Which Wich seeks to upgrade tea offerings

A tea showdown

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Ballard said Which Wich’s recent Tea Showdown included both consumers and staff members. Five consumers were chosen from various restaurants in the Dallas area, where Which Wich is headquartered, he said. In addition, the tasting panel included two vendors that have participated in opening at least 100 stores, an outside consultant and nine corporate staff members, including founder Jeff Sinelli and his wife, Courtney Sinelli, as well as James Pa, vice president of operations, and Ballard.

“Only the consumers were financially compensated for their time and travel,” Ballard said.

Tasters sampled from among vendors and placed ticket stubs in cups that were numbered with the tea they thought was the best. Ballard said they could divide their 10 tickets among several tea providers.

“I have entered all the data points into a large matrix to give each set of inputs an equal weight: taste, ability to distribute, reliability and ease of implementation, and overall cost, to name a few,” Ballard said. “From all of that data there are some clear front runners.” Several will be called back to provide further business proposals, he said.

Contact Ron Ruggless at ronald.ruggless@penton.com.
Follow him on Twitter: @RonRuggless