It may be surprising, but iced tea is a fairly recent development relative to its warmer counterpart. Tea itself has been around as far back as the 3rd Century, first recorded in a medical text written by the famed Chinese physician, Hua Tuo. Although the precise origins are unclear, iced tea was born in 19th Century America. While it at first seemed like a mere novelty, the trend took hold when books such as Buckeye Cookbook by Estelle Woods Wilcox and Housekeeping in Old Virginia by Marion Cabell Tyree published recipes that ultimately popularized the beverage nationwide. Even today, iced tea makes up a majority of tea sales in the United States.

There are few ways to better enjoy the summer months than with a refreshing glass of iced tea. With summer officially arriving on June 21st, June has been dubbed National Iced Tea Month. So, we decided to kick-off the celebration by listing the great flavors and forms of the sometimes sweet drink! In the process, you can also get a little more acquainted with the fantastic line of tea brands provided by Houston’s.

Not just any tea can be made into iced tea. There are certain teas that are optimal for making a truly delicious iced tea, and a few certain brands that know how to get the mixture just right.

Black Tea and Green Tea typically come from the same plants, but the process that follows harvest is slightly different. Before the tea is dried, it is allowed to oxidize, a process in which the tea is exposed to oxygen and is turned into a dark tea. The result is a more fruity or smoky flavor.

Mighty Leaf‘s Organic Breakfast Black Tea promises an aromatic and brisk flavor that can either be enjoyed black, with milk, sugar, or even a touch of honey. And of course this robust blend can easily be brewed with iced tea in mind!

Green Tea follows a very similar process as Black Tea, except that it is immediately dried upon harvest rather than put through oxidization. This preserves the tea’s natural taste, making for flavors that are lighter, nuttier, and more grassy.

Numi Organic Tea’s Green Tea is plucked, dried, pan-fried, and steamed to prevent the oxidization process from taking place. Once the tea is curled, it receives a final firing to seal its spectacular flavor. Gunpowder Green follows this process, except that it is instead rolled into pearls that unfold full-bodied flavor for an excellent afternoon pick-me-up.

Oolong Tea is different from Black Tea and Green Tea because it comes from a completely different plant. However, it can hold certain characteristics from these two teas since it goes through some level of oxidization. The extent of oxidization can vary widely, making Oolong a versatile kind of tea. Oolong Tea is also typically rolled into a variety of shapes that give it even more flavor and aroma possibilities.

ITO EN has taken the Oolong sensation and put it into an easy on-the-go can that is meant to be enjoyed cold. The company has taken full advantage of the tea’s semi-oxidized properties to make an exceptional flavor somewhere between Black and Green Tea.

Herbal Tea, oddly enough, is not actually a tea at all, since it does not come from any particular tea plant. It’s actually a combination of leaves, roots, flowers, and pretty much any plant that isn’t tea. However, the way Herbal Tea is enjoyed places it firmly in the “tea” category, and we’re sure happy it does because it makes for an excellent iced tea.

Two Leaves and a Bud offers the Organic Better Belly Blend, which takes full advantage of Herbal Tea’s wide range of available resources while providing a healthy cup of joy! Ginger, fennel, crisp mint, calendula, and apple join forces to bring us a refreshing tea whether hot or cold.

Fruity Tea is without a doubt a favorite amongst iced tea drinkers. Often bringing out favorite flavors like lemon, raspberry, apple, or even pomegranate, iced tea just can’t go wrong when paired with something a little sweet.

Bigelow understands that tea drinkers aren’t always in love with cold or hot tea, which is why Lemon Lift has been created to accommodate the best of both worlds! With just the right amount of lemon and a dash of spice, you’ll soon be wondering why you ever settled for lemonade.

Tea Concentrate isn’t exactly its own form of tea, but it is just one more way that you can enjoy a wonderful iced tea on a hot summer day. There’s no denying that when you’re looking to make a large batch of iced tea or you simply don’t want to go through the work of brewing your own, Tea Concentrate can be a quick and easy lifesaver, and you don’t need to sacrifice flavor to use it!

Island Rose Gourmet Tea offers its award-winning Tea Concentrate in a form that made the iced tea style famous. Southern Style Sweetened Tea marries Black Tea Concentrate with natural cane sugar for a flavor that is bound to impress even the most discerning sweet tea drinker.

Of course, many of the brands listed here offer a wide range of teas, whether they be made for that sweet, cool summer treat or the hot morning cup we all rely on. We encourage you to explore the Houston’s website to better acquaint yourself with the products we offer and to learn even more about the world of tea.

The post Iced Tea Meet You – Choosing the Right Iced Tea This Summer appeared first on Houston's Blog.

Each spring, SCA hosts a large expo in Seattle, Washington to aid in industry education and prosperity. This Specialty Coffee Expo (commonly referred to as the SCA Expo) allows industry manufacturers and producers to showcase their products and give coffee operators, distributors, and enthusiasts alike the chance to peruse the newest and greatest offerings. Over the years, the show as grown “expo-nentially,” selling out exhibition space that now fills three halls of the Seattle Convention Center.

The overall focus of this year’s show was diversity, featuring coffees grown/produced in countries around the world, with Asia and South America as some of the most prevalent. Countries such as China and Brazil were particularly popular with booths that were made to impress.

While Houston’s does not exhibit at the expo, we do attend each year. The show provides us with the opportunity to meet with vendors and customers, and to get an idea of what to expect from the future of the coffee industry. Many of our manufacturer/vendor partners exhibit at the show including Torani, Monin, Dr. Smoothie, David Rio, Urnex, Kerry Foodservice, and Two Leaves and a Bud, as well as newer Houston’s vendors like Pacific Foods, Califia Farms, and ITO EN.

Monitoring current and upcoming trends in the coffee industry is crucial, and SCA Expo is always a perfect opportunity to assess the crowd. With the busy summer season in mind, many exhibitors at SCA Expo 2018 opted to offer taste tests of cold beverages from iced coffee and frappes, to non-coffee beverages like lemonade and flavored sparkling water. The absence of previously popular oatmeal products was painfully obvious this year, but made way for other healthier trends that ranged from convenient grab-and-go products, to handcrafted, premium products. Turmeric offerings seem to be surging with David Rio’s latte powder leading the pack. All natural, sugar-free, and/or low-calorie beverage options also seem to be on the rise, as are dairy/milk alternatives. While nut milks have been popular in years’ past, it appears oat milk will be giving the ever-popular almond milk a run for its money in 2018.

Contributing to the theme of diversity, Torani showcased its new Asian fruit-inspired Longan Syrup, among other products, by serving up Butterfly Lemonade that combined the syrup with Lemonade Real Fruit Smoothie mix. The vibrant purple color and sweet Longan flavor paired with the tart lemonade for a perfect summer offering.

Monin served its new Brown Butter Toffee Syrup in frappe, but most notable was the flavored sparkling water. Monin’s new, all-natural Concentrated Flavors line provides sugar-free, low calorie flavor to any drink, but the Strawberry Basil and Watermelon Jalapeno Sparkling Water offered expo attendees a light, yet flavorful beverage.

Celebrity Latte Artist, Melannie Aquino showed off her skills in booth #2100, drawing pictures with foam and chocolate on the tops of various lattes prepared with David Rio chai products. After attendees were wowed by the latte art, many were also impressed with the authentic turmeric flavor in David Rio’s Turmeric Lattes, Turmeric macaroons, and turmeric cupcakes provided by a local bakery and made using David Rio’s powdered product. The philanthropic organization also used the show as an opportunity to introduce Nalin, the white tiger and newest adoptee under the company’s endangered species initiative.

While many exhibitors utilize SCA Expo to introduce new product, Dr. Smoothie (a Bevolution Group brand) took this year’s show as an opportunity to reintroduce itself entirely, launching a rebrand of the 1997 logo. The new logo has opted away from retro and moved towards simplistic, yet refined. All of the brand’s packaging will have a consistent, clean look, featuring photos of fresh fruit and color-coded frappe categories. Watch for a soft rollout of the new branding sometime this summer.

Each year, SCA Expo exhibitors are given the opportunity to enter their products in a new product showcase, with the chance to win “Best New Product” bragging rights for the year. Our friends at Pacific Foods took home top honors in the Specialty Beverage Flavor Additive Category by winning Best New Product for their new Barista Series Oat, a plant-based dairy alternative that will be released this summer. Crowds gathered around the Pacific booth while attendees (including our own Rebecca Phillips and Amanda Hackathorn) tried their hands at latte art in the exhibitor’s Latte Art Throwdown. The winner of the competition got a chance to pour the latte art featured on the Pacific Foods’ new product packaging, also due out later this year. Sadly, neither Rebecca nor Amanda won the honor, but they certainly gave it their all!

As Houston’s shifts its focus towards the rapidly growing coffee segment, these vendor relationships and industry/product insights are key to our continued growth and success. With many coffee-based vendor partnerships, Houston’s controls a unique niche as a redistributor to the specialty coffee industry, providing access to hundreds of ancillary products sold and used by roasters and baristas across the country. It’s no secret that coffee’s popularity and progress will continue to grow, making events such as this more and more valuable. That’s why we can’t wait until next April when SCA Expo 2019 tackles Boston, Massachusetts! Will we see you there?

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