Tea has long played a distinct cultural role, particularly in the UK, where it is in many ways a national symbol, representing a particular set of national values and social moments. Tea has long been associated either with a down-to-earth relatability and everyday Britishness, or with refined, polite sophistication (as found in an afternoon tea setting). Much tea branding has, as a result, reflected these cultural associations in pack design and language – for example with delicate floral patterns suggesting china designs or imagery of a pastoral English countryside. In addition, whilst coffee has long had a historical role as a drink consumed out of home, in public (and political or creative) settings, tea is traditionally consumed in domestic settings, offering a calmer sense of coziness, comfort, and reliability. Tea branding is increasingly shaking off this unchanging heritage, however, and claiming a new role for the beverage for contemporary consumers who are ever-increasingly conscious of wellness and desiring of products whose packs reinforce their lifestyles and overall aesthetics.

For some brands, the heritage of tea continues to be significant, but is evolving to shed old-fashioned associations and showcase how the past can be relevant in the present. One way this is achieved is by highlighting associations with naturalness and the sourcing of ingredients from garden-like spaces, which offers a sense of nostalgia and domestic comfort while appealing to contemporary wellness desires. Newby tea, for example, adopts the visual style of ‘clean’ minimalism with mostly-white packs and black capitalised typography highlighting the desirable simplicity of the product within. However colourful illustrations of botanicals emerging from the brandmark suggest an idealised bucolic calm – longed for in busy modern lives – emanating from the brand’s teas and infusions. Likewise some of Fortnum & Mason’s new tea packaging features apparently hand-painted, slightly stylised illustrations of familiar fruits like oranges and strawberries, recalling imagery associated with quaint Britishness (similar to the ceramics of Emma Bridgewater), playing with this cozy nostalgia in a way that feels up-to-date with modern values on naturalness and hand-crafted food and drink.

Even Selfridges’ own brand teas play on the idea that tea is a British basic, but with a sleek, design-led minimalist look that suggests sometimes less-is-more and what’s classic can stand the test of time for a reason. Their colourful but monochrome, illustration-free boxes of tea bags, with sans serif font stating simply “TEA” or “British Peppermint” have connotations of contemporary high-end dining where simple, local ingredients are listed as the building blocks of excellent cooking. And this straightforward language and visual style suggests there’s nothing bad added, only trustworthy, quality ingredients and taste benefits. In their unique ways, each of these brands is embracing an evolution of heritage, showcasing how what’s tried and tested offers modern benefits like emotional comfort and natural healthfulness.

At the same time, brands such as Lab Tonica are reframing how tea is enjoyed, and the benefits it offers. With grid imagery and numericals within boxes, Lab Tonica suggests the periodic table of elements reimagined for various tea varieties, communicating the potential chemical (physical) benefits of consuming tea and other botanical infusions. In this sense tea is modern medicine, broken down to its simplest parts in order to get the most out of it.

These (re)discovered and reframed tea benefits are also evident in coffee shops and even tea-specific shops like Jenki and Chai Guys. Through these spaces, as well as the offerings of chains like Blank Street, we are seeing tea-based drinks increasingly taking the place of coffee as an out of home beverage of choice. As we discussed in our recent podcast episode on coffee, matcha drinks have been rising in popularity, and are carving out a new cultural space for tea. Through the popularity of matcha lattes, tea is beginning to carve out some cultural capital from coffee. Whilst tea is not a direct replacement for coffee – in fact in many cases it’s seen as a desirable alternative with health benefits – it is increasingly linked to out of home social occasions and especially as an object to be displayed on social media (as a branded coffee cup or elaborate latte art might be.)

As part of this cultural evolution, brands like Jenki tea are creating entire hospitality concepts centred around matcha. The Jenki brand features a lightning-bolt style symbol with rounded points, suggesting the energising but gentle boost offered by the caffeine in tea, highlighting the tea as a healthy and approachable way to perform better in daily life. Their matcha shops also feature highly curated interiors with a range of creative ways to incorporate matcha into food and drink rituals, from matcha lattes to fruit-filled smoothies to soft serve ice cream. In comms as well, Jenki highlights how matcha provides a desirable alternative to coffee, going so far as to make coffee seem like a rudimentary, unpleasant drink of the past. Their website points out the improved energy benefits of matcha (6 hours, vs 1-2 hours followed by a crash from coffee), the superior “feeling” induced (“Super focused. Super calm. Super on it. Super human”), and better personal aesthetic benefits (no bad breath, no yellowed teeth). In this sense matcha is the productivity drink of the future, for people who know how to take care of themselves and make the most out of life. These claims, paired with an instagrammable out of home experience that rivals the atmosphere of specialty coffee shops, positions tea in an entirely new light, as an aspirational drink of the modern worker and person-about-town.

And this tea trend is not only for out of home enjoyment. Brands offering products for in-home consumption are also showcasing tea’s new cultural role. Ceremony matcha is one example, which uses contemporary design and playful illustrations to show how the benefits of matcha can be adopted into contemporary urban lifestyles, beyond formal tea ceremonies in its country of origin. Imagery on pack features a short comic-strip style illustration in which drinking matcha is part of a daily routine (just after showering) but allows for a beneficial mental break in the day, in the form of “liquid meditation”. The simple imagery and straightforward language suggest the ease and approachability of gaining the benefits of the daily tea drink. And the name “Ceremony” here plays on the idea of a new daily ritual for busy consumers who want to find calm and wellbeing in their lives, aligning with other wellness trends like mindfulness and meditation. Again, rather than a frantic burst of fuel, tea is increasingly offering a gentle route to both physical and mental boosts, to assist in increasingly cluttered lives.

Overall, this classic staple drink is claiming new cultural relevance both in and out of home, and stretching beyond offering either predictable simplicity or old-world refined heritage. Whether through re-imagining how familiar flavours and formats (like Breakfast tea and Peppermint infusions) by drawing on their natural goodness and desirable nostalgic pleasure, or through introducing entirely new formats that push the boundaries of how tea has conventionally been consumed in the UK (matcha affogato, anyone?), tea has room to play as an aspirational drink for the health-conscious and premium-shopping consumer.

3 Key Takeaways for brands:

  1. Tea has an opportunity to take up cultural space from coffee and other drinks associated with out of home, on-the-go occasions. Consider highlighting the energy and wellness benefits of tea products in a way that fits in with contemporary habits and rituals, and formats and visuals that align with social media trends around food and drink to take tea out of its old-fashioned heritage.

  2. Beyond tea, products that are steeped in heritage and nostalgia don‘t need to feel stuck in the past; consider where elements of that heritage can be transformed into contemporary benefits, and how nostalgia can offer a positive (but not necessarily conservative) emotional attribute for consumers.

  3. With products that are adopted from other cultures (like matcha) consider how they can be incorporated into local lifestyles and cultures while still honouring their original roots to offer an experience beyond functional benefits.

Isobel Grad, Project Director

Tea Time is Moving with the Times: How tea brands can capitalise on cultural change