Industry: Food and Beverage
Since tea offers a detoxification effect that removes toxins from the body that young consumers in Korea drinking tea has been increasing.
After the huge boom in the Korean coffee market, the tea market has recently begun to increase rapidly. The Korean tea market used to be sales of traditional tea made from crops such as Oksusu cha (roasted corn and silk tea), Bori Cha (Korean barley tea), Boi cha (Pu’er tea), and others. However, much trendier teas that promote a healthy diet and more up-scale premium teas that accompany brunch or dessert have recently appeared. Due to these increases in the ‘premium tea’ market, many Korean coffee franchises devoted to high-end teas to launched menus that include a variety of teas. According to aT FIS (Food Information Statistics System) report in Korea, the trend in higher sales increased as more premium tea and Ready to Drink (RTD) Tea products were introduced to the Korean market. The sale of liquid tea in Korea used to be 18.4 tons (2010), but it became 31.5 tons (2017) an increase of about 71.4%. Tea consumption saw greater gains than any other beverage sector. Due to the increases in the tea market in Korea, Korea’s food and beverage companies adapted the cold brew technique for tea or tea beverages with high-grade tea leaves. In addition, bottled tea beverage products are so very handy to grab that the convenience stores have increased their product lines. For example, “JARDIN” recently launched two types of cold brew teas called, “Café Real Honey Grapefruit black tea” and “Café Real Hibiscus Lemon tea” as Ready to Drink (RTD). Ready to Drink (RTD) such as bottles, PET, etc which can mainly be purchase at convenience stores and retail stores is continuously growing. One of the biggest retail store in Korea called, E-Mart, owned by Shinsegae, has been working with a Korean tea company ‘Orgada’ to established on a tea that can be carried around easily. The collaboration between E-mart and Orgada released three types of tea: ‘Mixed with Dekopon and Five-Flavor berry’, ‘Pear bellflower’, and ‘Apple lemongrass.’ These three teas were “re-born” as bottled beverages from PEACOCK (E-mart), which is the HMR brand that runs Shinsegae. These three items are also popular in café Orgada. (The difference between Orgada and E-Mart products is this: Orgada only offers to go cups, but E-mart offers a bottle.) Moreover, Chloris Tea & Coffee is well-known for European style tea franchise with 12 branches in Seoul and it has been expanding aggressively over the past few years. Although they are also known for coffee; nevertheless, more than 65% of customers has been order teas recent year. Another Korean company, ‘Sempio’, which was established in 1946 and is Korea’s oldest and most renowned soy sauce brand, leading the industry with over 70% share of Korean consumer market, recently launched two types of tea: ‘burdock tea’ and ‘hovenia dulcis fruit tea.’ Moreover, Korea’s coffee franchise company ‘EDIYA’ also launched ‘Lemon Sweet Plum Tea’, ’Grapefruit Nable Orange tea’, and ‘Citrus junos mixed with pina colada tea.’
Since tea offers a detoxification effect that removes toxins from the body it will be continuously popular among young consumers and tea menus will keep expanding, offering new vitality to the saturated coffee market.
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