Bottles filled with tea from giant vats flash by, 900 per minute. Coca-Cola has invested about 40 billion yen ($360 million) since 2014 to double its assembly lines in Japan to nine and accommodate such aseptic production.Īt Coca-Cola's plant in Ebina, southwest of Tokyo, bottles and caps are splashed with a decontaminating chemical, and then rinsed with blasts of water. Unlike acidic bottled Coke, green tea requires special precautions during is bottling to prevent spoilage and preserve its flavor. Developed in partnership with 1,600-year-old Kyoto-based tea grower Kanbayashi Shunsho, Ayataka also is sold in Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan.Īds for Ayataka tea feature a taste test by Kyoto apprentice geishas and Japanese chefs vouching that its flavor is indistinguishable from tea from a teapot. That makes Ayataka, which sells for 140 yen ($1.30) for a half liter (1 pint) bottle, an important brand for Coca-Cola.

Over the past decade or so, green tea has grown into a 777 billion yen ($7.5 billion) packaged beverage market in Japan many Japanese now prefer tea conveniently packaged in plastic bottles, rather than steeped in teapots. 'Japanese consumers drink across beverage categories each and every day so I would say they have a much broader set of demands,' Shelton said. 'I have traveled the world for Coca-Cola, and I have never seen such a variety of products, and such an intensive pace of new launches,' he said. Matte Leao, an herbal tea extremely popular in Brazil, is an example of adapting to local tastes.īut the company's Japan operations take that to an extreme, said Raymond Shelton, senior executive officer for Coca-Cola East Japan. Other global top-sellers are Coke drinks or were added through acquisitions, such as Minute Maid and Matte Leao. The odds of having a hit are 'Maybe just three out of a thousand,' he said.Īmong 20 Coca-Cola global brands that bring in $1 billion or more in annual sales, four came from Japan: the Georgia coffee lineup Aquarius, a Gatorade-like drink I Lohas bottled water and Ayataka green tea. 'It is so difficult to survive,' Takashi Wasa, senior vice president at Coca-Cola Japan, told The Associated Press at the company's Tokyo headquarters. Among the most popular is Qoo, a water-drop-shaped forest creature designed to appeal to Japan's cult of the cute. Though its product offerings don't go quite that far, Coca-Cola has 850 different beverages in Japan alone, not counting discontinued brands. Instead, the notoriously fad-loving Japanese flit from one trend to another across an array of weird product offerings, such as soda drinks with odd flavors like smelly durian fruit or garlicky kimchee that mostly are attention-getting products intended for fun.

Number one spirit japan