Why Did I Create Tea Bonbons?
I wanted to let people have the joy of unwrapping a bonbon, like a kid, while savoring the aroma and other benefits of real tea!
A few years ago, over many sleepless nights, I thought about how I could extract the essence of traditional Chinese teas while rejuvenating the image and experience of Chinese tea culture.
First of all, it had to be convenient to drink. Loose-leaf tea is healthy, but when you have to mix a certain amount of leaves with a specific amount of water, non-habitual tea drinkers can be scared away.
Second most important was the quality of the tea. Tea bags are easy – yet the major tea brands often use tea 'dust' or 'fannings' (the lowest grades of tea leaf quality) from unidentifiable sources. I seldom drink tea made from a bag when I can't figure out what is actually inside it.
Third most important was the question of health benefits. I loved how my German colleagues exclaimed out of curiosity whenever I made a new "soup" with some rose hips, lotus leaves, or jujubes and goji berries.
I knew that these seasonal herbs and flowers have ways of enhancing one's wellbeing. It's ancient knowledge that I inherited from my own culture. Looking into my friends' eyes as they savored these drinks, I started to see how my new tea could be!
What if it were pressed into a little tea ball, and made from a blend of different ingredients, each of them good for the health or the palate, or both? Making sure that the logic of the recipes was based on Chinese traditional herbalism? Furthermore, I saw that we could package them into a 'candy' shape, which would let people recall the joy of unwrapping bonbons as children.
We could play with the design of the wrappers depending on the emotional needs of each specific time of day! Finally, after 9 months of research and development, our famous Tea Plays bonbons were born!
Tags: From Siyi
