Souvia Tea Blog

Both Souvia locations will be closed July 4th in honor of Independence Day. 

However, July 2-7th we’ll be featuring our Red, White, and Blue Teas at 20% off.

Enjoy a safe 4th of July Holiday….

Gail, Bret and Kerstin successfully completed the Black Tea portion of the Specialty Tea Institute’s Certification Program.  This intensive series of courses seek to allow Tea Purveyors to expand their tea knowledge and demonstrate that knowledge via an examination at the end.

To our customers it means that you can rely on Souvia to always have up-to-date information on tea sources, processing, health benefits, and to put it to use to help you choose the right tea!

It’s Over!  The Expo and the level 3 Certification.  We’ll all be back in Arizona by tomorrow.  Here’s how this expo stacked up

 80,000 - the number of steps we took at this weeks activities!

350 - the number of tea and teaware suppliers we visited this week

104 - the numbers of teas we cupped in the last few days

75 - hours spent in training by Gail, bret and Kerstin

15 - the number of letters in a typical Sri Lankan last name

1 - the cool tea gadget we found

 Looking forward to getting back, seeing you all, and sharing what we learned!

 Bret, Gail, Kerstin

We tasted a *lot* of teas today focusing on the Sri Lankan (Ceylon) and Indian teas.   The Level III certification includes history, geography and chemistry.  In fact, the Sri Lanakn presentor is a chemist who drew wonderful diagram of not only the processing equipment but alsom explained the chemistry behind teas taste!  We tasted Assams, Darjeelings, Nilgiris and even a White Tea comparable to silver needle.  Amazing

We all took lots of notes on the material presented

 Every cup is meticuously analyzed as we expand our palates!

 Will try to post more tomorrow!

We have been tasting teas today starting with a focused Sri Lankan tasting and then our usual visits to the various suppliers.  Have found lots of new tea to sample and some of them will be arriving in the fall.  Kerstin attended a lecture on L-theanine from a biochemist while Gail and Bret learned about new ways to prepare iced tea.

Gail, Bret and Kerstin meet with a potential supplier to discuss tea ingredients, flavors, and tea sources.

Gail and Kerstin scoured the floor lookign for new items…  So many Yoixing pots and so little time!

Another great day.  Bret learned about Rooibos from a South African Grower.  A class is in the works.  Kerstin studied the top 10 teas of China as well as the fabulous stories that go with…..  Gail got some great info on how to hone our customer service.

 We tasted more teas!!  Lots of exciting ones will be hitting the stores in the next few months

The hundreds of vendors and suppliers display their wares on on the show floor.

The 2007 World Tea Expo is off to a good start!  In this photo you can see the sprawling Georgia World Congress Building where thousands of tea enthusiasts, purveyors, and suppliers come together.  Kerstin reports that “it is a fantastic experience to be surrounded by tea lovers from around the world”. Bret sat next to the Sri Lankan Tea board President and tasted teas from all over  India.  (He was checking out the competition)
erstin learned of the changes in the Pu-Erh as prices rise driven by increased demand and that shady characters are turning up selling substandard products and cartels are forming to corner the markets.  It reads like a Sopranos episode!
Gail learned about selling to the younger set.  What they like and don’t about this “adult” beverage.  Watch for some innoative tea based drinks in Scottsdale.
We checked out some cool new products that will be making their way to a Souvia shelf near you soon.
Most of all our feet and backs and throats hurt…  we are resting up to reurn tomorrow for another full day. 
Stay tuned….