Choi Tae-sook, head of Naturian, holds purple tea outside the Teeference store in Seoul’s Gangnam district on May 4. [Photo by Yoo Dae-gil, dbeorlf123@ajunews.com]
"We hope a cup of Teeference tea becomes an experience that elevates everyday life."
Choi Tae-sook, head of Naturian, said in an interview May 4 at Teeference Gangnam in Seoul that she wants the brand to take root as a wellness item that improves modern consumers’ quality of life.
Naturian operates the natural cosmetics brand ISOI. After entering the natural cosmetics market in 2009, the company launched tea brand Teeference in 2021. The name combines “tea” and “difference,” reflecting its aim to offer something distinctive even in a single cup.
Choi pointed to “purple tea” as Teeference’s key ingredient. She said purple tea is rich in anthocyanins, an antioxidant, and that the company judged it could be used not only as a cosmetics ingredient but also as a drink. She said Teeference was launched after seeing growth potential in the wellness market, which she described as focused on balance for body, mind and daily life.
Teeference’s signature menu, “Signature Purple Tea,” has a purple hue. Choi said the tea leaves come from plants grown at an altitude of 1,800 meters in Kenya. She said the leaves change from green to purple as they endure strong sunlight, which is how the tea got its name.
Teeference products are displayed inside an Olive Better store. [Photo=Teeference]
At launch, Teeference positioned itself as a premium tea brand targeting “style-conscious women in their 30s.” It sought department store placements, but the process was difficult because Korean department stores tend to favor imported tea brands. Teeference expanded opportunities by testing consumer response through pop-up stores, and it is now available at Hyundai Department Store’s Trade Center branch and at JW Marriott Seoul, among other locations.
Choi said growth accelerated after the brand entered CJ Olive Young. She said Teeference developed a powdered kombucha aimed at customers in their 20s who prefer powdered tea, adding British-made vitamins and 19 strains of probiotics. The product helped Teeference enter Olive Young in August last year, and it became popular enough to win an Olive Young Awards honor that year, she said.
Choi Tae-sook explains the purple tea ingredient at a Teeference store in Seoul’s Gangnam district on May 4. [Photo by Yoo Dae-gil, dbeorlf123@ajunews.com]
Choi said Teeference sales gained further momentum in January, when Olive Young opened “Olive Better” in Seoul’s Gwanghwamun area. Olive Better is a concept store that brings together health supplements, inner beauty and wellness products. Choi said she had high expectations because Olive Better could pull together what she described as a fragmented wellness market into a single hub. She said that after Teeference joined Olive Better in January, its monthly average sales rose more than fourfold compared with the previous five months.
She also said rising numbers of foreign shoppers at Olive Young are helping expand Teeference’s global visibility. Teeference began selling hyaluronic kombucha in February on the Japanese e-commerce platform Qoo10 Japan, and started selling purple tea there last month, she said.
Teeference plans to widen consumer engagement through Olive Better. Choi said the company will operate a tea bar at the Olive Better Gwanghwamun store from June to August, and will dispatch staff so visitors can sample products and hear explanations on site.
Teeference is also continuing support for ingredient-producing regions as it expands its business. The company said it supports a water purification project in Kenya, where purple tea is produced, so that for each purple tea product sold, one Kenyan child can have purified water to drink and wash with for one day.
Residents in Kenya pose for a photo after receiving support from Teeference’s clean-water project. [Photo=Teeference]
* This article has been translated by AI.
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