Kaytea takes up residence within Marks & Spencer’s Mai Sushi
Kaytea is a cold brew tea in a hurry! Already listed in every Sushi Gourmet site within Sainsbury’s, Partridges and Abel & Cole, 2023 saw everyone’s favourite sunglasses wearing koala take up residence within Marks & Spencer’s Mai Sushi estate in February.
Until recently its been Kaytea’s Jasmine Grapefruit and Lemon Zest that have been leading the line online, within the indies and Kaytea’s1st tentative steps into the multiples.
However the brand’s increasingly robust ties with sushi and Kevin Tang’s enduring appreciation of cult brands like Yo! Sushi, means that a more exotic flavour alliance championing the illustrious Japanese Yuzu is perfectly primed to win hearts & minds.
The UK iced tea market is already worth £114m and is projected to hit £285m by 2024.
Yuzu for anyone who isn’t an expert of the exotic fruit bowl is a small rotund, bumpy orange, the unlikely lovechild of a mandarin orange meets papeda which packs a seriously citrusy punch which pairs seamlessly with sweet floral peach.
Iced tea in the UK is only just starting to find its feet in the UK having trailed North America, Mediterranean Europe and The Middle East when it comes to cold brew tea appreciation. Although Liptons has been a significant brand in the UK for decades, there’s a growing clamour for iced teas made with real tea leaves and not mass-produced commercial powders produced on an industrial scale.
According to Kaytea founder, Kevin Tang, “There’s a growing clamour for clean deck soft drinks that provides refreshment that doesn’t come at the expense of health (ie not rammed full of artificial sweeteners). Perhaps more importantly there’s a cry for undiluted transparency which is why we proudly talk about our drink making no spurious health claims. Of course, we could have sprinkled a handful of manmade vitamins within our drinks to claim some arbitrary functional prowess, but in truth we’d rather be known for nailing refreshment!”
From an export perspective Kaytea already sells to Dean & Deluca (Kuwait) and was recently at Gulfood working alongside The Department for Business and Trade to champion clean-deck British soft drinks.
