Riding the Trendy Tea WaveRiding the Trendy Tea Wave

It’s a bright new day for tea in America, both hot and iced.

That’s because tea flavors are exploding — especially in exciting new blends that combine multiple flavors. Sweet tea and tea latte are emerging as popular beverages in restaurants and coffee shops. And millennials — those highly sought-after restaurant customers — are eagerly embracing tea.

Tea’s place among the trendiest beverages is underscored in the National Restaurant Association’s What’s Hot 2015 Culinary Forecast. Specialty iced tea — in forms such as Thai-style, Southern or sweet, flavored and matcha — ranked second only to gourmet lemonades on the list of hottest nonalcoholic beverages.

Importantly, one-flavor-fits-all is no longer the rule with tea. Many popular teas no...