Tea Shops the New Thing?

"STARBUCKS IS TO COFFEE as one lucky chain perhaps will be to tea." While I was reading around on the net this morning, I came across this article from Startup Journal, the Wall Street Journal small business edition, talking about the raise in tea focused businesses. I agree and think this would be great. There are many coffee bars that are serving great teas and many people are really getting into it and I think it might be the next big thing. There are a few things in this article that I do not agree with however. The quote above is one of them. It would be good for business and I hope someone can get the word out about tea as Starbucks did for coffee. I just hope the "lucky chain" in the tea business has some ethics and consistency. "Several small companies are pushing tea-centered restaurant concepts for the U.S. Backers of the ventures say the time is ripe for many coffee-saturated consumers to make the switch" Are people over-saturated with coffee? I don't think so. Specialty Coffee sales have been up in the past few years and I think this trend will not be going down in the future, at least any time soon. Coffee is the highest traded commodity next to oil and the most consumed beverage other than water. This is not going to go away. Also, I hear that the US is over-saturated with coffee all the time. Italy has more coffee cafe's that this entire country! We have a long way to go. "The U.S. now has fewer than 100 such tea bars, but the number is poised to double by the end of next year, says Brian Keating, a Seattle researcher. "It's going to be another three to five years before baby boomers in large numbers say they've had enough coffee," he predicts." Can we not exist together? I believe we can. Evoke will have great teas to go along with our coffee and other beverages but I do not see that we will begin drinking more tea and leave coffee behind. Independent coffee houses will react to this trend and will continue to serve both. ~~be bold