Fancy paying P150 for a bottle of tea?
BRIGHT YELLOW packaging and a stylized label mostly devoid of information is how Ante Tea sets itself apart from its competitors in the bottled tea market.
The brand has a store in Makati’s Greenbelt 5, where the tea is cold-brewed and bottled. It has its merits: the tea comes in three flavors — Blacker Berry, Sunday Candy, and Ultralight Green — and discerning fans of rap stars Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, and Kanye West would know that the flavors are inspired by their hits.
It’s an edgy approach to bottled tea, which is sometimes seen as a stodgy drink. The tea — which costs P150 — is poured into a bottle then sealed when you buy it at the Greenbelt store. It is perishable, meant to be drank in a matter of hours, because it’s made fresh with no preservatives, and bits of herbs and fruits float around in the bottle.
Lorenzo Vega, founder of Ante, is also behind the Siklesa, a motorcycle-calesa hybrid, and the restaurant Sicilian Roast. “We are people who want to push things forward, who dare to be different,” said the 20-something in a black hoodie.
About the brand’s name, he said, “First of all, it kind of rolls of the tongue. Second of all, it has all these meanings to it.” He cites how it sounds a bit like “anti” as in “anti-establishment,” taking from the idiom “up the ante,” and the word “antecedent,” which means something that “existed before, or logically precedes another.”
But hasn’t bottled tea seen its day? People are now putting it down in favor of good, clean water. “As for bottled tea [having] seen its day, I can’t say that, because I know a lot of people who drink it,” he said.
Speaking about other people’s teas in the market, he said that it’s a misconception that Filipino like it sweet, resulting in big companies making their products a little too sweet. “You don’t taste the beautiful bitterness [of tea]. Essentially, you’re drinking sugar water.
“Whether or not bottled tea has seen its day, bottled tea has never seen Ante,” he declared.
Strip off the marketing, strip off the clever packaging, strip it of everything that makes Mr. Vega think his product is different, and what have you got?
“It’s a wonderful tasting product,” he said.
“What we wanted to do with tea was make it really, really cool.”
BusinessWorld took a sip from the Blacker Berry variety. It had a hint of what we think was raspberry, and had strawberries and mint leaves floating in it. It really wasn’t as sweet as other bottled teas, just as Mr. Vega described it. I wiped off the stray mint leaf that had travelled up to my upper lip. I came to a conclusion.
It was tea. —