-By Bridget Goldschmidt

With U.S. tea sales in the United States poised to surpass $10 billion in 2010 for both beverage and nonbeverage categories, according to The Specialty Tea Is "Hot" Report, the ancient beverage is indeed hotter than ever -- even in its iced version. As a result, the World Tea Expo, which is slated for May 30 to June 1 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, has created an Executive & Technical Series (ETS) to help participants leverage the demand by keeping abreast of changing consumer tastes and industry trends.

The program, which debuts May 30 to May 31, will provide key information and statistics to top executives, research and development scientists, product formulators, and ingredient managers who use tea in both beverage and nonbeverage applications.

What's brewing

The series will kick off with a Super Data Session featuring presentations from data and consumer trend specialists Mintel, the International Tea Committee, SPINS, and Canadean. The session will give participants insight into new applications and emerging trends, including food and nonfood product applications and functional benefits, tea and RTD tea growth, consumer buying trends, consumption in the context of other beverages, and world production statistics.

Following the data session will be a series of technical sessions addressing such topics as the analytical truth behind advertised polyphenol counts, regulatory issues, flavoring trends, and product formulation.

"The need for high-level content on how to create, launch, label, protect, and market new beverage and nonbeverage tea products has never existed until recently," says World Tea Expo founder and president George Jage, who presented the first show in 2003 as the Take Me 2 Tea Expo. It was rebranded the World Tea Expo two years later, to more accurately reflect its growth, scope, and position in the international tea industry.

Additionally, hot and iced teas from around the world will be judged and rated by professional tea tasters at the inaugural World Tea Championship, another new feature of the show.

All teas submitted for the championship will receive a World Tea Rating, providing the tea industry with a rating system like that used by the wine industry. Similar to wine, weather, soil conditions, manufacturing processes, craftsmanship, and the skill of masters and blenders all affect tea characteristics.

Listing the ratings of all championship entries, separated into iced and hot tea classes,The World Tea Buyers Guide will be distributed at the show to all attendees.

In the Hot Tea Class, 24 categories will be judged, along with three Super Categories, reflecting the best-known and most popular tea types, blends, and herbals, among them Jasmine Green Tea, Earl Grey, Silver Needle White Tea, and Rooibos. The 24 hot tea categories must fall within a set manufacturer's suggested retail price, and will be commercially available at the World Tea Expo. The Super Categories comprise just three types of tea (black, oolong, and green), have no pricing restriction, and must be of a single origin.

Hot Tea Class entries will be prequalified and prejudged blind before the opening of the World Tea Expo by professional tea tasters. Through the prejudging process, all entries will receive a World Tea Rating. The five highest-rated teas will be further evaluated during the show to determine the best teas of 2008 in each category.

The Iced Tea Class is organized by market applications and sales channels. The three categories are ready-to-drink, foodservice, and freestyle, focused on the grocer, restaurant, and independent tea shop, respectively.

Other brand-new expo features this year include the New Business Boot Camp, a two-day intensive program designed specifically to teach new tea room owners how to run a successful business from the start; Skill Building Workshops on professional tea cupping, blending teas and herbal infusions, and brewing and serving hot and iced tea; and Super Workshops on tea and chocolate pairing and the "Way of Tea." The latter Super Workshop will include the basics on how to perform a tea ceremony and how to objectively discern the quality of matcha (powdered green tea) through science-based and sensory tests.

Produced by Las Vegas-based SFG Group, LLC, the World Tea Expo is the first and fastest-growing North American trade show dedicated solely to the tea industry.

EXCLUSIVE WEB CONTENT

Coffee with sugar

Maximus Coffee Group, a coffee processor, packager and marketer, and Imperial Sugar Co., one of the largest U.S. processors and marketers of refined sugar, have entered into a brokerage agreement that will permit Maximus to gain a stronger foothold in the North American retail grocery market.

Houston-based Maximus is focused on forming partnerships with third-party companies to develop private label coffee programs.

As part of the deal, any future business Maximus does with retail grocers, by way of introduction from Imperial Sugar, will entitle the sugar company to a portion of the revenue, the partners say.

"Maximus does a great deal of business with several U.S. retail chains, but we are always looking for creative ways to increase our market share," says Maximus president Carlos de Aldecoa. "Our agreement with a well-branded supplier like Imperial Sugar is unique and will allow us to increase the breadth and depth of our strategic sales effort."

"This agreement demonstrates Imperial Sugar's commitment to value creation by diversifying revenue streams via strategic industry partnerships," notes John Sheptor, president and c.e.o. of Sugar Land, Texas-based Imperial Sugar. "By leveraging Imperial's extensive network of contacts within the food and beverage industries, Maximus will have enhanced opportunities to create business relationships that will benefit both of our companies."


Caffe Sanora gets personal

Starting this month, Caffe Sanora Natural Antioxidant Coffee is including in select bags a small card introducing some of the coffee pickers and organic coffee gardeners at the family farm in Honduras on which the Austin, Texas-based company's coffee is produced.

The cards will direct consumers to www.sanoraexperience.com, where they can find interviews, testimonials, and educational videos on what makes Caffe Sanora a Rainforest Alliance coffee. The New York-based organization ensures fair wages and safe conditions for the company's workers, according to Caffe Sanora.

"We're calling the program 'Sanora Vida,' showcasing life in Central America and recognizing the people that make Caffe Sanora a proud Rainforest Alliance product," notes Caffe Sanora director of marketing Jackson Zapp. "Without these people, we wouldn't have a company. Each bag will pay tribute to our family of workers, and, on top of that, consumers will receive a 50-cents-off-purchase coupon as a thank-you for being a loyal customer."

Caffe Sanora is the only coffee to employ Healthy Roastä, a patented roasting process that allows coffee beans to retain most of the antioxidants lost in conventional high-heat roasting.