A twist in the tea: Yili seeks to capture new consumer base with twist-top RTD range

13-Aug-2024 - Last updated on 13-Aug-2024 at 02:19 GMT

Yili has ventured into the ready-to-drink (RTD) tea segment with an entirely new product concept dubbed the ‘instant brewed tea’ under its INIKIN brand. ©Yili

China dairy giant Yili has ventured into the ready-to-drink (RTD) tea segment with an entirely new product concept dubbed the ‘instant brewed tea’ under its INIKIN brand as it looks to capture a new base of local consumers.

Yili’s INIKIN brand was first developed for its bottled volcanic rock-filtered mineral water range back in 2019, and the new tea products continue to use this branding as it uses INIKIN volcanic water as a core ingredient.

“INIKIN products are designed to be clean label, and these instant brewed teas are no different as they contain just two ingredients which are good quality water and good quality tea,” Yili Shanghai Branch General Manager Baoguang Wang told the floor at the Food and Beverage Innovation Forum (FBIF) 2024.

“The instant brewed tea concept is reliant on our new twist-cap technology, where we have put tea that was freeze-dried at -40°C into the cap and this will be released when the cap is twisted, dropping the tea into the water bottle.

“The tea is instantly mixed with the water, and because it was freeze-dried it has not undergone any oxidation or change in taste so the end-taste after mixing with the water is the same as brewed tea.”

Yili’s technology allows for the tea to be evenly mixed with the mineral water even at regular room temperature and claims that the tea has additional health benefits due to the natural presence of natural minerals in the volcanic water.

“The tea will be ready for consumption in just three seconds, and the volcanic water also gives it a naturally alkaline feature and hint of sweetness,” he added.

“That said, this product contains zero sugar, calories or additives hence is still very clean label, and fits well into the category of both healthier drinking choices and RTD teas which are both trending in China.”

The INIKIN tea range is currently available in two variants which are jasmine green tea and oolong tea.

From dairy to tea

Discussing the turn Yili has taken to enter the tea category, Wang said that this decision was due to both beverage trends as well as healthier product demands in the market.

“We have a very mature dairy business, and we realised that we also wanted to explore more types of beverages that can appeal to more consumers, so given that RTD tea in particular has been very popular we decided to bring our own twist into it,” he said.

“Consumers are constantly demanding more when it comes to products that can enhance their health and wellness, and there is a space that dairy can fill very well for this but there is also a space where beverages such as tea come into play in a more significant way.

“Within the beverage space, there is consistently a lot of innovation when it comes to the areas of flavours, ingredients and so on – but we felt that there was a real space for reinvention to capture that novelty factor as well.

“As such, the main goal here was to use new technology to accommodate these consumer demands, hence the patented twist-cap technology that is the first on the market, and has garnered a lot of attention and interest from consumers.”