News and happenings - A few big announcements!

February has been a great tea month around here. I'm energized and full of gratitude for all the great things that have happened.

I was honored to be profiled by the Boston Globe. The link is here although, unfortunately, it's behind a paywall so I'm not sure how many of you can access it. What made me the happiest about the opportunity was what it communicates about the broadening interest in tea. Here is a daily paper that doesn't have a particular stake in promoting tea that saw the book and tea of enough value to dedicate a full page in their magazine.

I am also thrilled to announce that I am one of the new Contributing Editors for "TEA A Magazine."  Many of you are likely familiar with TEA as it has been publishing since 1994 under the direction of founder/editor Pearl Dexter. Last month Pearl made the decision to sell the magazine and it was purchased by ITEM Media. ITEM hired Dan Bolton as the new editor, a name you might recognize from my past mentions of the online trade publication World Tea News (another publication I write for). Dan called me and asked if I would come on board as one of the Contributing Editors. I was honored and all the more thrilled when I saw the names of some of the others on the team - World Tea Tours founder Dan Robertson, tea sommelier and chef Cindy Gold, writer and tea expert Bruce Richardson, and several other accomplished writers and tea folk. The magazine is undergoing a transformation and I hope you join us on the ride. We'll now publish six times a year (instead of four) and we'll be covering a wide spectrum of tea topics -- new teas and products, travels, cooking, and happenings in tea world. Check out www.teamag.com to sample some articles from the first new issue which will come out later in March. Definitely let me know or visit Tea Magazine's Facebook page to tell us what you'd like to be reading about. We want this publication to truly represent the tea community.

Finally, I think it is important to note the recent signs I've seen of the massive growth of tea. Certainly ITEM buying TEA is big, especially where it came such a short time after F+W Media purchasing World Tea Media, the company that presents World Tea Expo. Also in the past few months we've seen Sara Lee buy Tea Forte with the aim of creating a new international tea and coffee company. Jamba Juice just bought Talbott Tea and Martin Bauer Group just purchased Beverage House which many feel indicates an eye toward broadening MBG's distribution and product opportunities. Finally, this past weekend we saw the 7th Annual Coffee and Tea Festival: NYC and the 1st annual San Francisco International Tea Festival. Both events were completely sold out. I feel like the message is getting out -- tea is an affordable luxury that is exciting and offers something for everyone.

I'll be posting my round up of the NY show soon, but for now, welcome to my new readers and thanks to my long-time readers for being part of this amazing tea community.