Top Tea News of 2017

The top World Tea News stories of 2017 reflect readership interest in a broad range of story topics, from retail struggles to new taxes in India. The most popular story topics among World Tea News readers were: Starbucks’ plight with its Teavana stores, data on the ready-to-drink tea market, India’s new goods and services tax, the political unrest in Darjeeling and how it affected the tea harvest, and innovation in the tea industry. World Tea Awards and Global Tea Championship results also drew large audiences. Here’s a look the five most-read items of the year.

Starbucks Has a Teavana Problem (and Tea Industry Responds to Teavana Opportunity)

The keen interest in the closing of all of Starbucks’ 379 Teavana stores results reveals a strong interest in the modern challenges facing even a large, corporate brick-and-mortar retailer. Perhaps, too, there’s opportunity in this ever-evolving digital age and there just might be tidbits of knowledge from the Teavana tale.

RTD Tea Market Is Growing Faster Than Soda

There was consistent interest throughout the year in how bottled tea is outpacing and in many cases replacing soda. Millennials are contributing to this trend as the market reflects their choices.

India Sets 5% GST for Tea and Darjeeling Tea Stocks Soon Depleted

The strong interest in the stories about the protests in Darjeeling and their impact on tea availability, and in the story about India’s new goods and services tax, serve as reminders that the cultivation and exporting of tea make up the tea industry’s backbone and any issues in these areas ripple across the globe.

Innovation in the Tea Industry

Innovation in the tea industry fascinated readers as products such as aerosol tea and wine-infused tea emerged as just a couple of the original ideas that represent the tea community’s ingenuity. And the winners are: Readers were also attentive to which tea companies prevailed in the World Tea Awards and in the Global Tea Championship rounds in February, May and September. Both competitions are indicators of quality and of emerging tea industry influencers.