The rise of remote and hybrid working over the last few years, plus the increasing globalization of business, means we can now meet customers online rather than in person. You might worry this will make it more difficult to engage with them, but holding virtual events is a great way to connect. These often take the form of a tutorial, such as how to start a business, or how to use a particular piece of software.
As a tea industry professional, you’re already well aware of virtual tea tasting sessions. Maybe you’ve even held one before. It’s the ideal opportunity to showcase your teas, tea products and wares, as well as a great way to reach out to new customers around the world. And, happily, we’re spoilt for choice when it comes to tech platforms that make it easy to hold mini events and programs online.
However, there might be a few aspects you haven’t thought about. In this article, we’ll do a quick review on virtual tea tasting events and show you some top tips to ensure your next event is a big success.
What Are Virtual Tea Tasting Events?
Let’s begin with a recap of the main features of a virtual tea tasting event. These are a great way to bring luxury, hotel-style tea tasting events to the comfort and familiarity of your guests’ homes (and to your home or offices, too, of course).
Just like most other online events, tea tasting classes consist of a host, a series of participants and a central theme, and they take place via a video conferencing platform.
One advantage of organizing one of these events is the possibility of involving people from across the world. The host, for example, might be launching the event from their home or headquarters in Canada, while other participants might be dialing in from an NZ domain or other international domains.
Typically, a virtual tea tasting class might include the following phases (but choosing the agenda or “flow” of the virtual tea tasting event is up to you):
- Initial welcome speech by the host
- Introduction to the tea tasting theme (more on this later)
- Description of the different types of teas featured in the tasting event
- Description of the history, brewing techniques or regional insights on specific tea types
Here’s a reminder of the benefits of hosting (or attending) this type of event:
- Improving engagement with your audience
- A way to touch base with your customers
- Promoting your product to a wider audience
- The opportunity to position your brand as a thought leader in the tea industry
Now, let’s jump straight into the tips for how to organize a virtual tea tasting event that will wow your guests and leave a long-lasting impression.
Virtual Tea Tasting Events: Your Plan
Once you have decided to run a virtual tea-tasting event for your business, you’ll need to consider these key areas:
- The number of guests
- The video chat or video conferencing platform that you are going to use
- The number and type of teas
- The overarching theme of the event and the key messages you want to share
- The length of the event
- Whether or not the event will take place during working days/hours
- Whether or not you will also provide any food pairings
Then, proceed by either purchasing or asking your attendees to purchase all the essential items that will enable them to truly enjoy their tea tasting event. These include, of course, any specific loose-leaf teas or tea bags, tools of the trade, and any snacks or foods that you will use for pairings.
Choose Your Preferred Tea Tasting Theme
Not all tea tasting experiences are created equal – and this applies to virtual ones, too. So, before you move forward, do some research. Make sure that you’re aware of some of the other available options (so you can compare and contrast) and so you can create the best event that your customers will genuinely enjoy.
Below are four ideas and suggestions for virtual tea tastings, but the options are, of course, endless. You’ll certainly come up with a creative theme that best suits your business, brand and expertise in the tea industry.
1. Around the World in a Cup of Tea
Perhaps a “Teas of the World” theme could work particularly well if you want to highlight the teas you offer from different tea-growing regions. In fact, if you are hosting clients and potential customers from around the world, hosting this kind of tea tasting event will undoubtedly pique their interest and make them eager to participate. You might even want to consider some rare or truly unique teas, if possible.
2. Tasting and Decorating
How about combining the invigorating, indulgent act of drinking a delicious, freshly brewed cup of tea with a spot of art and creativity? Let your attendees’ imagination run free as they mindfully sip and taste different teas out of their favorite mug – while at the same time decorating a blank mug that you have sent them for the occasion. While everyone is enjoying their tea and mini project, you could give a presentation and open the conversation with a Q&A.
3. Mindful Tea
Meditation and relaxation can really enhance your virtual tea tasting events. If you opt for this theme, you might want to involve someone who is either a mindfulness expert, a yoga teacher or a similar expert with solid knowledge of and experience in guided meditation. Want to do it yourself? Then, make sure you find a suitable guided meditation for your attendees to experience. Be sure to couple the experience with tea and conversation (or a wrap-up overview of your tea offerings).
4. Discovering Bubble Tea
Will you and your guests be up for a bit of fun? Then how about a virtual bubble tea tasting event? Your customers will have heard the name, but they might not know that this tea style is also known as boba or how it’s made – and that it can include premium or specialty tea.
Because it’s usually best to enjoy bubble tea cold, this makes it the perfect tea tasting theme for the summer months. Again, you can decide whether to send your participants all the necessary items for their bubble tea or ask them to purchase their own kits individually.
Consider the Best Teas for Your Virtual Tasting
Now that you’ve picked your favorite theme for your tea tasting event (I’m sure you’ll come up with something wonderful and creative that ties into your brand), it’s time to decide which teas you will be (virtually) offering. Although it might be tempting to showcase everything you have in your online or brick and mortar store, you don’t want to overwhelm your guests – or make the event too long or complicated.
It’s better to choose around three or four of your best-selling teas, which will allow everyone to fully appreciate and learn about what they’re tasting (and you don’t want them to have to purchase too much, if you’re not sending out the product complimentary). If this event is a success, there will be plenty of future opportunities to present more of your product range at a future virtual tasting.
So, which teas should you start with? You’ll be catering to a diverse range of tastes, so it’s a good idea to do a mix of tea types. You could offer one green, one black, an oolong and a herbal blend such as hibiscus. If you’re considering food pairings, put some thought into which flavors will complement each other.
It’s also worth bringing out something unique for the tasting, to ensure your event (and your brand) stand out from the rest. For instance, if you sell a lot of tea from a particular region, you could do a virtual tour of that region, linking each cup to information about the area and the local culture. If you’re constantly launching new tea products, why not focus on the latest trends in tea instead? Whatever your theme, make sure it relates to you and your brand.
Create Your Guest List and Send Out Invites
The next steps on your tea-tasting to-do list are choosing who to invite and when to host the virtual event. Finally, you will also need to send out invites and reminders closer to the event.
When creating your guest list, be sure to consider:
- Potential professional or personal commitments of the attendees
- Your attendees’ time zones and any potential clashes with yours (and with each other’s)
- Do you want to invite your entire database or just a selection of customers? Or, do you want to open the invite to the world via social media (this works well for business to consumer businesses (B2B), but you may want to be more select with your invites if you’re a business to business (B2B) tea company)?
Prepare for the Event
You don't need to be a super tech expert in complex things to pull your event off, but a bit of technology knowhow can help you a lot with your virtual tasting. Make sure you’re familiar with the top remote work tools and practice with them in advance.
It’s important to ensure all your attendees have the correct link and any other meeting details they might need (this includes meeting names, passwords, and all security information). Sounds basic, but it’s critical and sometimes little details can be overlooked). Then, you might want to run a quick check that your connection is in good shape before you launch the event – even do a test run. Running an efficient meeting or event involves ensuring that both your audio and your video quality are top-notch, as well.
Importantly, you’ll also want to make sure that your attendees will have a clear view of your own tea tasting station. It is particularly crucial if you are offering lots of different types of teas, as your guests will want and need to look at how you prepare and consume them. Also, make sure that whatever platform you use for the virtual tea tasting, the event is seamless for all groups of attendees.
Lastly, once everyone has joined the event, remember to ask them to mute their microphones. It is essential if you want to be able to run a smooth event. Of course, once the floor is open to questions, comments, and feedback, people can “raise their hand” (virtually) and interact with you and with each other.
The latter is a very important aspect of your virtual tea tasting event, regardless of the specific theme that you went for. At the end of the day, you’re looking to create a space where everyone can feel relaxed and comfortable enough to learn something new, informally enjoy themselves, and share their thoughts and impressions.
Connect, Taste and Share: Virtual Tea Tasting Events
Creating and hosting a virtual tea tasting event can be a fantastic and original way to enhance engagement and interactions with existing and potential customers, and showcase your range of teas to a global audience. Even when it’s not possible to meet in person, virtual tea tasting events combine something as sensorial and indulgent as the smell and taste of tea with the amazing connecting power of technology. It really is the best of both worlds. Give it a try if you haven’t already!
Grace Lau is the director of growth content at Dialpad, an AI-powered cloud communication platform for better and easier team collaboration. To learn more about Dialpad and its offerings, visit Dialpad.com.
Plan to Attend or Participate in the
World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023
To learn about other key developments, trends, issues, hot topics and products within the global tea community, plan to attend the World Tea Conference + Expo, March 27-29, 2023 in Las Vegas, co-located with Bar & Restaurant Expo. Visit WorldTeaExpo.com.
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