A recent trend that I am fortunate to witness brewing whilst working with our product and customers is the rise of herbal teas.
In the past people would rely on anecdotal stories handed down from grannies and moms – stories of certain herbs steeped in hot water and when consumed the resultant beverage would treat a certain ailment. Pregnant mums for example would come through the store here at Apollo drive clearly in their final trimester – and purchase Raspberry Leaf herbal tea. Those keen on Rooibos tea would purchase their favourite variation because of the flavour but also because Rooibos is generally known for being rich in antioxidants and is also caffeine-free. Local herbalists purchase the Manuka and Flower Detox tea as well as the Ginger Kawakawa Spice tea for their purported healing properties. And of course let’s not forget chamomile tea – a well-known sleeping aid.
Whilst we were seeing this groundswell of a trend towards functional herbal teas in our store here in Auckland, this trend was confirmed by Anna Salek who recently attended the Sydney Tea Festival. There tea merchants were focused primarily on providing customers with teas that perform a certain function: sleeping tea; detox tea; energising tea; focus tea among many others.
As consumers become more and more conscious of not only where their chosen food and drink originates from and how it is sourced and prepared, they are also becoming more aware of what they are consuming and how it may or may not help them functionally. And because tea is the most consumed beverage in the world after water, the entire tea category is certainly being affected and influenced by what I call: conscious consumerism.
While we at TEA TOTAL are not nutritionists or scientific professionals able to give advice or prescribe certain teas to treat ailments and the like, we are professionals at understanding how our products perform and can say that we stock the products we stock because they taste great. Anything outside of that is a bonus.
On that note however, I am reminded of a quote: “Let food be your medicine and not medicine be your food.”
And since tea has been around for 4000 years, I reckon it is a safe bet.
For our herbal tea range – visit the following link: http://www.teatotal.co.nz/teas-infusions/herbal-tea
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