Renewal of Suntory Green Tea Iyemon

Innovation in the 227th year of Kyoto Fukujuen. A refined Iyemon

Suntory Beverage & Food Limited (SBF) announces the launch of a newly revamped version of Suntory Green Tea Iyemon, scheduled for release on March 7 (Tuesday) throughout Japan.

Iyemon has a richly delicious flavor, which is achieved by using Japanese tea leaves carefully selected by a “chasho” (master tea blender) from the venerable tea company Fukujuen in Kyoto. As such, it has proved hugely popular since its launch in 2004. With 55.4 million cases (106% YoY) sold, total sales volume remained favorable in 2016.
With the growth of the green tea market and consumers transitioning from loose leaf tea boiled in a pot to PET bottle tea, SBF decided to conduct a major revamping of flavor and packaging in order to offer the truly delicious tea our customers desire.
We gathered loose leaf tea from around Japan and conducted tasting surveys with over 2,000 participants to discover what constitutes the ideal tea. We then revamped our product to create a PET bottle product with the color, aroma, and flavor of the ideal tea.

●About flavor
We use 100% domestically produced ichibancha^*1, the most ever for an Iyemon product, carefully selected by the "chasho" (master tea blender) of Fukujuen, to achieve a vivid dark green color, a clear, crisp aroma that excites the senses, and an elegant, rich flavor. We combine tea leaf fine grinding control technology^*2 used since the launch of the product with conventional green tea grinding to add different sized tea granules and achieve a rich yet smooth taste.

*1: Ichibancha: Tea leaves from the year’s first harvest in autumn and winter that feature greater umami.

*2: Tea leaf fine grinding control technology: Controls the size of the tea leaf granules.

●Packaging Design
Keeping the original bottle design of based on the bamboo motif, we used gradation to express elegant color of tea to create a simple design that is immediately recognizable as tea from Kyoto Fukujuen.
The 525ml product features a bar code designed in resemble bamboo.

●About promotion
Using the key message of “Innovation in the 227th year of Kyoto Fukujuen. A refined Iyemon”, we will focus on TV commercials to promote the new revamped Iyemon.

- Memo - 

●About Iyemon renewal
▼Product overview

*Vending machines only

▼Release date　　　　March 7, 2017 (Tuesday)

▼Region　　　　Nationwide

▼Suntory Green Tea Iyemon website (Japanese only)  http://iyemon.jp/