How Do I Choose a Tea Supplier for My Hotel or Restaurant?

Choosing a tea supplier can look simple: taste a few teas, compare prices and pick a range.

In practice, the best supplier is the one that fits the way your property actually operates.

Tea quality matters, but so do delivery, pack formats, staff support, pricing, stockholding and how easy the supplier is to work with.

A good starting point is to work backwards from the guest experience you want to create.

Start with how you actually serve tea

Before speaking to suppliers, map where tea is used across the property.

·       bedrooms

·       breakfast

·       restaurant or lounge

·       afternoon tea

·       meetings and events

·       room service

·       after-dinner service

The right answer may be different in each area. A wrapped tea bag may be ideal in a bedroom, while loose leaf may be better for afternoon tea. A supplier who can support several service formats can make life considerably easier.

Decide what good looks like for your property

A five-star country hotel and a high-volume city property do not need the same tea programme.

Think about what matters most to you:

·       speed and consistency

·       premium presentation

·       local identity

·       sustainability

·       a distinctive range

·       low staff training requirements

·       strong commercial margins

This gives you a sensible brief rather than simply asking suppliers to show you their range.

Taste the tea in the way you will actually serve it

Do not judge a hospitality tea only from a tasting cup prepared by the supplier.

Brew it in your own teapot, with your own water and using the portion your staff will actually use.

A tea that tastes excellent in a 200ml tasting cup may perform very differently in a 500ml breakfast pot. This is particularly important when comparing tea bags of different weights.

Compare cost per serving, not just case price

A cheaper case is not automatically better value.

Ask how many correctly prepared servings the case produces and what volume of water each serving is designed for.

If a cheaper tea bag needs two bags per pot, the apparent saving can disappear immediately. Compare the real cost of one finished serving.

Check the formats available

Hospitality often needs more than one format.

A useful supplier may be able to provide:

·       wrapped tea bags for bedrooms

·       foodservice tea bags for breakfast and events

·       loose leaf for premium service

·       larger pack sizes for high-volume products

You do not necessarily need all of these, but it is worth checking before you commit.

Look beyond the product

Tea is usually an easy product to buy. Good tea service is harder to maintain.

Ask what the supplier does after the first order. Useful support can include staff training, brewing guidance, menu descriptions, tea audits and reference material for new starters.

That support can be particularly valuable in hospitality, where staff turnover means knowledge can disappear quickly.

Check the practical details

Before changing supplier, confirm the basics:

·       minimum order quantities

·       case sizes

·       delivery charges

·       normal lead times

·       availability of samples

·       payment terms

·       how out-of-stocks are handled

·       whether the range is consistently available

A great tea that is regularly unavailable is not a great hospitality product.

Ask for references or examples

If hospitality is important to the supplier, they should be able to explain how they work with similar businesses.

You do not need confidential customer information. You simply want evidence that they understand the operational realities of hotels, restaurants or events.

Run a small trial if possible

You do not always need to switch the whole property at once.

Trial a few teas in one area, collect staff feedback and see how guests respond. This is particularly useful if you are changing format as well as supplier.

The right supplier should make tea easier

The best tea supplier is not necessarily the biggest, cheapest or most famous.

It is the supplier that gives you the right quality, formats and support for your operation - and makes it easier for your team to serve good tea consistently.

Choosing a hospitality tea supplier with Shibui Tea

At Shibui Tea, we work with hotels and hospitality businesses to build ranges around how tea is actually served.

That can include wrapped and unwrapped tea bags, loose leaf, menu support, staff guidance and a back-of-house Tea Guide.

The aim is not to sell the largest possible range. It is to build one that works for your property.