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Find Balance Between Gelato and Tea comment that the final product starts with the pineapple
flavor and ends with Da Hong Pao, nicely balancing the
Different teas are baked in different states, each taste layers of multiple ingredients,” Nico said.
with a special technique. John tells us his three common Special for its creative flavors, Gelato is never
ways to make tea-flavored ice cream: using grinded tea bothered with the question of how to keep up innovation
powder or concentrated sauce made from strong tea, or while only focusing on tea. Ice Kirin Bar recently un-
even cooking the tea directly in ice cream syrup. veiled its Daifuku ice cream. The Japanese Daifuku
“Each of these methods has its own characteristics. dessert can be traced back to the Muromachi Era, more
The result may be completely different even if the same than 400 years ago. Though it is more like a “nice-to-
tea leaves are used,” he added. have” option for customers rather than an innovative
Gelato is very sensitive to the balance of liquid, attempt, “it sold quite well beyond expectations, and
solid and gas, and the variation of tea absorption remains brought in a lot of new customers.”
a challenge. Nico said the most difficult part of the pro- Nico mentioned, “We firmly believe that innovation
cess is to find the best balance of tea and Gelato, because comes from the integration of local features, flavors and
the original tea flavor may be lost after the tea is mixed seasonal characteristics. We will dive deep into the in-
with milk, leading to an unsatisfyingly light tea flavor. novative presence of localized taste. This is the next
The time of tea extraction and the seasonal flavor chang- direction.” As for consumers, Nico noticed that young
es may affect the final taste and color of Gelato. There- customers are highly receptive to the taste of tea. It’s
fore, it is important to adjust the amount of tea and the easy to bring a new concept to them, but more difficult
degree of tea extraction according to tea changes in to get good feedback.
different seasons, so as to ensure a stable taste and tex- To some extent, this has made consumers sensitive
ture of Gelato. to the price. “The high price comes with the imported
In addition, although there is a great variety of tea, raw materials and machines; our ice cream is 100% made
not every tea has a prominent flavor. That’s why not of milk. We can lower the price if domestic factories can
every product from Ice Kirin Bar and Go! Cha Cha is carry out the Research and Development of the machines
purely tea flavor; the two stores sometimes make “over- and raw materials,” Nico said.
lays”. For example, Go! Cha Cha launched a pineapple Among thousands of tea varieties, Japanese matcha
Da Hong Pao flavor. “The oolong tea Da Hong Pao has a flavor has been taken as a classic intoxicant to tea-flavor
mellow flavor, and its fragrance can’t be noticed with a lovers. Is it possible to offer more tea flavors? It should
first bite. It can go very well with fruit. Our customers only be a matter of time.

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