Suppliers you should know: Tea and coffee
ALISEO
Ensuring style and flexibility in new designs
Today, having in-room tea- and coffee-making facilities is not enough. Hotels are expected to select items that reflect the room design, and blend into the surroundings in a harmonious and attractive way.
In response to this trend, Aliseo has recently launched The PUZZLE Solution – a mix-and-match tray combination, featuring elegant porcelain optic boxes neatly integrated into etched wooden compartments.
The aim, explains the firm’s managing partner Jan Hellfritz, is to provide maximum flexibility for both the hotelier and their guests.
“The trend nowadays is for small, serviceable, aesthetically pleasing tea and coffee presentations,” he explains. “The challenge for us is to offer fashionable guest-room presentations, whose stylistic and geometric diversity help to transform a room into a statement of personal design.
“This can be done by utilising different materials, shapes and forms that will provide an inspirational alternative to the mainstream.”
Following this demand, Aliseo will also be bringing to the market a space-saving tray presentation with an integrated recessed condiment drawer.
The simple design is aimed at being not only pleasing to the eye, but easily integrated into any hotel room – an Aliseo strategy borne out by the fact that its products are present in more than one million hotel rooms, across six continents.
Tel: +49 783 483 430
Email: infor@aliseo.de
Web: www.aliseo.de
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JAFFERJEE BROTHERS
Elevating the tea experience through style and sustainability
Tea drinkers are becoming an increasingly selective and aware market – with customers demanding not only quality, but also sustainability from their tea products.
“Due to growing incomes, consumers are continuously searching out new and exotic tasting teas. Today they use a wider gamut of teas, based on mood and occasion,” says company director Mufaddal Jafferjee.
“There is increased awareness among consumers to understand the origin of their teas. Premium brands increasingly offer single-origin teas; blends of many origins simply reduce price at the expense of quality, while single origin teas showcase the unique terroir of each tea.
“There is also a strong trend towards whole leaf teas and infusions, and consequently premium end teas carry them exclusively.”
But tea attitudes are by no means about style over substance, continues Jafferjee.
Apparently, one of the strongest trends in today’s market is the growth of teas certified as Fair Trade, or that are certified under the Rainforest Alliance.
“These ensure a fair price for farmers and workers,” says Jafferjee. “There is an increasing awareness among consumers that buying directly from origin and supporting the local economy has more beneficial effects than simply giving aid.”
Under its Té Reval brand, the firm recently launched the Singles line – in which each pyramid tea bag is individually packed inside a small square carton.
Tel: +947 7731 5997
Email: mufaddal@jb.slt.lk
Web: www.jafferjeebrothers.com
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LA MARQUISE INTERNATIONAL
Delivering freshness on demand
Middle East consumers know what they want from their beverage products: style, freshness and quality. And they are willing to seek out the products that fulfil those categories.
“Customers in this region are generally known for being demanding and trend-driven,” admits La Marquise International marketing manager Darya Yurkina.
That’s why the company has placed an emphasis on meeting these demands with innovative ideas and quality products – such as the new Té Reval, VitaminBar and MyA lines.
“Té Reval is a celebration of the fine art of appreciating gourmet teas,” says Yurkina. “Each item is pure and natural, containing no artificial flavoring, preservatives or additives. “They care and pay attention to every aspect of the process, from selection to packing – thereby ensuring a truly extraordinary tea experience.”
Meanwhile the new VitaminBar builds on the firm’s 18 years of experience in the field of fruit juices, delivering a smart refrigerator and juice extractor in one – capable of producing a glass of fresh juice in five seconds.
And that’s not all: along with partner Irinox, La Marquise International recently introduced MyA to the region: a new touch-screen interface for MultiFresh multifunctional blast chillers, that makes using the machine even easier and more intuitive than before.
“Full customisation is possible only with MyA,” explains Yurkina. “It’s easy to vary the parameters for each cycle and create the ideal process for every product.”
Tel: +971 4 343 3478
Email: darya@lamarquise.ae
Web: www.lamarquise.ae
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MELITTA SYSTEMSERVICE
Quality is king in the world of coffee
Today, the challenges facing coffee professionals are greater than ever with demand at an all-time high.
“Customers want consistently high quality, variety, speed, reliability and safety,” says Melitta SystemService key international account manager, Falko Plueckebaum.
Meanwhile the central trend continues to focus on quality.
“Guests have high standards when it comes to coffee,” says Plueckebaum. “The quality in the cup must be right, as this is essential for customer retention.”
That’s why Melitta aims to provide a one-stop shop for coffee expertise – with quality from bean to cup. Plueckebaum explains: “In addition to our high-class range of whole beans especially for the horeca trade, we also supply top-quality professional machines for the coffee-serving business and back this up with our own technical service team.”
The firm also recently launched the first model of a completely new automatic coffee machine generation.
Under the motto ‘Coffee Perfection in Every Cup’, the Melitta Cafina XT6 has been developed especially for horeca businesses, and is dedicated to providing superior quality alongside smoother performance.
Plueckebaum elaborates: “The new machine can prepare up to 170 coffee specialties per hour and is expected to set new standards in the mid-range class.”
Last year, Melitta also opened its new International Technology and Logistics Centre at its main site in Minden, Germany.
According to Plueckebaum, the opening lays the foundation for further growth of the company.
“The facility in Minden will not only be used to train several hundred of the company’s own sales and technical service staff, but also sales staff and technicians of its global partners,” Plueckebaum explains.
Courses carried out at Melitta’s new Logistics Centre in Minden, Germany range from basic coffee knowledge, machine technology and coffee preparation to sensory analysis of coffee.
Tel: +49 5715 0490
Email: info@mss.melitta.de
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MOKA GENERAL TRADING
Building on beverage opportunities ahead of 2020
Coffee competition is rife in the GCC region – and the only way to stay on top is to keep innovating, responding to consumer demands and go after every opportunity.
This is the attitude that is helping Moka General Trading get ahead, as Helena Shpakovich, marketing manager for the firm, explains.
“With the opening of many new hotels in Dubai and the wider GCC market in the lead up to Expo 2020, we are anticipating big changes in the hospitality industry and a lot of new opportunities. Therefore, we are working on expanding our portfolio of existing brands.”
Most recently, this expansion has seen two high-profile additions, she continues.
“We have launched new flavours in the Ecaffe capsules line, as well as a new range of S01HS Caffitaly Capsule machines.”
Meanwhile Moka is keeping abreast of the latest trends among ever more sophisticated coffee and tea consumers.
Shpakovich flags up organic and flavoured coffees as a popular focus today, as well as the hotel-room favourite: capsule coffee systems.
In addition to keeping in touch with market preferences, it’s important to be aware of any industry challenges, adds Shpakovich.
“Our main challenge right now is to maintain the price-quality ratio, and be able to provide and sustain a consistent 24/7 service to hospitality industry.”
Tel: +971 4 379 0512
Email: sales@mokatrade.com
Web: www.mokatrade.com
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NESTLE PROFESSIONAL MIDDLE EAST
As beverage professionals the world over know, serving the perfect cup of coffee doesn’t always come easily.
And according to Nestlé Professional Middle East beverages business manager Anuj Singh, the same challenges are cropping up for operators all over the world: “Inconsistency in end cup quality; costly and unreliable equipment; and complexity in operations.”
Singh believes that, for operators, it boils down to a fundamental trade-off between quality and speed – and that, he says, should not be the case.
This is where the latest coffee programme from Nestle Professional, Nescafé Milano, comes into play.
“This is a comprehensive beverage program that incorporates quality ingredients, patented machine technology and a complete suite of business services, to enable food service operators to run a specialty coffee programme without additional investments,” explains Singh.
“Most suppliers offer either ingredients or equipment, but rarely does somebody offer the complete solution.” According to Nestlé, the speciality coffee market is the way forward for those looking to achieve quality as well as speed and for keeping up with the latest trends, such as an increase in demand for speciality coffees.
“These sorts of coffees – lattes, macchiatos and cappuccinos – are at the forefront of the sector’s growth,” Singh explains. “They represent both an opportunity in terms of increased revenues, loyalty and profitability; as well as a challenge for operators with regards to investment and operational complexity.”
Tel: +971 4 408 8100
Web: www.nescafemilano.com
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NEWBY TEAS OF LONDON
Delivering premium beverages to discerning customers
It’s been an exciting year for Newby Teas, which has launched a variety of new products in the region – including new flavours Winter Dream as well as Moroccan Nights.
According to Dalia El Bahr, assistant marketing and PR manager at Geralt Middle East – the exclusive distributor of Newby Teas of London for the area – consumers are better informed about teas nowadays.
“With the rise of a more discerning appreciation of fine cuisine and exquisite taste, we find that customers are focusing more and more on the quality of their food and drink, especially tea,” she says, explaining that this has seen a rising demand for Newby Teas’ refined products.
“We offer more than one hundred varieties of teas and have observed an enthusiasm for the wide range.”
This breadth of choice has translated into big business when it comes to the hospitality
industry.
“We’ve seen a noticeable drive for differentiation in this sector,” El Bahr notes.
“Establishments want to offer their customers not only a wide variety of high quality teas, but a memorable experience as well.
“We’ve seen seasonal teas become popular, as well as a rise in pairing tea and food.”
It looks like the firm will be kept busy in the coming months, with the launch of the Gourmet Collection.
The Gourmet Collection, El Bahr explains: “Features two exquisite green teas and three black teas. The Gourmet Collection comes in cutting-edge designer packaging, and will be perfect as a luxury gift.”
El Bahr however, highlights that one of the major challenges in the market she has seen is“overcoming hesitations about price”, however she counters this explaining: “a happy customer is a repeat customer, and once they’ve experienced quality tea they will come back for more.”
Tel: +971 4 361 4408
Email: sales@newbyteas.ae
Web: www.newbyteas.com
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SARYA TOUCH OF CLASS
Healthy living is the biggest trend in horeca
The healthy living trend is ramping up across the UAE, with the horeca industry responding to customer demands for food and beverage that fits more health conscious lifestyle choices.
Amir Al Chayah, CEO of Sarya Touch of Class, the Middle East distributor of the Dammann Frères luxury tea brand, says this has had a noticeable impact on the products hotels and restaurants are looking to offer.
Al Chayah comments: “Hotels are responding to guests’ clamour for wider and healthier tea options.”
According to Al Chayah, this is good news for tea vendors – who have long emphasised the product’s varied health benefits.
It has also driven demand and prompted a variety of new product launches.
“Our latest products include tea jelly, while our best-sellers today are individually wrapped sachets due to their versatility and convenience, and green tea due to its health benefits.”
With business booming, the firm is expanding its reach, according to Al Chayah – who confirms: “We have responded to requests for regional distributorship.”
This, he says, will put the company in a sturdy position to drive further interest in their products in the UAE market and beyond.
Tel: +971 4 385 7758
Email: dubai@sarya.org
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TCHABA DESIGNER TEA
Helping boost hotels’ images via quality teas
Tea remains the most cost-effective way to raise any hospitality brand’s stature, and boost its image in a guest’s eyes.
That’s the word from Tariq Al-Aruri, co-founder of Tchaba Designer Tea – who nevertheless identified challenges for the sector.
“Many premium hotel brands are still hesitant over a price increase of as low as AED 0.5 per serving,” he says. “Although they are convinced with the added value in terms of support and guest experience that a new brand of tea will offer.”
Despite these challenges, Tchaba continues to make inroads with its new products – which include a recently launched product: rare organic mint from Marrakech.
Al-Aruri believes this sort of quality loose-leaf product could pave the way for a different style of tea-drinking in future: “I think the trend is heading towards iced tea made from full leaf teas that are infused in cold water.”
And there are plenty of other planned new arrivals as well.
They will include Amir, a gourmet drink made from grape juice and Rooibos tea; as well as Kahva, a premium coffee brand offering an innovative and cost effective method for preparing freshly ground coffee.
“This will come in a range of locally inspired blends as well as classic black coffee,” says Al-Aruri. The company’s best sellers are currently the Tchaba sachet, Rosa and Emirates Spice blends.
Tel: +971 50 558 1267
Email: taruri@tchabatea.com
Web: www.tchabatea.com
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SPARROW INTERNATIONAL
Capitalising on changing attitudes in the beverage sector
The horeca industry is becoming much more focused on quality in its hot beverages, rather than worrying so much about price.
Nader Hijazi, sales director with Sparrow International, says “it used to be the complete opposite” – and that it’s a change for the better.
This is translating into an improved and diversified tea and coffee marketplace, in which Sparrow is launching various new items.
“We recently introduced our new brand of coffee: Hausbrandt, one of the market leaders in Italy, which is present in over 70 countries,” explains Hijazi.
“We are expanding and shifting our offices to a 1000m² facility, which will include a gelato production area and training centres for coffee and gelato. This will happen within the next couple of months,” he adds.
Despite this positive growth, Hijazi admits there are still challenges when it comes to operating in the UAE market.
“The biggest challenge here remains the relatively poor product knowledge of the decision makers when it comes to coffee,” he says. “As a result, it can be difficult to justify a price based on such a subjective view of quality.”
Tel: +971 50 734 6161
Email: nader@sparrow-international.com
Web: www.sparrow-international.com