By Li Hongmei

Starbucks, the world's leading coffee chain, has been exploring business opportunities in the emerging tea market.

The Seattle-based coffee brand opened its first tea store Teavana Fine Teas + Tea Bar in New York on Oct. 23. It is located in the upmarket Upper East Side of Manhattan, which is teeming with art, fashion, and luxury shopping outlets.

The store markets itself as an individualized experience for tea drinking that allows for a greater variety of choice in ingredients and customized preparation.

The store also seeks to integrate elements of tea in its decor by showcasing different varities of loose-leaf teas on its walls.

Starbucks told Shanghai-based National Business Daily that its decision to enter the tea market was based on a perceived increase in interest in tea in the United States.

The company's shift in focus reflects trends in the United States' beverage market. During 2003-2013, while consumption of coffee in the US grew a mere 1.9%, consumption of tea shot up by 22.5%. The tea industry worldwide offers US$90 billion in business opportunities every year.

Starbucks' foray into the tea market has been brewing since before the turn of the century, marked by its acquisition of the tea manufacturer Tazo in 1999 and later by its buyout in 2012 of Atlanta-based Teavana, a specialty tea and tea accessory retailer in November 2012 for US$620 million.

Acquisitions of tea brands such as Teavana saw their contributions to Starbucks' revenues rise in the fourth quarter of its 2013 fiscal year for the period ending on Sept. 29.

Starbucks posted an annual 13% rise in revenues to US$3.8 billion in that quarter. Tea brands contributed US$105 million of these revenues, up 102% from the same period last year.