We expect annual dollar increases in the range of 3%-5%.
• A long-term increase in consumer demand for Specialty Tea, with annual dollar increases in the area of 8% to 10%.
• A slow but steady long term increase in consumer demand for traditional forms of tea spurred by an expanded core group of users, much broader demographics of the "typical" tea consumer, and increasing awareness of the potential health effects associated with tea consumption. Annual dollar growth in the area of 1% to 3% is expected in this category.
• Estimated wholesale value of the US tea industry has increased from 1.84 billion in 1990 to 6.85 billion in 2007.

The phenomenal growth the tea industry has experienced over the past few years is due mostly to the new convenience of purchasing a wide variety of teas in ready to drink bottles.

Customers who would not even consider ordering tea when dining out, will choose to buy tea in a bottle as a healthful alternative to soda. It is easy to forget that it was not that long ago these drinks did not exist. Never before has this many people been drinking tea!

With all of these new customers drinking tea, and the long list of benefits that go with it such as great taste, wide flavor varieties to accommodate all preferences, cultural roots that include native and traditional tea varieties, and the attractive health benefits, we must assume we will see a shift in consumer drinking habits.

With a world of tea flavors from which to choose, you could have a new one every day of the week.

Unlike soda, drinking tea is not something you "need to give up" because even if caffeine is a problem, there are still plenty of choices. Not much guilt with tea unless you are drinking the high calorie choices, so once the tea industry has recruited a new fan of the product, it is doubtful they will "stop liking tea."

Cafe's specializing in tea are now being offered as franchises in many areas. Successful concepts from Europe are making their way to our cities, and if successful will start a new tea culture following here in our country.

Foodservice operators can easily start a gourmet tea program. With the low case cost and substantial profit margin, now might be the perfect time to look at adding new tea choices to your menus. Find case quantities of a wide variety of gourmet, organic teas at GreenFoodservices.com.

Lady Gaga is no doubt helping to create interest in tea, but with customers looking for alternatives to less healthful drinks like soda, and the steady increase of new tea products hitting shelves, foodservice could have a good money maker on their hands and should probably take notice.

Picture: Luke Mills/WENN.com

Why is it Difficult to Find Organic Choices Away From Home?

Why it is Difficult to Find Organic Choices Away From Home?

By Elaine McFadden, MPH, RD and Founder/CEO GreenFoodservices.com

How many foodservice operators have made an effort to add organic choices to their menus only to have the organic procurement process involve countless steps that discourage a reorder?

After locating a supplier, many distributors require a special order be placed for organic products followed by a wait time that can take weeks to actually receive the product. When the product finally arrives, your invoice includes a pumped up price and extra shipping charges you normally don’t have to pay with your conventional product orders. It’s not difficult to figure out that when you continue to put customers through this type of process you will succeed in discouraging future orders.

Adding a new distributor of any kind equates to an increase in work load to the purchaser and therefore is avoided whenever possible. This is a problem for organic since most conventional distributors don’t want to stock organic as the pull through numbers are not high enough to support pallet purchases. This creates a catch 22 situation as it is hard for the manufacturer to build the business without distributor support.

Many organic distributors require minimums that can be as high as $500.00. Extra delivery charges can be added to the already higher priced organic product. Many operators are unfamiliar with organic products and unsure of which products could work the best for their customer base. Chances of failure increase when you are randomly picking products. It is no wonder many foodservice operators abandon the idea of having a long term organic choice on their menus after experiencing the process.

What do the numbers say?

According to the Organic Trade Association 2007 Manufacturer Survey, U.S. sales of organic food and beverages have grown from $1 billion in 1990 to an estimated $20 billion in 2007, with projected sales to reach nearly $23 billion in 2008. Sales are anticipated to increase 18 percent each year from 2007 to 2010.

Foodservice may be five years behind retail, but with organic food showing this level of growth, which is the biggest growth segment in the food industry overall, it might be worth it to start taking a serious look at these numbers and how foodservice menus might be able to offer something that would appeal to the organic customer. Even having just one organic choice shows that you made an effort to include something for them, and they do take note and will order when they see the option.

Customers are educating themselves about food.

Between the Food Network and documentaries from respected authors such as Michael Pollans’ FOOD, INC, which uncovers the food industries dirty little secrets, we would expect the amount of people questioning “Where is my food coming from?” to rise at a faster pace than ever before.

What the foodservice industry is already doing with organic food choices.

Several restaurant chains are offering simple organic choices using shelf stable products such as coffee, hot and iced tea, and other beverage choices. Organic beverages are actually one of the fastest growing segments within the organic food industry. Other examples of easy to add organic beverage items include margaritas, and other alcoholic drinks given the new availability of a wide range of organic wine, beer, spirits, and mixers.

Many restaurants have added an organic salad choice, but most do not have an organic salad dressing to go with it.

What is important to note is that these small steps do force a change in distribution. If the numbers for organic sales continue to grow, who knows, those small steps and painful procurement efforts could end up being some of your top money makers in the future.

Customers want quality food choices.

There are people that will always want the best for themselves. Organic is becoming a standard for quality. Organic farming comes down to good food grown using the same farming methods our grandparents used minus the designed to kill pesticides and untested genetically modified ingredients. Can we really blame the customer for not wanting those ingredients in their meal?

Foodservice happens whenever someone else prepares our food. We trust the person preparing the food that goes into our bodies as nourishment to be safe and good tasting. The organic customer is more discerning and serious about those ingredients and where they came from. They prefer to not blindly put food into their body as they see a relationship between food and their long term health.

We all vote with our purchasing dollars, and bottom line is more and more customers are voting to keep those potentially harmful ingredients out of their food by buying USDA certified organic as a product they can trust. More farm land than ever is being converted to organic. Seems farmers prefer to avoid exposure to those ingredients as well.

For those that say you cannot trust an organic label have not been a part of the USDA organic certification committee. This group wants stiffer restrictions and is having to constantly fight to keep genetically modified ingredients (GMOs) out as those companies want to capture that market share. Latest battle is on genetically modified vaccines that are given to farm animals. The maker of the vaccine and most GMO seed crops such as corn and soy, Monsanto, is trying to use their big money to force GMO vaccines onto the organic industry. Those in the organic industry are giving it their all to block the approval, but it is difficult when former Monsanto employees also hold high government positions as key decision makers.

We can continue to be oblivious to the fact that our food system has undergone drastic changes in the interest of increased profits. However those practices come with a high price that lowers food quality, requires expensive environmental cleanup, and ultimately higher healthcare costs. We can continue to support that system, or we can make an effort to speak up by finding even small ways to incorporate organic choices into our foodservice operations. Hopefully foundations laid today, will provide the ability to expand organic foodservice programs as the customer demand increases. Something we know is happening now at retail.

The organic customer takes the food they eat seriously. They choose this as lifestyle because they believe this type of food provides the safest, best tasting, and most nutritious option for them. Most are thrilled to see any kind of organic option on the menu when they eat away from home. Even though it might not be evident, your efforts will be much appreciated.

You now have www.GreenFoodservices.com to provide assistance in finding organic foodservice choices. We want to solve these problems and get organic foodservice products to the customer. Please use our service so we can build the program!