Tony Gebely, executive director American Specialty Tea Alliance
By Dan Bolton
The 250-member American Specialty Tea Alliance (ASTA) announced it will cease operations as a non-profit.
The organization’s peer-to-peer resources for small tea businesses and new tea professionals will continue as a Facebook group. Click here to join.
Executive director Tony Gebely launched ASTA in 2018 to help the segment “navigate the changing environment of regulation and food safety regulations and shifting retail climate.” He was joined by deputy executive director and co-founder Suzette Hammond of Being Tea, who oversaw tea training and Jordin G. Hardin, beverage director at tea retailer Alfred Inc.
Gebely said, “The two most difficult challenges facing the specialty sector (pre-COVID) were the overwhelming regulatory burdens which most small players overlooked, and the lack of a unique value proposition in their business. There are simply too many tea businesses competing for the same small subset of tea consumers.”
ASTA’s website offered trade-specific education, job search, and resume services and a live RSS feed featuring the work of blogger members. Contained within the site is the World of Tea, a prize-winning blog the content of which will be split and hosted elsewhere.
The mission was broad but manned by volunteers, Gebely explained. “All involved had great ideas and grand visions, but lacked the time to systematically bring them to fruition,” he said.
“Ultimately we were unable to make this venture one that would be able to pay its own bills,” he said.
Gebely says ASTA’s most significant impact resulted from advising many new businesses in their infancy, and helping older businesses reach new heights. “We’re most proud of being able to bring 2019 Tea Masters Cup Competition to the United States,” he said.
“We moved to Facebook in an attempt to preserve the community aspect of the organization, but will not actively promote it,” said Gebely. The ASTA Slack group will sunset Dec. 31. Elements of the site will be split between Tea Epicure, a venture owned by Gebely, and Kill Green, a blog owned by Hardin.