Viva Sara was one of the first to join the European Specialty Tea Association.
In recent decades, coffee culture has conquered our Western world. Hip and trendy coffee bars launched in the big cities and soon found their way to the countryside. Espressos, lungos, latte macchiatos, whether or not pimped with a special syrup, we all know a long list of possible coffee preparations. Baristas prepare them for us according to the rules of the art. Strangely enough, this is not yet the case with tea. It remained remarkably quiet on the tea front for a long time. The recently founded European Specialty Tea Association wants to do something about this. Organizations, professionals, but also just people who care about tea, can become members of the organization. The association is ambitious. For example, tea conferences are organised, real tea barista championships are held, the organization offers certified training courses or simply brings together like-minded people who want to innovate together around tea. Viva Sara is a pioneering member of the organization; she was one of the first to join. “Because tea deserves to be treated as seriously as coffee,” says Peter Deprez. Our magazine had a conversation with British executive director David Veal. David is no stranger to the coffee and tea world. He was active in the coffee industry for a long time and headed the Specialty Coffee Association of Europe from 2011 to 2018. Now he helps put tea on the map. According to him, it is not surprising that he has a coffee history. "There are many parallels to be drawn between coffee and tea. For example, both are mainly grown in developing countries and there is still a lot of progress to be made in production and brewing techniques. In other words, there is a great need for good training in both sectors. Moreover, these are also sensitive products that require a lot of passion, technique and knowledge from professionals, in particular baristas." According to David, there are several reasons why the tea world is lagging behind the prevailing coffee culture. "Tea has never had such a global presence as, for example, Starbucks has with coffee. Moreover, until recently, the tea industry has been very fragmented. There are many small associations, but they do not talk to each other and therefore could not take tea to a higher level together. This largely has to do with the rather modest and conservative spirit that exists within the tea industry. Tea culture has a tradition of more than 3,000 years old, coffee is much younger. That will now be the challenge for the ESTA: on the one hand, respect the age-old tea culture, but on the other hand, dare to fully focus on opening up new young markets with innovative concepts and products.” David is not at all surprised by the fact that Bart and Peter quickly joined the ESTA with Viva Sara. "I have known Bart and Peter for years as people who are very passionate about their profession. In the coffee world they have already shown that they like to innovate and network. It is the same mentality that is also present within ESTA: being open to new things and wanting to try them out with others. I am truly happy that they are there as one of the founding members."
