Selling tea at farmers markets

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Jan 9th, '18, 05:00
Posts: 1
Joined: Jan 9th, '18, 04:47

Selling tea at farmers markets

by Ciphrr » Jan 9th, '18, 05:00

Hi,

I am planning on starting to sell brewed tea at farmers markets. The main obstacles I see are :

1. Different teas have different brewing times, how to overcome this?
2. Re: point 1, if I brew the tea beforehand and sell from heated urns, I figure this greatly affect flavour. Or am I wrong? (the reason for this is, if it becomes busy it will become hectic if I have 10 or more orders and have to wait for brewing to finish.)
3. I am thinking only 4 basic teas (1 black, 1 green, 1 tisane, 1 "tea of the day"). What do you think of this?
4. Is there someone here that already does this?

Thank you so much for your inputs!

Jan 10th, '18, 20:29
Posts: 756
Joined: Aug 4th, '14, 05:43

Re: Selling tea at farmers markets

by Bok » Jan 10th, '18, 20:29

Ciphrr wrote: 1. Different teas have different brewing times, how to overcome this?
You can’t.
Ciphrr wrote: 2. Re: point 1, if I brew the tea beforehand and sell from heated urns, I figure this greatly affect flavour. Or am I wrong? (the reason for this is, if it becomes busy it will become hectic if I have 10 or more orders and have to wait for brewing to finish.)
You will have to decide what kind of business you want to be, one that cares about tea and is hence slow. Or one that is efficient and neglects what a good cup of tea should be. There are business in Taiwan that sell bottled take-away tea, but brewed freshly in gong fu style. That takes time, so if there are lots of customers you have to wait. They just have lots of pots set up at the same time. Depending on your skills you can brew a few at the time.

Heated urns will let the tea continue to brew and oxidise. You can test how that affects the taste. Only some teas can take that treatment without tasting awful. None of them will taste good in the end. You can go Turkish with Samowar style brewing.
Ciphrr wrote: 3. I am thinking only 4 basic teas (1 black, 1 green, 1 tisane, 1 "tea of the day"). What do you think of this?
Green is probably the most unsuitable for this kind of format. Tisane should be ok.

Another thing to consider, depending on the weather, brewing outside will greatly be affected by it. Not easy.

Jan 13th, '18, 10:47
Posts: 20
Joined: Jul 8th, '14, 16:48

Re: Selling tea at farmers markets

by JAndrews2 » Jan 13th, '18, 10:47

Masala chai is also an option. You can make it all at once in large quantities (I've never done it on the scale you're talking, but I know people that do), and the quality of tea is much less important than the choice of other ingredients and the skill of the brewer.

Jan 13th, '18, 11:14
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Re: Selling tea at farmers markets

by Zared » Jan 13th, '18, 11:14

Theres no reason to carefully brew tea one at a time in teapots unless your planning to serve it in porcelain/ceramic cups. Just make your own teabags.

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