Tea in Korea Could Hit a Boiling Point

In Korea, a stuffy tea culture has lost ground to the innovative coffee industry. But swirling sugary drinks from Taiwan are lighting up social media, and industry leaders like Starbucks are stacking fruity tea blends onto their menus, marking a revival for Korea and Asia’s tea industries.

 For more than a millennium, tea was a symbol of the good life in Korean culture. The far eastern kingdom looked to tea when entertaining royalty. Skilled tea artisans were prized throughout the peninsula. Then coffee arrived, and the status of tea was lowered from a cup of gold to struggling second stringer.

It took coffee only a couple of decades to abscond what tea took tea 1,000 years to build.

In the mid-2000s, annual tea sales in Korea were $178 million, sparking promise for tea consumption to continue climbing along with coffee as South Koreans grew richer and borders opened to trade. But the opposite happened.

 Growth in the coffee industry has squeezed tea consumption and pushed tea farmers to the margins. In 2017, the coffee market passed $8.4 billion, whereas tea has lagged behind with a market size of $42 million. Growth in the industry hit rock bottom in 2015 when it sunk to 2%. That growth has since recovered if slightly, hitting nearly 5% in 2018. But projections for the tea business aren’t promising. Growth is expected to remain stagnant over the next five years, with periodic but slight jumps in consumption, according to projections from Statista.

But there is evidence that Korea’s beverage industry may have hit a tipping point. A new tea time may be approaching. Coffee imports dropped in 2018 for the first time in six years, as volume fell from 146,000 metric tons to 143,000 tons. Some analysts say Korea’s coffee market is saturated, with too many cafés and baristas lowering demand for good coffee.

 As major brands like Starbucks and domestic chain Twosome Place look for ways to continue growing, tea is becoming an increasingly attractive option.

 “Coffee consumption has expanded. But the global tea market has also grown, and blended teas have jumped in popularity. We see tea consumption on the rise,” said Fred Yoo, author of The Book of Korean Tea.

When Twosome Place, a domestic Korean chain known for its cakes, teamed up with storied Singaporean tea brand TWG in 2017, bloggers and café goers took notice. Sales of tea rose more than 30% following that deal, according to a report published in The Korea Times.

Starbucks has seen a similar trend. From 2018-19, they added 24 new drinks to their menus — 14 of which were non-coffee beverages. While some of that 24 are mango smoothies, tea is stretching its presence across Starbucks’ menu boards. Their Teavana brand saw sales rise 20% in 2018 over the previous year, signaling that customers in Korea are ready for a change. Fruity tea flavors like ‘grandma apple black tea’ and ‘tomato lime green tea’ now color the menu, nudging aside the traditional bagged green tea with its bitter tang.

 “Young people tend to be less fond of tea’s bitter taste. They show a preference for more sweet flavours,” said Yoo, adding that the new move towards blending with fruit flavors is helping breathe life back into the staggering tea market.

But the youth’s gripe with Korean tea culture goes beyond just flavor.

Part of the recent revival is because tea’s image is finally loosening up. In Korea, tea was not always a drink to be taken lightly. Initially sipped by Buddhist monks, the leafy brew was later adopted by the royal family. As such, there were strict rules as to how and when tea should be consumed. A ritual was key to every cup, making it anything but casual. Mango flavoring and tapioca balls were a definite no-no.

“Traditional tea drinking can actually seem a bit complicated,” Yoo noted.

For the younger generation with eyes turned to phone screens and colorful K-pop videos, spending time brewing leaves and sharing a pot of tea can feel markedly out of stride.

Bubble Tea A New Ball Game

A new generation of tea makers is proving it’s totally possible for a tea brand to be in step with young consumers. Tiger Sugar, a Taiwanese bubble tea maker that uses Taiwanese brown sugar in its drinks, caused a stir on Korean social media this summer and drew in so many customers they were lined up on the street – a rare sight for tea shops these days.

The drink blends traditional bubble tea, with its sweet tapioca balls, with a caramelized brown sugar that swirls inside the glass, making the drink look like it has tiger stripes. Café visitors on social media brag about not only the intense sweetness of the drink but also its visual appeal. This offers a one-up to baristas who’ve mastered drawing foam portraits in your latte. It’s also a big hint to marketers that customers want more than just good flavor from their café experience — fun and sharable visuals are just as important.

And Tiger Sugar has also shown that tea can fetch a high price in today’s market if done right. Locations in Korea charge nearly twice the rate of Taiwan branches, and customers are still lined up out the door.

Other cafés are now jumping in to make their own drinks more visually appealing, like Starbucks with their ‘black-glazed latte’ and ‘sweet pumpkin latte with shot.’ They’re selling colorful mixes in clear cups so drinkers can see the swirling mixes inside… and then share them on social media.

Don’t Panic, It’s Organic

In an interview with Korean media last year, a spokesman for the tea industry described a conspiracy that shows the level of mistrust between the coffee and tea industries. In 2007, Korean media ran a news story saying tea leaves were being treated to heavy doses of pesticides and pesticide residues. The message to viewers was clear: tea is tainted, and drinking it is risky.

Korean tea farmers were outraged.

 “Korea grows some of the cleanest, most organic tea in the world,” noted Yoo. Korean tea is well known in some circles for having less pesticide residue than Chinese teas. Tea farmers in Korea’s Hadong Valley were especially confused, since most farmers in the valley use zero pesticides on any crops including tea, and pick entirely by hand, making some of the cleanest tea in the region.

The news outlet soon ran a correction for the false story, but the damage was done. After watching the sharp rise in coffee sales that followed, tea farmers accused the coffee industry of using corporate money to influence the media and tilt the beverage market in their favor.

There is little to back up their claim, but the idea of pesticide residues and pollution are still top of mind for many Koreans — especially with air quality problems plaguing the country.

Those have led tea brands like FORMAY and others to highlight their teas as pollution and pesticide-free, while tea makers in Korea’s Hadong district are holding the line on pure, pesticide-free offerings to help combat smoggy skies.

 Wellness trends have helped lift the tea business and keep it relevant. In 2018, a stronger shift towards health-conscious consuming in the Korean market as a whole saw buzz words like “well-being” take hold. Companies like Korea Ginseng Corp have been able to ride this wave to somewhat higher sales.

 Korean society, and thus the food market, puts a high value on personal appearance. This is helping tea stay attractive as it promises to help tea drinkers maintain a healthy glow. To this day tea is believed to help in weight loss and also in detoxing the body, helping people to maintain a clear complexion and generally attractive appearance. According to a report from Euromonitor, lemon balm was a big factor in 2018’s tea sales, as the herb was used as an ingredient in skincare and anti-stress products while being espoused for its dietary benefits.

Whether brands in Korea and across Asia can maintain the momentum they’ve gained from health-conscious thinking and social media trendsetters like Tiger Sugar is yet to be seen. But markets change fast today, rewarding those who can mobilize quickly and capitalize on a trend during its uptick. It’s a market that rewards those who can strike while the iron is hot. And there’s plenty of evidence that tea is again reaching a boiling point.