Tea concentrates are a growing trend in tea products, as Persistence Market Research reports the global tea concentrates market is expected to register a compound annual growth rate of 4.1% from 2018 to 2028. Two prominent tea producing companies, Unilever and ITO EN, have both recently released new tea concentrates.
According to Persistence Market Research, tea concentrates are essentially concentrated tea brews that get diluted for preparation to serve. Tea concentrates offer a convenient means for various types of foodservice establishments that may not have tea brewing equipment to provide tea for large numbers of customers. The growing demand for tea provides an incentive for foodservice establishments to have tea available for customers; and tea concentrates offer ease in terms of shipping, storage and preparation.
Furthermore, tea concentrates are available in an increasing variety offlavors, giving foodservice establishments more options to offer to customers.
Judith Zethof, Marketing Director of Unilever FoodSolutions, North America, said regarding tea concentrates, “It’s a solutionthat is very easy to prepare, so you don’t need a trained staff to do it. Itreally takes very little time. You can offer a lot of variety and excitingflavors without the more difficult solutions—like fresh brewed iced tea in abulk format.”
TAZO Tea Concentrates were developed by Steven Smith, and then the TAZO brand was sold to Starbucks in 1999. Unilever acquired TAZO from Starbucks in November 2017. In May 2019, Unilever announced the availability of TAZO Tea Concentrates for restaurants across North America. Prior to the acquisition, TAZO tea concentrates were available primarily in Starbucks cafes and in limited distribution; and Unilever chose to make the tea concentrates available to all foodservice operators. Now, the concentrates can be purchased from distributors and online at https://www.unileverfoodsolutions.us/.
This move on Unilever’s part reflects the consumerdemand for more tea options on menus. “For example, the matcha latte is reallygrowing on menus for operators, so we want to give them a quick and easysolution to prepare this product in restaurants, in bars, in cafes, in hotels,”Zethof said. Unilever offers concentrated lattes and iced teas. TAZO originallyoffered a Chai Latte Concentrate, and Unilever added to the chai collectionwith the addition of the Skinny Chai and Decaf Chai in May 2019. They also launched their Green Tea Matcha Lattethat month. A Pumpkin Spice Latte will be a seasonal offering in Autumn. Interms of iced teas, they offer bulk green tea and black tea, both with andwithout sugar, Peachy Green Tea and Passion Tea.
“[Tea concentrates] offer a very important role in thetea portfolio,” said Zethof, and added they are ideal for establishments thatwant to work with smaller batches and have limited staff but still want tooffer variety. The tea concentrates can also be used in tea cocktails andmocktails and can be incorporated into cooking. In this sense, each restaurantcan customize the tea concentrates to its liking and one product can be usedfor several different menu items.
Robert Wallauer, Corporate Chef at Unilever FoodSolutions, said, “[Tea concentrates] really do allow for the operators to havea lot of fun and drive a really profitable component of their menu. [Teaconcentrates] allow them to create a premium drink for not a whole lot of costor labor.”
Unilever will continue to track consumer trends, suchas flavors and functional ingredients, when considering product developmentwith the intention of offering business operators easy solutions to upgradingand diversifying their menus with items that are on trend, noted Zethof.
ITO EN is also on trend with its recent debut of its new Matcha LoveGreen Tea Concentrate, which launched at the Summer Fancy Food Show New York inJune. The convenient format eliminates the need for a matcha bowl and whisk,yet people can still experience the health benefits of matcha.
“We created an operationallyfriendly way to incorporate matcha into any menu, whether for food service orfor home use” said Rona Tison, executive vice president of corporate relationsfor ITO EN (North America) INC. “The no fuss preparation makes matcha recipesapproachable and more efficient in high volume operations. Using our teaexpertise, we made sure we did not compromise in taste or flavor, nor thequality of the matcha powder.”