Can it still be called World Tea Expo?

I have always had a special fondness for World Tea Expo because it was the first conference and exhibition that I attended after joining Tea & Coffee Trade Journal in 2012. I attended as many education sessions and visited as many booths as possible and learned a lot about the specialty tea industry at that first show. Back then, World Tea Expo was a vibrant, thriving specialty tea show that occupied its own hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center over the course of three full days.

The World Tea Expo (WTE) that I just attended – 23-25 March – was a shell of its former self. In years past, there was Tea Incubator, an all-day business fundamentals workshop for those attendees who were intending to open a tea business (retail or foodservice), which began the day before WTE officially started. The conference and expo were held the following three days. Eventually, the conference and expo hall were reduced to two full days, with the Tea Incubator remaining a separate event prior to the official start of WTE.

This year, there was no Tea Incubator, and the conference program was drastically abridged, taking place the first two days of WTE only. There were still good sessions with quality speakers offered such as Are Iced Teas the Future of the Industry?; Much Ado About Matcha; Tea Fundamentals: Core Knowledge for Industry Leaders; Korean Tea, The Hidden Gem of Asia; and a Masterclass: How To Launch Your Brick-and-Mortar Tea Business, but the number of sessions each day was far less than in years past (although some were longer than in previous years). The expo hall was open to visitors on the second and third days only, closing at 4pm on the final day.

World Tea Expo has co-located with parent company Questex’s other show, Bar & Restaurant Expo, for the past few years. However, this year, rather than a co-location, it felt as though WTE was completely engulfed by Bar & Restaurant side. WTE encompassed two aisles, with a smattering of booths on a third aisle. There were a number of returning exhibitors, particularly from Japan, China, and Nepal, but most were new exhibitors. Gone was the Tea Bar that used to feature tea tastings from different vendors all day long. In its place was a lounge area with seats and tables for meetings or to simply sit, but there was no tea. In fact, there did not seem to be any scheduled tea tastings or cuppings at all, aside from those being offered at exhibitors’ booths.

On the exhibitor side, several admitted to having some good meetings, particularly those companies offering boba and matcha. Companies providing teas, herbals, and botanicals that can be used in mocktails and cocktails, and especially those vendors involved in packaging, labelling, and logistics, reported having a good show because they received a lot of interest from Bar & Restaurant attendees. Most WTE exhibitors expressed frustration at the slow traffic and how the show was run this year and admitted to not planning to exhibit next year.

At its core, World Tea Expo has always been a specialty tea show, despite attempts at trying to attract and address the mainstream tea market — and that is absolutely fine. The show has served an important purpose for the specialty tea industry as it is the only true B2B specialty tea event in the US, so it is sad to see what WTE has become. Over the years and through its many owners, World Tea Expo has tried co-locating with other shows (remember the year with the Healthy Beverage Expo?), but one strategy no show organizer ever tried was to transform WTE from a conference and exhibition in a convention center, to a conference/convention in a hotel. Holding the show in a hotel that has a ballroom or small convention hall space (most Las Vegas hotels have these) would be more cost effective for both exhibitors (they are all tabletops with pipe and drape anyway) and attendees, the majority of whom are ‘mom and pop’ operators. Education sessions and skills workshops could still be offered along with tea cuppings.

I am not sure what is going to happen to next year’s World Tea Expo, which again will be co-located with the Bar & Restaurant Expo (22-24 March 2027). Will it have its own designated area or pavilion within the Bar & Restaurant Expo, or will it be folded in completely? I hope there is strong enough support to keep World Tea Expo viable because there is still a need for a B2B specialty tea show in the US.

• Vanessa L Facenda, editor, Tea & Coffee Trade Journal, [email protected]