With the rapid development of hundreds of billions of new Chinese tea, consumers’ choices are getting healthier and healthier, and the proportion of fruit tea in the consumption ratio of head brands such as Xicha and Naixue has increased linearly. With the upgrading and maturity of the fruit supply chain and industrial chain, among the fruit tea products originally limited to store consumption scenes, the pre-packaged fruit tea brands that cover higher frequency consumption and fragmented consumption scenes are emerging.
36Kr learned that the consumer brand "Wei BACK" launched an independent sub-brand "Otter Ton" in 2021, which is positioned in the pre-packaged super-instant fruit tea product series. At present, there are four flavors: kumquat lemon, pineapple duo duo, jasmine orange and passion fruit without sucrose, all of which are the explosive flavors of offline traditional brand fruit tea shops. According to founder Wang Zhixiang, the otter has won the first place in Tmall’s "Drinking Juice" list the following month since its online test.
According to founder Wang Zhixiang, "super-instant fruit tea block" means that tons of otters can melt in liquid for 3 seconds and turn into a whole cup of fruit tea, which contains complete fruit slices. This product is soluble in all beverage liquids, and different drinks such as water, yogurt, sparkling water, sparkling wine, coffee, yakult, etc. can be mixed with different tastes. After being brewed with coffee, it is a cup of fruit coffee which is popular among young people at present.
In terms of price, otter tons are positioned between 8 and 10 yuan. "China consumers don’t need to cultivate their habits of tea. This price is not too stressful for daily consumption, and there are more scenarios for otters. High-frequency office scenes, as well as fragmented business meetings and travel, can be carried with you, that is, instant drinking." The founder of Otter Tonton told 36Kr.
There are three main reasons for cutting into the field of fruit tea: 1) Fruit tea has lower calories, which is in line with the healthy trend of the consumer market. A cup of milk tea usually has 300-500 calories, even zero sucrose milk tea often has more calories than 200 calories. Tons of otter ultra-soluble fruit tea is based on fruit, and the calories of a single cup of 250-300ML are only 60 calories, which is only 1/8 of the calories of milk tea, which is a standard low-calorie drink. 2) The base of fruit tea is fruit, with rich varieties and diverse flavors, which meet the more personalized consumption needs of young people; 3) Tons of otters realized by freeze-drying fresh extraction technology are easy to carry and drink, which can meet the "saving trouble" demand of young consumers without waiting in line for take-out.
The problems encountered in the development of this scheme are: the taste of fruit juice is greatly lost in the process of purification and dissolution, how to preserve the flavor and nutrition? For another example, the previous prepackaged fruit tea products mainly consisted of sun-dried fruit slices soaked in water and tea bags. How to get the whole piece of fruit after a cup of tea is soaked, and keep the user’s surprise and perception of fruit tea?
According to Wang Zhixiang, the otter ton team started research and development in 2019. After more than 400 product flavor and freeze-drying tests, the original fresh extraction freeze-drying technology finally solved the problems in the production and reduction of the above fruit tea. The core technology includes two modules: super-extraction and FD freeze-drying molding. Simply put, a variety of fruits (and tea) are physically mixed and extracted through a self-developed super-extraction kettle to obtain the original juice of fruit tea freeze-drying, which is non-destructive and pollution-free. After the original juice is concentrated, it is subjected to FD freeze-drying for several times to cool down and step sublimation, and a complete super-instant freeze-dried fruit tea block is obtained. At present, the technical solution has applied for a national patent.
At present, Tonton Otter covers mainstream platforms and content communities such as Tmall, Tik Tok, Xiaohongshu, WeChat WeChat official account, etc., and has been recommended by Li Jiaqi and Luo Yonghao for many times during the testing period. The number of spontaneous notes taken by consumers on Xiaohongshu platform also exceeds 5,000, and the reading volume of related topics in Weibo exceeds 10 million. With the development of the project, tons of otters will be stationed in the community group purchase channel to make efforts in the offline market. From the online test at the end of August 2020 to the beginning of 2021, the sales of otters totaled 14 million tons.
Regarding the team, the founder Wang Zhixiang has 12 years of experience in Internet product distribution. He once served as the operation director of Shanda and Xunlei, leading the monthly product flow of tens of millions, and served as the CEO of the "Otter Ton" project, responsible for project management and market development; Ding Mao, the founder of Sichuan University, is a food major with 15 years of experience in food supply chain management. He once worked in Zhengguanzhuang, AEON Group, responsible for product development and supply chain management, and served as COO in the "Otter Ton" project, responsible for product development and supply chain management.
The project was officially launched on April 15, and is currently seeking angel round investment.
