Tea Business 101: How To Store, Steep, and Serve Tea

As a tea business owner, ensuring that your customers enjoy the best tea experience is crucial for your reputation and sales. Whether you're running a café, restaurant, or wholesale tea business, the proper storage, steeping, and serving of tea will elevate the quality and flavor of your offerings. In today's video, Brendan from TeaVendor shares his top tips to help you optimize the tea experience for your clients.

1. Storing Your Tea: Keep it Fresh and Flavorful

Proper tea storage is essential to maintaining the quality and freshness of your teas, especially in a commercial setting. Here are Brendan’s key recommendations:

- Store Tea in a Dark Place: Exposure to UV light can degrade the quality of your tea, affecting its taste and aroma. Make sure your tea is stored in opaque containers or a dark cabinet.
- Avoid Strong Flavors: Tea absorbs the aromas around it. Store your tea away from spices, coffee, or other strong-smelling ingredients to preserve its natural flavor.
- Temperature Control: Tea can be safely stored at temperatures up to 100°F. However, certain teas, such as matcha and steamed green teas, should be kept at room temperature to maintain their delicate flavors.
- Watch for Pests: Make sure your tea storage is secure and clean to prevent pests like insects or rodents from contaminating your stock.
- Decorative Teas: While decorative tea can enhance the aesthetic of your shop, Brendan recommends keeping decorative teas purely for decoration and not for serving to customers, as they may not be fresh or suitable for consumption.
- Avoid Metal Containers: Be cautious when storing reactive teas (like green or white teas) in metal containers, as this can affect their flavor. Opt for non-reactive materials such as ceramic or glass instead.

2. Steeping Tea: The Perfect Brew Every Time

Steeping tea is an art that can vary depending on the type of tea and how it's served. TeaVendor suggests the following guidelines to ensure you get the best flavor for your customers:

- Follow TeaVendor Recommendations: Each tea type has specific brewing instructions, and it’s important to follow the recommended water temperature, steeping time, and tea-to-water ratio for each variety.
- Use a Steeping Chart: Having a handy steeping chart can help your staff maintain consistency, especially during busy times.
- Check out our TeaVendor Steeping Chart on TeaVendor.com
- Experiment with Steeping: Feel free to experiment with different steeping methods to discover unique flavors and combinations. Encourage your customers to try varying steeping times and temperatures to find their personal preference.
- Tailor Tea Selection to Your Business: Choose teas based on the pace of your business. For instance, quicker-steeping teas may be ideal for busy lunch hours, while more complex teas can be highlighted during slower periods.
- Brewing Iced Tea: For a refreshing iced tea, use 1.5 to 2 times the amount of tea leaves to compensate for dilution from ice.

3. Serving Tea: A Touch of Elegance

How you serve your tea can leave a lasting impression on your customers. Here are Brendan’s tips for enhancing the tea-drinking experience:
- Prewarm Your Cup: Borrowing a tip from the coffee industry, Brendan suggests prewarming your tea cups before serving. This prevents the tea from cooling too quickly and keeps the flavor at its best.
- Add Fresh Ingredients: For an extra touch, consider adding fresh fruits, herbs, or other garnishes to your teas. For example, adding slices of citrus or berries to iced teas can create a visually appealing and flavorful drink.

By following these expert tips, you can ensure that your tea offerings remain high-quality and that your customers enjoy every cup. Brendan’s insights can help business owners take their tea service to the next level, building a loyal customer base that keeps coming back for more.