When Steve Banyan, chairman and CEO of Crystal America (La Jolla, CA) looks into his Crystal ball he sees tea. Big deal - everybody's seen that. But before switching to tea leaves, he saw something more out of the ordinary. And that's the root of his new product.
"We wanted to produce an iced tea that is absolutely unique in the industry," says Banyan, whose line of Sparkling Crystal brought Strawberry Cabernet to New Age, "and we did in two ways. Number one, we came out in a 20-ounce private mold glass bottle, and number two, we added a substance to it which is called ginseng ."
The resulting potion is Crystal Ginseng Iced Tea and the magic ingredient, ginseng, an herb whose root has been used for medicinal purposes for six eons by Eastern cultures, give or take a century. "What ginseng really does is protect you against aging and decay," explains Banyan. If he has his way, it will also give Crystal a sharp point of difference in the ever crowded ready-to-drink tea market. Of the leading tea marketers, only Arizona produces one - brand new - with ginseng extract.
If differentiation in a competitive field is strong stuff, geranium is "the most powerful substance on the planet," according to Banyan. "It is basically what life is derived from," and that's the not-so-secret ingredient in ginseng , which in turn is said to be good for circulation, provides energy and promotes regeneration from stress and fatigue. A bonus for lovers: it is believed an aphrodisiac by knowing southeastern Asians.
"Ginseng has to be consumed daily for prolonged periods of time," explains Banyan. "It has to be consumed for 12 months before it takes effect because it has to become part of your system. I'm extremely excited about it myself because I am a customer and a firm believer in ginseng . If you look at someone who drinks ginseng every day, you see this glow on their face; the glow comes internally."
It probably doesn't come right from the root, however. That's beccause, in Banyan's words, ginseng has a "horrible taste - somewhere between poison and dirt" which is difficult to conceal, not to mention tough to sell. Crystal America spent two years in the lab trying everything short of sorcery to make the taste disappear. Blending teas from Ceylon, Brazil and Colombia, together with fructose and fruit flavors, "We finally did it," says Banyan, "and we thought it was quite miraculous."
To bewitch and bewilder, four flavor varieties - lemon, mango, peach and raspberry, with a diet lemon brewing - are packaged in 20-ounce widemouth glass bottles. To give the teas competitive prices, Crystal America curved its profit margin. Banyan: "If we were to price this according to profit margins of the industry we would have to come out at about $17 a case to the distributors because ginseng is very expensive; however, we're coming out at around $13 which is industry standard for 16-ounce cases."
To complement the iced tea line Crystal America has also introduced all natural Virgin Juice Cocktails in 20-ounce wide-mouth bottles. "They're very elegant looking, they taste wonderful and they contain between 5- and 12-percent juice," says Banyan. The virgins come in five flavors, including Natural Strawberry Cabernet, Natural Raspberry Guava, Natural Orange Passion, Natural Passion Peach and Natural Mango Tropical.
With the voodoo that they do, Crystal America will begin full production of both teas and juices in February of 1995, with US distribution targeted for March 1995. Recent establishment of licensees in Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia allow international distribution to coincide with national distribution. For the southeastern Asian market alone, Crystal America has set aside about $2 million for 1995 marketing, including television, radio and billboards. "We believe this will be a very successful venture there because generation after generation, for 6,000 years, knows ginseng quite well and the fact that there's a ginnseng out there that tastes like a fruit tea is fascinating to them."
- BY : Beth G. Fogarty
- SOURCE: Beverage World Periscope Edition1995.01.31
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