As they launch a new marketing campaign entitled ‘putting the tea back into iced tea’, YumCha are hoping to capitalise on the growing consumer demand for innovative cold drinks and to show UK customers what ‘real iced tea’ tastes like.
The British brand was launched in 2012, but to date have largely concentrated on the mainland European market, where consumption of iced tea is considerably higher and accounts for a large proportion of the $40 billion worldwide market.
With a strong sales base now established in Holland, Switzerland and France the director of the YumCha brand, Guy Woodall (the original founder of Thorncroft Cordials), feels this summer is the right time to show the UK what iced tea ‘should’ taste like. With general tea sales continuing to fall and a recent Mintel report indicating UK consumers are becoming much more open minded to the idea of sipping on an iced tea rather than a hot brew (with 29% agreeing that new formats of tea interest them and 34% of tea drinkers agreeing they would be interested in making their own iced tea) he might just be right.
It’s not just a case of timing however and Guy feels his iced tea offering is significantly different to that currently available in the UK, with its taste and make up strong enough to tempt new customers into the category, which is currently dominated by a few big players.
Pick up a standard bottle of iced tea from a UK shelf and you’re likely to find ‘flavourings’, ‘acids’ and ‘acidity regulators’ amongst the ingredients. These are largely added as a means to preserve the drinks for longer and allow them to be made from a powder base. Although this might make commercial sense it does nothing for the taste, removing most of the real tea flavour and turning iced ‘tea’ into little more than an everyday juice style drink.
Guy has invented an innovative new method of manufacturing iced tea, with a patent pending, which allows for the production of a commercial iced tea using a much more traditional method. Guy’s technique uses only natural ingredients and means the actual tea used in the drink becomes a much more prominent feature, also utilising appreciably less sugar (often used to cover up the harshness of acids).
Guy has also spent time travelling the world looking for exciting and popular iced tea blends and amongst the YumCha range you’ll find Sour Plum, the drink of summer throughout China, made with dried Wu Mei plums, liquorice root and sweet osmanthus flowers, and Moroccan Mint, popular throughout Northern Africa and made using the famous gunpowder green tea and spearmint. Earl Grey lends a quintessential British twist, Jasmine adds another Eastern favourite and, for those who prefer a ‘classic’ iced tea, there’s Lemon Ceylon, made with Sri Lankan tea leaves from the Hamilton Russell estate, who produce an orange pekoe tea grown at high altitude in the mountains above Kandy.
The result of taking this more traditional approach is a collection of refreshing drinks that will tantalise taste buds and ‘make consumers totally rethink what they thought you knew about iced tea’, showing them how it ‘should’ taste. Delicious over ice, as a summer cocktail base, a family alternative to cordial or fizzy drinks or even a winter warmer when made with hot water, YumCha look set to revolutionise the iced tea market in the UK.
For more information visit yumchadrinks.co.uk
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