80-year herbal tea store undergoes transformation

80-year herbal tea store undergoes transformation

2023-11-23

Today we take you to an herbal tea store that has 80 years of history. The store’s third-generation owner, Jovial Kuo, decided to reinvent the brand by using herbal tea to create products such as perfume, jewelry, and more. FTV reporter Stephany Yang spoke to the Kuo to find out how she’s revitalizing the industry, while still maintaining her family traditions.

Kuo makes herbal tea, carefully pouring it into a cup. Through adjustments to the formulation and packaging of herbal tea, she hopes to reinvent the image of herbal tea, making it exquisite.

Jovial Kuo
Owner
I used to work at a luxury shoe manufacturer in China. After I came back, I wanted to transform the industry, making it to be more about gifts and luxury products. Our teas are all sourced directly from the origin. After cleaning, we dry it and process it into tea bags. It used to take a long time to brew traditional herb tea, about half an hour or more. Now through our roasting process, you can brew it directly with hot water. We adjusted the formula because many young people find traditional herb tea to be bitter and not tasty.

Kuo also made this snack using fruits grown on herbal tea farms.

Jovial Kuo
Owner
Only small farmers who do not use pesticides or fertilizers can grow herbal tea. There are also many fruits grown in tea orchards, and many of those fruits can be brought into people’s everyday lives. Pineapples roasted at low temperatures tastes very good and chewy. Citrus is cooked with rock sugar and we add honey after 60 hours. It tastes very unique. The dried longan is removed with a tool and roasted at a low temperature. Our production areas range widely. Some of the fruits are produced by small farmers who have cooperated with my grandparents for 70-80 years. We always visit the production site ourselves.

This herbal tea store has an 80-year history. Kuo, who is the store’s third-generation owner, decided to build her own brand five years ago. She worked in China for a few years and decided to come back to Taiwan to continue her family’s legacy, because she noticed the herbal tea industry slowly disappearing. Since returning to Taiwan, she’s created a fashionable herbal tea lifestyle brand. The store uses hand-picked herbal tea from Taiwanese farms to create herbal teas and products such as perfume, jewelry, and more.

Jovial Kuo
Owner
I started my business about five years ago because I found that the herbal tea industry was declining. I feared that herbal tea stores may slowly disappear in the next 10 years. I wanted to transform herbal tea, make it relevant to life, and make it easy to choose and use. For example, in the form of tea and bath tea bags. In addition, we turned herbal tea into fragrance-based products that can be used for healing. In the future, we will also develop some plant-based and herbal tea eye masks, which can be reused and are environmentally friendly. My family is very supportive of what we are doing. I hope to expand our products internationally. I hope to work on the packaging and have the opportunity to expand overseas because Taiwan is most famous for black tea and oolong tea. I hope that the good flavors of herbal tea can be promoted internationally.

Kuo hopes to continue her family’s legacy of herbal teas and one day introduce her products internationally.

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轉型古早味青草茶打造全新青草新風格

2023-11-23

今天我們帶大家看看一家擁有80年歷史的青草茶店。第三代店主郭紋君決定重塑品牌，利用青草茶打造香氛、珠寶等產品。她是如何延續傳統同時振興青草茶行業? 一起來了解。

將青草茶倒入杯中，郭紋君透過調整青草茶配方和包裝，希望重塑青草茶的形象，使其更精緻。

[[業者郭紋君]]
"以前外派在中國，做精品鞋代工廠，回來後，想要做轉型，變得比較可以做禮品或是精品感。我們的茶都是產地溯源，洗乾淨後，我們再把它乾燥做成茶包。大家會發現以前煮青草茶要很久，大概要半個小時以上，我們現在就是透過我們的烘培的製成，回去可以直接熱泡，我們調整配方，怕年輕人覺得苦，不好喝"

郭紋君還會用自己種植的果物製作小點心。

[[業者郭紋君]]
"小農基本上不噴農藥也不施肥，才能能夠種得出青草，因為裡面也有很多果物，每個園區，很多果物也很適合拿來進入民眾生活。鳳梨是低溫烘烤，吃起來很Q，柑橘是用冰糖熬60個小時再加入蜂蜜，吃起來有很獨特的香味。桂圓乾的部分是用工具撥下來低溫烘烤的。我們產地很廣泛的，有一些是從爺爺奶奶他們合作下來的70至80年的小農的產地。我們都會去產地看過。"

這家青草茶已有80年的歷史。郭紋君是第三代繼承人，五年前決定創立自己的品牌。在中國工作幾年後，決定回到台灣繼承家族生意，因為她發現青草茶產業已漸漸衰弱。回台創立時尚青草茶生活品牌，店內採用台灣農場手工採摘的青草，來打造青草茶及青草茶香氛、珠寶等產品。

[[業者郭紋君]]
"我大概是五年前創業，因為發現青草這個產業在凋零，所以未來10年就看不到青草茶店的文化，所以才會想要轉型，把它跟生活有關，很輕鬆做挑選跟使用，比如說，生活上可以喝的茶、泡澡包，另外轉型成香氛類，可以療癒的商品，因為未來會開發一些植物類、青草類的眼罩，可以是重複使用的環保相關的。家裡對我們像在做的事情滿支持的，我希望賣到國外去，希望可以把完整包裝，有機會到海外去，因為台灣最有名的是紅茶及烏龍茶，希望可以把青草茶，這個好味道推到國際上。"

郭紋君希望持續將家族的青草茶生意傳承下去，有天能將她的產品推向國際。

更多新聞內容，請鎖定：
民視台灣台（152頻道）週日至週五晚上9:30
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