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South America

In Argentina Yerba mate is what’s in the cup.
Tea traditions in South America don’t just involve
tea. They also involve a beverage made from different
plants entirely but confusingly also called tea by the locals
and by various tea vendors: Yerba maté, usually part of a
typical breakfast in Argentina and is also served in early
evening along with pastries and savory snacks. Its place in
Argentinean culture goes back to the early 20th century.
Chile loves its afternoon “Dessert Tea.” but it also
drinks tea throughout the day, as well as other caffeinated
beverages, including coffee.
Brazil is riddled with tearooms, serving tea and buf-
fet meals comprised of local dishes like pork sausages,
black beans, and pigs’ feet, with rice and various boiled
greens.
Hot tea market of Latin America is developing quick-
ly, despite the stiff competition from the coffee market in
Latin America since people still prefer coffee over tea in
major part of South American region, yet demand for tea
is still growing both in the region and with exports on the
global market. In 2021 you can easily find Mate in Middle
Eastern countries, the US, Europe, Asia and Australia. Can
you take it away? Yes, and if you’re buying it outside of Can you take it way? Yes, almost all the popular fast UK, now you can see boba stores in most major streets. While
Argentina, it is usually bottled. food chains offer Sweet/Unsweet iced tea with their menus. it is still a growing in the UK, the Taiwan beverage is even
Despite the advent of coffee shops and specialty more popular in Germany, according to a market research by
North America coffee culture, the American specialty tea market has Mintel even McDonald’s has started serving it.
quadrupled in the years from 1993 to 2008, now being Bubble tea has conquered the streets of most European
In the United States tea is also in second place. Will Amer- worth $6.8 billion a year. cities and is so especially appealing to the younger generations
icans ever drink tea with the same devotion as coffee? Probably that GenZ is the bubble tea generation: they have been found
not and for two main reasons: one cultural and one historical. Europe to be six times more likely to consume it than any other gen-
Culturally tea is all about slowing down, while coffee’s apple lies eration. According to Decision Lab’s Foodservice Monitor
in the way it speeds things up. In a high performance, high result Let’s now travel to Europe, where coffee is once again their bubble tea passion lead to a huge surge in visits to bub-
driven culture it does not seem like there is any space for a hot dominating, but with one exception: Bubble Tea and GenZ’s ble tea shops during the past year while their indifference to
cup of tea. In the coffeehouses growth in the United States and love for it. Can you take it away? Yes, that’s what it was cre- coffee beverages partly explained the decline in visits to
coffee shops our leaf based beverage has some tough competition. ated for. coffee shops since 2017.
Historically, tea went from being a popular drink in the colonies Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it is hard not to Bubble tea is just one prominent example of how Gen Z
to the symbol of the British Empire exploiting the United States. notice Taiwan’s long-standing cultural food phenomenon that can influence the foodservice market in fundamental ways,
The South of United States, though, has a regional favorite is bubble tea (or boba). Bubble tea has taken the world by further emphasising why foodservice businesses should invest
called Sweet Tea, which is brewed, sweetened and chilled in storm, with bubble tea chains popping up like mushrooms. in understanding this generation.
advance. Unsweet tea also available in the South and together China saw the beginning of tea culture. Fast forward a A lot of countries do have their own tea culture and tea
with its sweet twin is a must in every Southern gathering. It is few thousand years it is now the pioneer of tea revolution: is globally a symbol of slow, convenient living, yet tea bever-
usually made with simple tea bags or iced tea mix, but it is a Bubble tea hails from 1980s Taiwan and it was an evolution ages are still not as popular as coffee ones.
cherished habit and an essential substitute to beers during bar- born from the country’s street tea vendors who began exper- The portability of tea is just the same as coffee’s: a hot/
becues. Few combos are as satisfying as a pulled pork slider and imenting with fruity favours and colour to entice customers. cold beverage in a to-go cup. So it is not a matter of how
an iced sweet tea. Four years ago bubble tea was relatively unknown in the convenient it is to take it away.

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