Datamonitor likes Tg for naturalness and functionality

You may have read on drinktg.com about what motivated Hua and I to develop Tg, ancient wellness traditions blended into refreshingly delicious hot & chilled brews. We also say that our iced Tg Green Teas are like nothing you have ever tried before. Since we both are fed up reading ridiculous - and often irresponsible - claims made by food & drink brands, we want you to understand why say we this and why Datamonitor likes Tg for naturalness and functionality.

People are asking more and more for two things from their drink choices, namely (i) get rid of the "bad stuff" and (ii) put in more "good stuff".

By "bad stuff", people mean high levels of sugar and calories as well as artificial sweeteners, colours and preservatives. We have all started reading more closely the labels on our everyday food & drink choices. Most of what we have read shocked us. We didn't imagine just how many calories were actually in a small bottle of Tropicana juice [300ml, 144cal, 30g sugar] selected in a meal deal. We did a double take when we saw how much sugar was in an Innocent smoothie [250ml, 133cal, 28g sugar] that we drank instead of having an apple [77cal, 15g sugar]. We also discovered through "Dr Google" just how bad many of the unpronounceable additives and artificial ingredients are that are "hidden" in stuff we eat and drink. Given also our increased consciousness about healthy nutrition and the role natural products play in helping us to live better, more people are chosing natural and recognisable (in nature) food & drink.

Hua and I applied this knowledge/insight in the development of our iced Tg Green Teas. For instance, we don't use tea "extract" like many other iced teas in the market; instead we use a naturally brewed tea infusion. We don't use flavour enhancers like Coca-Cola [500ml, 210cal, 54g sugar] and Liptons [500ml, 150cal, 34g sugar] do (phosphoric acid and malic acid respectively). 

We don't hide loads of sugar by adding in fruit juice just so that we can write "no added sugar" on the bottle label (a weird labelling rule that favours juice companies thanks to lobbyists); instead we add 7g of natural cane sugar and say so plainly on the label. We refuse to use aspartame, sucralose or other artificial sweeteners that leading health authorities advise we should avoid or consume with caution. We don't use any artificial colours or preservatives, period.

Consciousness for a healthier way of life is also leading people to look carefully at what a beverage "can do for them".

Green tea is one of those ingredients that people know is good for them, partly because of thousands of years of traditional use. It is one of the most searched-for phrases on Google, far higher than coconut water and any of the "new age" drinks like birch water (the latter pricey plant sap most definitely best left for forest animals).

More recently, hard research into green tea's benefits has provided even more reasons to add green tea to our daily drink choices:

"There is now an overwhelming body of research from around the world indicating that drinking tea can enhance human health. The many bioactive compounds in tea appear to impact virtually every cell in the body to help improve health outcomes". Jeffrey Blumberg PhD, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Centre on Aging.

Mindful of consumers' desire for "boosted" functionality from their drinks, we delved into ancient wellness traditions of the Middle Kingdom to find ingredients - some familiar and some excitingly new (to us at least) - which could offer even more benefits than "just" green tea. Each of the major ingredients used in our drinks - ginseng, jujube, mandarin - comes from the same traditional source of wellness ingredients (unlike other "energy" / "functional" drinks which feature pick 'n mix type blends). The use of a "common source" reflects both traditional beliefs that the mixing and pairing of these ingredients offer synergistic effects and our authentic brand values.

Datamonitor thinks Tg Green Teas are a great example of natural supplementation offering boosted functionality

Datamonitor, a global independent market research company, searches the globe on a regular basis for consumer and innovation trends, including "ready to drink" tea. They reported in this year's report (published March 2015) that Tg Green Tea is one of only a small handful of new and innovative beverages available anywhere in the world that delivers in a refreshing, convenient and unique way the increasing demand for both "naturalness" and boosted functionality! Tg Green Teas!! A little beverage brand we started up from our kitchen table in a tiny flat in west London using our own savings (of course with the help of a Growth Voucher and a few small grants from other public organisations)! 

So this is why say our iced Tg Green Teas are like nothing you have ever tried before. This is definitely no pricey plant sap. This is Tg. Smart. Sassy. Social. Drink^up.