Tea Quality Evaluation Standards with Austin Hodge

We are honored to be hosting Austin Hodge, founder of the International Specialty Tea Association and President of Seven Cups Tea.  

Please join us in this rare appearance by Austin Hodge in which he will speak about ITSA's mission to standardize guidelines for tea quality evaluation.

The Specialty Tea Manifesto 

The tea industry is a fifty billion dollar a year business whose fastest-growing sector is called ‘Specialty Tea.’ ‘Specialty Tea’ must be defined to establish value and give meaning to the term.

There are no set standards for excellence in the global tea industry. Merchants, both in the past and now, have been able to get away with defining quality through marketing. This interpretive and loose value system has not benefitted producers, consumers, or small tea businesses.

The International Specialty Tea Association will strive to establish quality standards in tea making. The Specialty Tea Association will create an unbiased process for judging tea quality. This will…