

World Tea Expo Day 2 Part 2-


The class I went to was "Riches in Niches" presented by Founder and CEO of Tea Drunk- Shunan Teng.
Tea Drunk is a New York based tea house specializing in Chinese tea and preserving Chinese tea traditions. She has spoken and Yale and Stoney Brook University. She even worked with the MET on a temporary teahouse in the museum. She has also been featured in a TEDed talk regarding the history of tea.
The take aways from her talk:
Having a specialized business can give you more opportunities. However, there are challenges when you start a business by yourself.
Challenges:
- Not having a team
- Resources
- No one to delegate responsibilities to
Think about your resources:
- Money- a limitation for all business owners
- Speciality- in my case, CBD blended tea sourced from small farms
- Geography- If you have a brick and mortar, you need high visibility with a foot traffic advantage.
- Network- people from work, the restaurant world, friends, and family
Just like wine, tea is the product of location. Location sells and is what contributes to the price of tea.
- Know your top terrior, those teas cost $5-$10 an ounce
- Orthodox teas and non-blended tea have their own niche market
- Organic does not be premium. It means the tea farm has a sizable scale to afford the certification label.
- Know where your tea is sourced
- Stay true to your brand. Don't have an identity crisis. Specialize don't generalize.
- Be innovative
Think about how you are marketing your tea. What is your role?
- Producer
- Tea Expert
- Industry Expert
- Packager
- Restauranteur
- Health Guru
- Cultural Ambassador
How are you making your business known
- B2B
- Internet
- Brick and Mortar