It's one of the most widely consumed beverages in the world, and while Australian's may be moving away from traditional black tea blends, the herbal and green tea market continues to thrive. In fact, organic green tea was the fastest growing segment in the tea sector over the past year, as consumers become more aware of its potential health benefits.
Now, they're going mad for matcha, a powdered green tea which has been consumed in Japan for centuries, and it's creating a booming opportunity for tea lovers around the country.
Mai Nguyen has been in the tea business for two years. The 27-year-old opened a Chatime bubble tea franchise in Adelaide, and has since opened an online tea store, Matcha Asylum.
"I've always loved matcha, even before Chatime. I visited Japan a couple of years ago and matcha is huge over there, it's really embedded in their culture," explains Mai.
She imports her matcha powder direct from a green tea plantation in Kyoto, Japan.
Mai sources her matcha powder direct from a green tea plantation in Kyoto, Japan. Source: SBS
"I've selected really high-grade premium matcha which has a really sweet profile. It's a much more potent form of green tea because you're consuming the whole green tea leaf. There are a lot more antioxidants in there than your regular green tea."
While still working in her franchise business full time, Mai is using a recipe blog and social-media-influencers to build her matcha brand, and hopes to take on the business full time within the next 12 months.
"Once influencers receive the matcha some will then create recipes and post the recipe with a photo of the food or dessert, sweet or the drink," explains Mai.
"I have noticed that it increases the activity on our pages, on our blogs and our Instagram page, as an influencer posts something we do get a lot more activity."
"Customer perception is everything so as soon as if they see custom packaging it builds trust and it's a way to let customers know they are receiving a quality product".
Mai uses Australia Post's custom packaging service BrandWrapped to design her own parcel boxes. Source: SBS
While Mai currently sells her matcha online, she has big plans for the future.
"I would love to expand the range to include protein powders and supplements with matcha incorporated in there," says Mai.
"We would love to grow from the online store, I'd love to be able to wholesale the product and to have it in cafes, that would be a dream come true."
