How does a plant tea launch relate to how to use a coffee pot?

Heytea launched the Cooling Slimming Bottle, the second drink in its Super Plant Tea series. Kale and bitter melon are the core ingredients, with apple, lemon water, tea infusion and white pomelo bits alongside them. Heytea says the drink uses 100 percent fresh ingredients, is squeezed fresh with no concentrated juice, and contains about 100 calories, roughly the calories of one apple.

Consumers responded well on the first day, reporting the bitter melon taste is mild and the drink refreshing, even with very little sugar. The popularity has strained store staff, since washing and juicing apples sharply increased back-of-house workload. This mirrors operational pressure in any drink setup, including how to use a coffee pot: fresh preparation volume, not the recipe alone, decides how fast a small team can serve.

HEYTEA recently launched the "Cooling & Slimming Bottle," the second product in its "Super Plant Tea" series, featuring kale and bitter melon as the core ingredients, paired with apple, lemon water, tea infusion, and white pomelo bits. The brand emphasizes that it uses 100% fresh ingredients, freshly squeezed with no added concentrated juice, and contains only about 100 calories. Just one day after launch, the new product won over young consumers, with many reporting that the bitter melon taste is not pronounced and the drink is refreshing and easy to consume. However, the popularity of this beverage has also put enormous pressure on store employees, as the workload of washing and juicing apples has surged, leaving back-of-house staff groaning. This article will walk you through the features of this new product, consumer feedback, and the real situation behind the scenes at stores.

HEYTEA officially launched the "Cooling & Slimming Bottle" yesterday, the second product in the brand's "Super Plant Tea" series. In this new drink, kale and bitter melon take the leading roles, with apple, lemon water, and tea infusion in supporting roles, while white pomelo bits join as a special guest.

According to the ingredient information released by HEYTEA, the drink uses 100% fresh kale and bitter melon, freshly squeezed into juice with no concentrated juice. In addition, the drink is labeled at only 100 calories, roughly equivalent to the calories of one apple.

Judging from feedback on social media so far, this new plant tea won the favor of young consumers just one day after launch—after all, today's young people know a thing or two about wellness.

When people, bracing themselves to endure bitterness, noted "no sugar" and requested double bitter melon juice, they found the taste was actually pretty good. Many netizens said that even if they normally dislike bitter melon, they can easily finish this new drink, because it has almost no bitter melon taste and isn't bitter at all.

Some customers reported that after choosing "very very little sugar," the bitter melon flavor was not prominent; instead, the added white pomelo bits brought a hint of the distinctive mild bitterness of pomelo. In addition, a small amount of fibrous sediment settles in the bottle, but it remains within an acceptable range.

In response, store staff explained: the secret to this bitter melon drink not being bitter is that the bitter melon is blanched before juicing, while apple, pomelo juice, and lemon pulp are added to balance the flavor. If no sugar is added, the bitter melon's sweet aftertaste will be relatively more noticeable.

Longtime HEYTEA fans who tried the new product right away said they personally felt it was not very different from the basic "Kale" version; if there is any difference, it might be a slightly more refreshing taste—after all, the official claim of "cooling" refers to removing the feeling of heat in daily life.

This is not HEYTEA's first foray into plant fruit-and-vegetable tea. Previously, the slimming bottle in the same series gained extremely high popularity in the market, and this new product is another strong release riding that momentum.

At the time, it was summer vacation, and the Paris Olympics sparked a wave of public enthusiasm for healthy exercise. HEYTEA partnered with ANTA Champions to launch the "Champion Slimming Bottle," officially entering the "plant fruit-and-vegetable tea circle," with the new product's core ingredient being "kale," originally from the Mediterranean.

This summer, "kale" has continued to gain popularity online, with many netizens calling it a "must-eat for summer fat loss" and a "bowel-movement miracle." Meanwhile, researchers have also found that it helps lower blood pressure and promote heart health, and the glucosinolates it contains may be the key component; this substance had previously been shown to lower blood pressure in animals.

It is understood that HEYTEA's first "Kale Slimming Bottle" exceeded 10 million bottles in sales within a month and a half of launch. It seems that young people who dislike eating vegetables truly have a soft spot for "kale" drinks—after all, who can resist a refreshing and healthy beverage?

However, while consumers enjoy drinking it, store workers are crying out in misery. As the "Cooling & Slimming Bottle" continues to sell well, some store staff have already pleaded for this slimming bottle to be taken off the menu.

The first problem is the endless washing of apples. Some staff said the young woman at the fruit station in the back kitchen was already exhausted. Bitter melon is actually easier to handle; what is truly laborious is the apple juice—frantically juicing apples, washing baskets upon baskets of apples, juicing baskets upon baskets of them, until store inventory was used up. Each juicing run takes 3 minutes, and 10 minutes' worth gets used up right away.

Some staff also sighed: are young people today really this fiery? Early in the morning, they already received a pile of orders for the "Cooling & Slimming Bottle." The coworker washing fruit is faced with piles of apples, and the coworker cutting fruit is about to face another day of chop, chop, chopping with no end in sight.

It seems stores would need to assign three back-of-house staff to satisfy HEYTEA's ambition to "avoid involution, pursue differentiation, and explore new categories."

Image source: Internet

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.