-Just got back from the beach.  It was good to get away for a few days.

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Most of you already knew that tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world - that includes all teas. Water is the obvious number one. With over 300 plus exhibitors and thousands of attendees, the logistics of water becomes an issue. Watching the staffers of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center push around hundreds of five gallon containers of water wore me out - just watching. As someone that goes to many trade shows for multiple industries (and used to work for a Resort and Conference Center), I guess I just pick up on the details. I can remember the days of wondering how we were going to fill six hundred water glasses and iced tea glasses without the ice melting before the guests arrive. It’s a lot of work. The World Tea Expo, the exhibitors, and the staff do an excellent job for all of us. I’m sure there are always problems, but to most of us the event seems well-coordinated and well-executed. The attendance and feedback from everyone seems to reinforce my observation.

The World Tea Expo is such a great event for exhibitors to interact with their current and potential clients. I’ve met so many wonderful people along my journey into the industry because of the show. I do my best with marTEA.com to help the Internet shoppers, tea rooms, and general consumers link to all of their great products.

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Marketing, gimmicks, and samples are not what I remember most when I leave the World Tea Expo.  To me, it’s all about the tea.  From the people that farm it, the owners that manage it, the businesses that sell it, the people that prepare it, and the relationships created by the tea experience - that’s what I remember about the World Tea Expo.

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It’s that time of the year… I received my credentials a couple of days ago. I can’t wait! Last year I was overwhelmed with the whole experience. I just sort of bounced around without a clear agenda. This year, I feel like I’ll have more of a clue now that I know what to expect.

Where: Mandalay Bay Convention Center, Las Vegas, NV
When: May 30 - June 1, 2008

See you at the show!

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I have a few more teas on the shelf to review over the next week, and I’m sitting here trying to decide which teas I want to buy and from whom for future blogs. When I enter the search for what-to-drink-next, I’m reminded of the importance of blogs and marketing. How do you decide what tea to drink next?

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Wow, what a busy couple of weeks. I’m back and gulping more tea than ever. I have a ton of tea news to read… One of my stops in the past two weeks was the Hershey Lodge in Hershey, PA - the sweetest place on earth. Anyway, they stock Bigelow tea in the rooms and the cafe was loaded with every Honest beverage I could ever want. Also, they stocked a lot of Revolution Tea in their gift shops and banquet tables. What an enjoyable stay!

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marTEA.com was started out of my interest for both technology and tea. During the creation of marTEA.com, I found a lot of inspiration from sites like digg.com. Digg is a social bookmarking website that has caught major attention around the world. Digg would not exist, at least not in its current popularity, without co-founder Kevin Rose and the faithful digg community. I’ve been listening to Kevin’s popular podcast called Diggnation for years. In fact, Kevin and co-host Alex Albrecht took a week off of their normal beer drinking to recover from a trip to Japan and drank Adagio tea for an episode in 2005. If you know the show, there’s a lot of beer drinking that tends to take its toll on the hosts. Anyway, that episode inspired me to combine the two things that interest me - technology and tea. I actually purchased the Digg themed Adagio tea samples in early 2006. As a tribute to Kevin and digg, I’ve included a “Digg This” link with every story I post. marTEA.com would like to continue its dedication to all things tea by allowing the digg community to promote tea related news and reviews. If you want to try some of the tea blends that Kevin and Alex have been drinking in their recent shows visit adagio.com/diggnation.

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