Content about Tea

LOS ANGELES — Tea of a Kind, a tea beverage company, announced today a wide distribution expansion into retail pharmacies, grocery stores and supermarkets in Northern California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and more.

The product, which recently won Best Ready-to-Drink Tea Beverage at the 2012 Interbev Awards in Las Vegas, utilizes a "Gizmo Closure and Delivery System," a cap technology, which holds fresh, functional ingredients in a nitrogen pressurized chamber until the point of consumption, the company stated.

HOUSTON — A new website features gourmet tea and coffee products.

GourmetCafeSpot.com, owned by Texas-based Internet company Pagee Distributing, features such coffee and tea products as tea pots, water kettles, coffee grinders and roasters, coffee machines, espresso machines, tea and coffee blends.

Sales of ready-to-drink teas may have slowed, but new introductions will continue to fuel the category. A recent Mintel report forecasts a sales increase of 18% from 2012 to 2017 for the segment.

Lemonade-and-tea drinks — sometimes called “Arnold Palmers” —  have become more popular with consumers. Arizona Beverage Co.’s Arnold Palmer line had strong growth last year, and Snapple and Sweet Leaf both launched lemonade-and-tea beverages.

LOS ANGELES — Reed's has expanded its portfolio to include an organic kombucha beverage.

Reed's Culture Club Kombucha will be introduced in four, ginger-based formulas: Goji ginger, cranberry ginger, lemon raspberry ginger and hibiscus grapefruit ginger.

ATLANTA — Coca-Cola’s Honest Tea brand began the rollout of its Not Too Sweet Tea, a traditional sweet tea with 40% less sugar and calories than the leading sweet teas. The new addition to Honest Tea’s lineup is brewed with organic black tea leaves and is sweetened with “just a tad” (25 g) of organic cane sugar and organic stevia. Each 16.9-fl.-oz. bottle contains 100 calories, compared with leading brands of sweet tea, which contain an average of 43 g of sugar and 174 calories per 16.9-fl.-oz. bottle.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — Pure Leaf Iced Tea is gearing up for a new campaign.

NEW YORK — One of the advantages to independent pharmacies' small scale is their ability to forge their own identities and invent new store formats in a way that might be harder for a national or regional chain.

New York, with its famously competitive pharmacy market and diverse population, has long been a hotspot for new store formats, and one of the products of this dynamic environment is Tisane Pharmacy, located in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Numi Organic Tea has introduced five new tea blends to its existing lineup of Pu-erh organic tea.

Coconut, cardamom, basil mint, jasmine and ginger flavors join the emperor's and chocolate Pu-erh teas. All of Numi's tea blends are 100% organic and are made with premium, full-leaf tea and real fruit, herbs and spices.

The new Numi Pu-erh teas will be sold for a suggested retail price of $7.99 to $9.99.

PURCHASE, N.Y. — Brisk is gearing up for the 3-D theatrical release of "Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace" with limited-edition packaging and a campaign.

NEW YORK — Michelob Ultra is set to enter the hard teas and lemonade category, according to an AdAge report.

The low-calorie beer brand is slated to launch Ultra 19th Hole Light Tea and Lemonade, which will tout 4% alcohol by volume and 140 calories per can.

Michelob Ultra currently markets such flavored beers as lime cactus, pomegranate raspberry and dragon fruit peach.

BOULDER, Colo. — Celestial Seasonings has boosted its portfolio to include new beverages for its green tea and wellness tea lines.

Celestial Seasonings' green tea lineup now includes goji berry pomegranate and peach blossom natural antioxidant green teas, while the brand's wellness tea lineup now includes MetaboBalance and LaxaTea flavors.

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J. — Lipton has kicked off an initiative that underscores the brand's efforts to source all of its tea from sustainably managed farms, with the goal of having all of its tea come from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by 2015.