Two years of COVID reset tea consumption at restaurants and cafés, initially reinforcing traditional expectations of comfort and warmth but evolving to permanently disrupt delivery, takeaway, menu choices, and celebratory occasions with tea.

Two years of COVID reset tea consumption at restaurants and cafés, initially reinforcing traditional expectations of comfort and warmth but evolving to permanently disrupt delivery, takeaway, menu choices, and celebratory occasions with tea. Tea (except for bubble tea) largely missed out on the rapid growth of restaurant-quality food delivery, curbside service, and take-out. Beverage service in downtown offices, sales at transit terminals, and inner-city stands remain below pre-pandemic levels. Retail vendors offering afternoon tea at tourist locations, iced tea at sports venues, and food trucks selling teas and juice lost sales to homebound tea drinkers purchasing online or near-to-home suburban locations. COVID reversed the sales growth of tea as a breakfast alternative. Independently operated tearooms with few seats and limited financial resources closed, changed owners, or pivoted online. Tea is consumed more frequently at home, and with food inflation rising and costs driving up menu prices, it is clear that in 2022 tea retail will not return to the familiar patterns of yesteryear.

The pandemic continues to exert a heavy hand. Everything is so unpredictable that the best advice for a battered tea segment is to stand pat. If 24 months of turmoil has not bankrupted your venture, now is not the time to exit. Those who qualify should judiciously spend government assistance and wait.

Above all, don’t sell out because of Omicron. Retail sales of tea are stubbornly reliable during periods of crisis. Demand for conventional black tea may be flat in developed countries, but tea consumption has more than doubled to 6.4 billion kilos since 2000 — per capita consumption held at 400 grams per capita. According to the Tea Association of the USA, the US tea market grew in 2021 and is now valued at more than $13 billion. Please click here to read the original article.