Get set for summer!
With snow falling in April, summer may seem a long way off, but experts are predicting it’s going to be a scorcher, so there’s no better time to start thinking about your ‘sunshine stock’. Alongside the usual lashings of ice cream and frappes, Yum Cha are hoping to put iced tea back on menus this summer with their cordial style format of the drink.
By making iced tea as a dilutable, Yum Cha are able to offer a drink that tastes like home-made iced tea, unlike commercial ready-to-drink iced teas, which lose their tea flavour in processing and have to have added fruit flavours, such as peach and mango to compensate. RTD iced teas also have to be acidified, as part of the preservation process, and additional sugar has to be added to counter this. Yum Cha by contrast has the same low acidity as freshly brewed tea and so sugar levels can be less than half those of commercial iced teas, giving a truly thirst quenching and refreshing drink.
Alongside its taste and quality benefits, Yum Cha’s dilutable format also results in financial benefits. Bigger margins are possible for cafes as water and ice are simply added to Yum Cha, in the same way you would for a squash, to create an authentic iced tea – allowing for margins similar to those of hot drinks.
Alongside favourite Lemon Ceylon, Yum Cha also hope to lure customers with more exotic iced tea flavours such as Sour Plum, Moroccan Mint, Jasmine and Earl Grey, as well as fresh herb teas in the form of Elderflower and Nettle, all made using high quality natural ingredients sourced from around the globe.
[quote]“Commercial iced tea brands haven’t done the drink any favours and for reasons of their own have turned it from a light and deliciously refreshing summer drink into just another fruit flavoured sugary soft drink. Yum Cha showcases iced tea as it should be, just like home-made, while offering cafés and mobile outlets a financially viable summer alternative to coffee, more suitable than juices and fizzy drinks.”[/quote] – Guy Woodall, creator of Yum Cha Iced Teas