In an engaging recent book, writer Tom
Standage sought to tell “A History of the
World in Six Glasses” by showing how beverages
like coffee, tea and beer played integral
roles in the key ages of mankind. By a similar
act of reductionism, I think it’s possible to tour
the broader world of beverages simply through a
bottle of iced tea. The rich range of possibilities
afforded by tea – and the concomitant opportunity
for new entries in what might otherwise
seem to be an exhausted segment – strikes me as
quite extraordinary.
This was driven home to me a few weeks ago
when a shrewd wholesaler I know, High Grade’s
Guy Battaglia in New Jersey, insisted I check out
a new brand he was carrying called Alexander’s
Real Iced Tea. Guy was one of the first distributors
to carry AriZona back in the early 1990s
and more recently has aggressively worked
Honest Tea, so I’ve learned never to fault his instincts.
Yet Alexander’s seemed unprepossessing:
nicely brewed tea, but stock bottle, Okay label,
standard array of flavors, picture of its young
founder on the back panel. What else is new?
When I finally got to meet the founder (last
name Krosnowski, so I understand “Alexander’s”)
at an event it was clear he was garnering
traction for the brand by high-spirited force
of personality, his visibly local connections and
sheer hard work. In any other category I’m not
sure that would suffice, but tea confers all kinds
of advantages: it’s positioned as alternative yet
accessible, is clearly derived from natural sources
(as opposed to most energy drinks and functional
beverages) and draws upon a rich nostalgic
tradition. It also seems to stimulate consumers’
garage-startup fantasies (“I could do that!”).
That’s not to even mention the spate of recent
health news on the ingredient. All this gives an
otherwise mundane idea like Alexander’s a fighting
chance to carve out at least a regional niche.
That’s just the beginning in this category,
which serves as a platform for excursions into all
kinds of other realms. As “Tea Tells Many Tales”
outlines elsewhere in this issue, teas are available
in a wide range of varieties and can also serve as
the familiar base for drinks that play in other
segments, too. Meanwhile, venerable brands like
Lipton, Nestea and Tetley can only reach so far
up the intrigue scales. And after it descended
into discounting hell and took an innovation
vacation, it remains to be seen whether Snapple’s
more recent push into premium realms will be
enough to get that brand back on track. Even
AriZona has thrived mainly at the value end
lately. With consumers showing a remarkable
interest in ferreting out niche items, that seems
to create any number of openings for new entrants.
So what are some of these?
At the gourmet end, I suspect that unsweetened
or lightly sweetened brands like Honest
Tea, Ito-En and Republic of Tea are about to
garner considerably broader – and younger –
audiences than the conventional wisdom would
have it. I look among my daughter’s high school
friends and see a sizable minority eschewing
the more sugary Vitaminwater for brands like
Honest Tea or Tea’s Tea, and without bridling
at prices approaching $2, either. Nor do I see
why a gourmet audience won’t be enamored of
such top-shelf new entries as Harney & Sons’
bottled line.
Tea is also insinuating itself into CSDs.
Steaz has fared well with its green-tea-based
better-for-you sodas and Cricket even tries to
play off Americans’ cola addiction with its green
tea cola.
Then there’s a broad range of functional versions.
I’ve been enthusiastic for some time about
tea-based energy drinks targeting the majority of
American consumers who’re alienated by the ingredients
and positioning of conventional energy
drinks. So far, entries like AriZona Green Tea
Energy and Inko’s Energy haven’t quite ignited,
and some observers believe that green tea – with
its connotation of relaxation – fundamentally
fights the idea of energy. I still think somebody’s
going to figure it out, if not AriZona, Inko or
Steaz, then some new brand.
Maybe it will be one of these yerba mate
brands that seem to be rising on consumers’ radar
with surprising speed. Even a guy like me,
who mainly hangs around in relatively mainstream
haunts has begun to run into folks imbibing
mate through a traditional gourd and
bombilla straw. That suggests that brands like
Guayaki and Bombilla Gourd could prove more
than a bleeding-edge phenomenon. It also suggests
that, as so often is the case, consumers may
be running a little ahead of those of us who actually
are in the business. It will be fun to see who
succeeds in figuring out precisely what their cup
– or gourd – of tea is in coming years.