You may or not be a Lady Gaga fan, but the results of the "Top 10 Most Searched People for 2009" are in, and you can find Lady Gaga on all of them.

Who would guess that along with the crazy outfits, the world is fascinated with her love of tea, and her choice of how to drink it.

This isn't an isolated incident since Lady Gaga has been seen repeatedly holding fancy china cups and sipping tea. While in England, the curiosity got the best of the Brits, and they just had to ask in an interview, "what's with the teacup?"

She responded, "I take her (teacup) everywhere because it makes me feel at home. I used to have tea with my mother every day, you see."

"I've made a habit of drinking out of china because it makes me feel grounded. I don't think it's a good lifestyle to always be eating and drinking out of paper. It's very wasteful."No way to measure if Lady Gaga alone will significantly influence tea sales, but as a role model, she is reinforcing a momentum that was already exploding within the tea industry. With a single comment she not only made it "cool" to drink tea out of a fancy teacup, but was able to spin the practice into an environmental contribution as well!

Joseph P. Simrany, President of the Tea Association of the USA, Inc., has projected growth in several areas of the tea industry.

• Ready-to-drink tea will continue to grow in popularity with annual dollar increases in the range of 12%-15%.
• Foodservice sales will continue to grow, spurred by an increase in customer demand, increased promotion on the part of operators, the expansion of tea offerings to include specialty and herbal selections, increased awareness of the profitability potential of tea, and improved delivery of hot tea. We expect annual dollar increases in the range of 3%-5%.
• A long-term increase in consumer demand for Specialty Tea, with annual dollar increases in the area of 8% to 10%.
• A slow but steady long term increase in consumer demand for traditional forms of tea spurred by an expanded core group of users, much broader demographics of the "typical" tea consumer, and increasing awareness of the potential health effects associated with tea consumption. Annual dollar growth in the area of 1% to 3% is expected in this category.
• Estimated wholesale value of the US tea industry has increased from 1.84 billion in 1990 to 6.85 billion in 2007.

The phenomenal growth the tea industry has experienced over the past few years is due mostly to the new convenience of purchasing a wide variety of teas in ready to drink bottles.

Customers who would not even consider ordering tea when dining out, will choose to buy tea in a bottle as a healthful alternative to soda. It is easy to forget that it was not that long ago these drinks did not exist. Never before has this many people been drinking tea!

With all of these new customers drinking tea, and the long list of benefits that go with it such as great taste, wide flavor varieties to accommodate all preferences, cultural roots that include native and traditional tea varieties, and the attractive health benefits, we must assume we will see a shift in consumer drinking habits.

With a world of tea flavors from which to choose, you could have a new one every day of the week.

Unlike soda, drinking tea is not something you "need to give up" because even if caffeine is a problem, there are still plenty of choices. Not much guilt with tea unless you are drinking the high calorie choices, so once the tea industry has recruited a new fan of the product, it is doubtful they will "stop liking tea."

Cafe's specializing in tea are now being offered as franchises in many areas. Successful concepts from Europe are making their way to our cities, and if successful will start a new tea culture following here in our country.

Foodservice operators can easily start a gourmet tea program. With the low case cost and substantial profit margin, now might be the perfect time to look at adding new tea choices to your menus. Find case quantities of a wide variety of gourmet, organic teas at GreenFoodservices.com.

Lady Gaga is no doubt helping to create interest in tea, but with customers looking for alternatives to less healthful drinks like soda, and the steady increase of new tea products hitting shelves, foodservice could have a good money maker on their hands and should probably take notice.

Picture: Luke Mills/WENN.com