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How To Enhance Your Tea Drinking Experience
How much do your customers enjoy drinking tea?
Do they rave about how amazing the experience and atmosphere is or do they rush in, get their cup of tea and go?
Enhancing the tea drinking experience of your customers is one of the best investments you can make for your business.
How To Get Started
Freshen up the decor
What does your space currently look like?
Regardless of the flavor or type, most people regard drinking tea as a relaxing experience and some people use it as a form of indulgent release or meditation.
So, if you're going to give your customers the best tea drinking experience possible, you need your space to reflect the emotions they feel when drinking their tea. Having a sterile, chrome and plastic fitted store is going to kill the vibe of anyone looking to come in and relax in your store, and a bland, office-esque furniture look isn't going to do you any favors either.
Focus on more calming, nature inspired pieces. Look into bringing in more plants to your store, incorporating warmer colors and lights, you could also try incorporating wooden furniture as well. All these changes help make your customers feel relaxed and the more relaxing your space is, the longer they want to stay in it, which means, the more money spent during their visit.
Bonus points if you can get your decor to match the types of the teas you're offering, if your business focuses on a type of tea, you can tailor your decor to reflect it.
Serve high quality teas
Not all teas are made equal and some are definitely better than others.
Now, we admit that ‘better’ is a very subjective term, but when it comes to tea, the quality of your tea does make all the difference in how much your customers enjoy their experience.
Consider switching to loose leaf teas. They provide richer flavors when compared to tea bags and steep a delicious cup. Also, take advantage of multiple blends and flavors when choosing your teas. There's a lot more to the tea world than simple black and green teas, experiment and try all the tea world has to offer to provide your customers with options they will love.
Steep your tea properly
The major factor that determines which types of teas have longer shelf lives is the oxidation process. Seeing as all teas come from the same plant, the Camellia Sinensis, the way the teas are processed makes all the difference in their shelf life.
Temperature
Oxidation refers to how long the tea leaves are left to absorb oxygen after being plucked, the oxygen they absorb reacts with enzymes within the leaves, this reaction is responsible for all the different colors and flavors in teas.
Water
Use fresh, boiled water for the best tasting teas as water that has been reboiled (boiled, left to cool and then boiled again) will lose most of its oxygen content. Wherever possible, use natural spring or filtered water with low mineral content as this will interfere the least with the flavor of your teas.
Timing
How long do you let your tea leaves steep before drinking?
How long do you let your tea leaves steep before drinking? Tea bags require a lot less time than loose leaf teas to infuse due to their smaller size and larger surface area. Of all the teas, black teas take the longest, needing about 3-5 minutes to fully infuse. Oolong teas usually need 3-4 minutes and green teas only need 2-3 minutes to fully infuse.
Pair your tea with food
Think about high teas in gardens or a luxury afternoon tea experience in hotels, what do they both have in common? They offer something to go alongside the tea. Enjoying a bite of something sweet or savory with your tea can make for an enhanced experience. Afterall, every single successful coffee shop does this… exactly, every single successful shop does this. Tea is indulgent, but the vast majority of the public aren't going to go to your restaurant, cafe or store, only to sit down to sip a cup of tea. You need to pair it with something else, this not only makes the experience more enjoyable and increases the amount of products you can sell, it also gives them more of a reason to visit your store. It's no longer just a cup of tea, it's now a light lunch, a quick breakfast or the perfect setting for a first date. The best way to execute this is by collaborating with a local bakery to create signature pieces for your business. This is a great way to start small and slowly grow into something bigger, keeping costs down as you grow your business. Who knows, your yummy offerings could become the major wow factor bringing people to your business, what have you got to lose.
Conclusion
Tea is a wonderfully indulgent… and profitable drink. By maximizing the enjoyment your customers get out of your teas and the atmosphere you create, you can’t go wrong. Give some of these tips a try and let us know which ones made the biggest difference for your business.