Food Shorts: Tea Consumption on the Decrease & Increase

Friday 13 July 2012

Tea Consumption on the Decrease & Increase

Confused? According to figures from Mintel and the Food & Agriculture Organisation, tea consumption in the UK is both declining and increasing depending on which type of tea you are talking about. English Breakfast still accounts for the largest share of the bagged tea market, at 70%. However, sales of these tea bags dropped by 1.5% between 2010 and 2011. Meanwhile, in the last two years sales of green tea have gone up to 83%, herbal and fruit teas 12%, while decaffeinated tea has risen by 12%.

On top of this, afternoon tea has seen a serious resurgence across all age groups. Coffee is ever popular and independent coffee shops, along with the big chains are still popping up everywhere. However, if you are not providing speciality teas in your café, restaurant, visitor catering facility, university and employee catering facilities then both your bottom line and your customers are likely to be missing out. If you also want to provide good value, make it leaf tea – there are now so many ways of serving this in a quality yet convenient way!