What’s new in “Tea Innovation?” That’s the question I posed to Wy Livingston, president of Wystone’s World Tea Holdings LLC, (www.WystonesTea.com) as I was sipping a cup of green tea lemonade and admiring the beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains from her innovative new tea store in Lakewood, Colo.

Although Wy may be new to the QSR industry, she doesn’t lack the passion for food innovation – and for her it is all about innovation in tea products and her innovative QSR tea store concept called “Wystone’s Tea Café” that she is franchising across America.

Wy quickly pointed out that between 20,000 and 30,000 varieties of teas exist worldwide. Her passion is to sell teas and tea as an ingredient in as many products as she can, and market those products through a wide venue of sales channels. Her creative approach is to “think of teas like a spice rack, and then use them as an ingredient in everything you make.”

Wy informed me that her challenge is “how to identify tea properties that create unique flavors." Kenyan tea, she said, can make a product spicy when it is heated or used as an ingredient in a pork BBQ rub. Other teas can act like a meat tenderizer and contribute a smoky flavor. Wy believes cooking with teas is in its early stages in American culture, which provides her unlimited opportunities. And she is off to a great start. She already sells tea as an ingredient in drinks, gelatos, baked goods, breakfast items, and lunch and dinner entrees.

Wy Livingston is driving tea innovation in a variety of ways. First and foremost, her restaurant concept is innovative from other coffee shops in that it embraces tea as an ingredient in a multitude of products – and not just drinks. Her line of tea gelatos includes Sweet Tea Gelato, Earl Grey Brownie, Black Tea Milk Chocolate, and Matcha Blueberry.

In addition to serving traditional teas to local customers at her “Tea Bar,” she facilitates innovative Tea Trays and Tea Tasting pairings that include Tea and Cheese Pairing, Tea and Chocolate Pairing, Tea and Gelato Pairing, as well as formal tea tastings held in her adjacent retail tea store. Other unique dessert products using tea include Wystone’s African Rooibos Carrot Cake, Strawberry Rooibos Crème Brulee.

The breakfast menu includes teas in Kenyan Tea Roasted Red Bliss Potatoes, Sweet Black Vanilla Tea Glaze with maple syrup, and a Southwest Chicken Scrambler and Veggies and Egg Burrito with the Kenyan tea-roasted red bliss potatoes. For lunch, the tea menu includes Tea Smoked BBQ Chicken Panini (top selling sandwich), Teasalmic Vinaigrette Dressing for salads, salads sprinkled with Green Tea, Wystone’s Vegetarian Quiche that uses Sencha Tea, and Genmaicha-Infused Harvest Vegetable Soup.

And yes, she does sell a wide assortment of dried tea products by the ounce that range up to almost $200 per pound.

Wy Livingston represents the epitome of what food innovation is all about. She started out with an innovative idea for selling teas in a wide variety of products and marketing channels. She calculated her risk with a sales and marketing plan, then worked the plan until it was successful – always asking for advice whenever it would help her reach her goals. She also hired a skilled and creative chef who shared her passion for tea, and together they have developed a nonstop innovative pipeline of new tea products.

The next time you travel to Colorado, stop by Wystone’s Tea Café on the way to the mountains and say "Hi" to a truly innovative leader in the QSR world.