The Japanese non-alcoholic beverage company Kirin Beverage is reaching back to the most traditional of Japanese refreshments: tea. After a long dependence on a sweet British-style afternoon tea, meant to be politely sipped, Kirin Beverage launched "Nama-cha," a mild and bracing green tea. The latter sparked a sales boom of unsweetened tea that Japanese people are now drinking by the 500-ml bottle as hot and steamy summer arrives, reports Dow Jones Newswire. Kirin Beverage is now launching "Kiki-cha", a Taiwanese-style oolong tea. According to analyst Keiko Sasaki of UBS Warburg, in the medium and long term, the unsweetened tea market should expand as consumers are more and more looking for healthy products. She claims the market should grow 30 per cent this year. Between January and May, Nama-cha sold 11.5 million cases, which represent 38 per cent of the company's 30 million-case annual target; and Kikicha sold 3.6 million cases. And that is before the summer hits. Source: Dow Jones Newswire
