One of the six "tea buddies" born in the 90s, ready to drink tea, set off a new trend

　　China is the hometown of tea, and a thousand-year-old tea culture has nurtured a huge tea market.

Currently, in China, one out of every six people is born in the 90s.

In order to cater to the new generation of consumers, the tea category is constantly iterating and innovating.

Lemon tea "flooded" new flavors of fruit tea "rescue field"

　　Tea was first spread to the east and west along the Silk Road, and because of the special tea sets and rituals, it first became popular in the upper class.

Traditional tea ceremony, from tea, tea set to the movements of the host and guest are quite particular, but it is difficult for people to drink tea anytime and anywhere.

With the advent of the world's first ready-to-drink tea, tea drinking became more convenient-in the 1980s, Japan's Itoen introduced the world's first canned oolong tea (1981) and sencha (1985).

After nearly 40 years of development, the types of ready-to-drink tea are extremely rich, and the choices for drinking tea have become diverse.

　　In Asia, there are five types of ready-to-drink teas that are most common, namely functional tea, sugar-free tea, fruit tea and milk tea, and fruit-flavored tea.

Among consumers' expectations for ready-to-drink tea, the top five are more flavors, more natural raw materials, added efficacy, different sugar content to choose from, and more specifications of packaging materials.

　　At present, most of the new domestic fruit tea beverages are citrus flavors, especially lemon tea, which has serious taste homogeneity and fierce competition.

In the international market, a variety of combinations of seasonal fruits or local specialty fruits and tea have appeared, and more new fruit tea flavors have been explored and launched in China, bringing a different taste bud experience to everyone.

For example, watermelon-flavored tea drinks, blood orange earl grey tea, pomegranate green tea and so on.

　　At the same time, there are also warm and moisturizing ingredients such as ginger and honey are added to the tea, which is especially suitable for drinking in autumn and winter, making the original beverages also "hot" in off-season.

"Life Sustained" milk tea with richer ingredients

　　Looking at milk tea for young people to "continue their lives", many products at home and abroad have upgraded the rich enjoyment of milk tea by increasing the concentration of "milk".

For example, condensed milk tea is the addition of sweetened condensed milk to raw milk to bring a rich milk flavor.

Milk tea with cream has a richer taste.

In addition, cheese milk tea with cheese is also the "new favorite" for those who prefer a rich taste.

　　At the same time, foreign products made a fuss about "tea", improving the taste of milk tea by enhancing the aroma and concentration of tea.

For example, baked milk tea, which is a combination of black tea and roasted tea, brings a new taste.

　　Vanilla milk tea, caramel pudding milk tea, charcoal brown sugar roasted milk tea, tiramisu milk tea and other milk teas with added dessert elements make sweets lovers want to stop.

Strawberry milk tea, cherry milk tea, peach milk tea and other milk teas with added fruit flavors satisfy small fresh taste lovers.

Milk teas with nuts, such as almond milk tea and cashew milk tea, have the sweet taste of nuts.

　　In addition, adding coconuts, oats and other ingredients is also one of the ways to enrich the taste of milk tea.

　　In terms of raw materials, the raw materials of milk tea are gradually upgraded from non-dairy creamer and milk powder to more natural milk and fresh milk.

The raw materials of tea beverages are gradually upgraded from tea powder to more natural raw leaves.

Drinking tea requires healthy sugar-free tea

　　It is worth noting that there are many tea producing areas in China, but the tea produced in the tea producing area is rarely used as raw materials or seldom publicized.

　　The effect of adding tea beverages is also a great tool for "ring powder".

For example, adding black beans to nourish the kidney and black hair, adding Korean ginseng and ganoderma can replenish qi and blood, adding inulin can speed up intestinal peristalsis and maintain intestinal health.

There are also some teas that are brewed with corn silk, apocynum, flax and other materials that have the function of lowering blood pressure, or add dextrin to inhibit the absorption of fat in the diet, or add enzymes to accelerate the rate of fat decomposition.

　　In the past, there were few sugar-free teas on the domestic shelves, but in the past two years, under the trend of sugar reduction, a large number of sugar-free teas have emerged.

Compared with milk tea and fruit tea with "fancy" ingredients, low-sugar and sugar-free tea with simple ingredients has formed its own unique selling point.

　　In terms of packaging, ready-to-drink tea is no longer limited to the conventional capacity of 500 ml or 1 liter, and now there are more small packages to choose from to meet a variety of scenarios.

In order to drink ready-to-drink tea in winter, merchants have introduced PET packaging that can be heated or even microwaved.

Text/Reporter Chen Si