A "completely new" way to drink tea! Just dissolve PonCha in water or hot water! Easy and eco-friendly PonCha, Two new flavors will be available on January 25 (Thursday)!

～A teahouse that has been in business for 56 years is taking on the challenge of developing a new market by developing a "freeze-dried tea" product.

2024.01.22 15:00

株式会社菱和園

Ryowaen Corporation (Headquarters: Takaza-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture; Representative: Hitoko Yamada) will begin selling two new flavors of PonCha freeze-dried tea, "Mixed Fruit Tea" and "Honey Black Tea," on January 25, 2024 (Thursday), allowing users to drink authentic tea anytime, anywhere by simply dissolving one in water or hot water. (Thursday), January 25, 2024. By strengthening its lineup of slightly sweet flavors, Ryowaen aims to increase awareness and expand sales channels by meeting the needs of its female and child customers, as well as for gifts.

Ryowaen official website: https://www.hishiwaen.com/

PonCha official page: https://poncha.jp/

PonCha now has a new flavor!

What is PonCha? PonCha is a company that aims to promote "freeze-dried tea" that allows people to enjoy the original flavor of tea leaves in a "convenient" way.

While the consumption of leaf tea per household has decreased by more than 30% in the past 15 years due to the shift away from teapots, the annual consumption of tea beverages in PET bottles has been increasing (according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, August 2023). As the demand for "convenience" in tea has been increasing, we invented "freeze-dried tea" in order to make it "easy to drink anywhere" with the original flavor of tea leaves like leaf tea. We at Ryowaen, with over 50 years of experience in carefully selecting tea leaves from all over Japan, spent three years developing the technology to condense the flavor of tea leaves into a "single grain" using the freeze-drying method. In March 2023, we commercialized and started selling "PonCha," which allows you to drink delicious tea just by dissolving a single tea leaf in water or hot water.

Just pop one grain in! No garbage! The variety of ways to drink PonCha has been well received, leading to the development of new flavors.

PonCha is lightweight, weighing only about 1 g per grain, and is very convenient to carry around because it does not come in individual packages and generates no waste. Therefore, PonCha is popular not only at home, but also on trips, walks, outdoor activities such as children's excursions, athletic meets, training camps, etc., as souvenirs for foreigners, for use in offices, and as gifts. In response to the requests from female customers for a sweeter flavor, we have decided to develop and release a new flavor.

■Two new flavors, "Mixed Fruit Tea" and "Honey Black Tea," are now available!

In addition to the three existing PonCha flavors of "Matcha", "Green Tea", and "Rooibos", Ryowazono will start selling "Mixed Fruit Tea" (626 yen including tax) and "Honey Black Tea" (626 yen including tax) from January 25, 2024 (Thursday) at Ryowazono's online store and some mass retailers nationwide. Fruit tea and honey black tea will also be available. Fruit tea and honey black tea have become popular online, especially among women, and we have created a taste that is easy to drink without being too sweet, while at the same time enhancing the aroma.

PonCha package - 2 new flavors

PonCha package - 5 flavors in total

PonCha hopes to develop a new way of drinking tea and a new market with its freeze-dried teas, and to increase the number of tea lovers.

In the future, we intend to take advantage of PonCha's "authentic, easy, environmentally friendly, eco-friendly, solid, and lightweight" characteristics to (1) further expand sales channels on the Internet and in supermarkets and bring new ways to enjoy tea to general consumers, and (2) develop new markets in partnership with other industries (for example, travel agencies, airlines, temples, lunch box shops, welfare facilities, etc.) (2) to develop new markets with other industries (e.g., travel agencies, airlines, temples, box lunch shops, welfare facilities, etc.) As a result, we would be very happy if the number of occasions and opportunities to drink tea increases, and if the number of tea lovers in the world increases, even if only a little.

Product Outline

Product name: PonCha Mixed Fruit Tea

　　　　　　 PonCha Honey Black Tea

Date of release : January 25, 2024 (Thursday)

Price ： 626 yen each (tax included)

Content ： 13g each (10 pieces)/package

Sales channels: Online, some mass merchandisers and retailers

URL: https://poncha.jp/

Company Profile

Company name: Ryowazono Co.

Representative: Hitoko Yamada

Location: 1134 Kurami, Samukawa-cho, Takaza-gun, Kanagawa Prefecture