Read-to-drink iced tea brand YumCha is set to make new inroads into the UK market.
The British brand was launched in 2012, but to date has 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), says 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.
Woodall has developed 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. The 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).
The range includes Sour Plum, Moroccan Mint, Earl Grey, Jasmine and Lemon Ceylon variants, with RRPs of £3.95 for a 33cl bottle.
