Speaker 1: This is E Drinks Singapore and I'm Cheryl Goh. Now
Speaker 1: it's really an understatement to say that Singaporeans, yes, we
Speaker 1: love our bubble tea, myself included, with more and more
Speaker 1: bubble tea chains popping up every year. You know, we
Speaker 1: as consumers, we are treated to so much variety, right,
Speaker 1: flavors and uh different toppings as well, but what if
Speaker 1: a tea chain has chosen.
Speaker 1: to have no toppings. Would it still be able to
Speaker 1: capture the hearts of Singaporeans? Well, that's exactly what the
Speaker 1: founders of Origin Tea House are challenging. Now they believe
Speaker 1: that in brewing tea the right way, well, the tea
Speaker 1: will speak for itself. So Origin Tea house's menu pairs
Speaker 1: fresh fruit and florals with hand chosen.
Speaker 1: And less common tea varieties from China and these include
Speaker 1: uh Jin Junmei and Yu Gui cha. So uh here
Speaker 1: to spotlight this pure authentic tea, we have Ethan King
Speaker 1: and Lee Wensi. They are the co-founders of Origin Tea House.
Speaker 1: It's nice to have both of you on the show. Welcome.
Speaker 1: Hello. Hi. OK, so you know you both of you,
Speaker 1: you believe in brewing tea the right way. What exactly
Speaker 1: is the right way?
Speaker 1: So in Singapore, a beverage, right, every cost of a
Speaker 1: beverage is like $5.06 dollars, $7 sometimes even up to
Speaker 1: $9 or $10 right? So I think we can establish
Speaker 1: the fact that it's already almost a luxury because that
Speaker 1: is the same price as a full meal in Singapore. Yeah, so,
Speaker 1: so the fact that if I were to visit a
Speaker 1: fine dining restaurant and somebody serves me canned food or
Speaker 1: processed food, I mean, you wouldn't really like it, right? So,
Speaker 1: same thing, so.
Speaker 1: It's an industrial norm to, you know, lump together a
Speaker 1: bunch of chemicals, addictives, and, you know, you know, come
Speaker 1: out with a bit of like a
Speaker 1: Misleading marketing and whatever, you know, let people know that
Speaker 1: this is a high quality beverage or or whatever they
Speaker 1: are doing. So, so what we feel like is, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: Singaporeans or consumers in general actually deserves to, you know,
Speaker 1: be treated right, you know, like not just uh.
Speaker 1: You know, uh, giving them like an emotional like satisfying
Speaker 1: the emotional need, but also I see the health and
Speaker 1: everything is also a very important part of the F&B
Speaker 1: industry and entire experience. So not necessarily something that's very
Speaker 1: trendy nowadays, right? Yeah, I mean it's important to make money, right?
Speaker 1: I get it, but you know, at the same time
Speaker 1: somebody has to be responsible for the consumers themselves and
Speaker 1: I think transparency of ingredients is really not practiced.
Speaker 1: You know, nowadays it's everything because for whatever reason it is,
Speaker 1: people have been using, it's an industrial norm to use
Speaker 1: heavily processed ingredients. Uh, I get it as a business owner,
Speaker 1: you can maximize the profits, but you know, is that
Speaker 1: really the right thing to do or you know, was
Speaker 1: that really the
Speaker 1: The original intentions of, you know, why people started F&B
Speaker 1: back in the past, so it also leads back to
Speaker 1: the reason why the name origin. Yeah, I can imagine
Speaker 1: the name origin tea house makes a lot of sense
Speaker 1: now and so you're really sticking to the to the
Speaker 1: to the roots of tea brewing. So we know that
Speaker 1: tea is a great alternative to coffee, but what are
Speaker 1: some of the natural properties of tea that make you both, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, such strong believers in the benefits of tea?
Speaker 1: For of this, right? I think, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people, you know, there's some that might say that,
Speaker 1: you know, it's not good, not that good, but actually
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, right, everything in moderate
Speaker 1: is actually pretty healthy. So I mean, I myself, I'm,
Speaker 1: I'm a, I drink a lot, honestly. When I'm at
Speaker 1: my shop, I probably drink like 56 cups a day
Speaker 1: of tea. Yeah, yeah. So and people will be wondering like, um, uh,
Speaker 1: are you sure will health be OK? Can you sleep
Speaker 1: at night and stuff, so.
Speaker 1: Actually, uh, tea that are of like better qualities and stuff,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't have, they wouldn't be so, they wouldn't make
Speaker 1: you be able to sleep or your heart palpate or
Speaker 1: anything like that so that the caffeine level wouldn't be
Speaker 1: that high. be harmful to the body, right, because there
Speaker 1: are some benefits here and there. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I mean there are some people that, yeah, they drank tea.
Speaker 1: I have friends that told me this personally like.
Speaker 1: Uh, they can't drink tea because if they do even coffee,
Speaker 1: when they do that, they even during the day, right,
Speaker 1: if they drink it, they will they will have heart palpation,
Speaker 1: they can't sleep at night, they will have restless night,
Speaker 1: but even after drinking tea, you know, they're still OK
Speaker 1: with it. So actually, uh, you know, tea is actually
Speaker 1: a very
Speaker 1: It's a very healthy thing, you know, yeah, so I
Speaker 1: mean they, they, they not only just improve your, you know,
Speaker 1: your blood pressure, your, your cardio health, they, you know,
Speaker 1: it actually also improves some gut health, reduce cancer and,
Speaker 1: you know, alleviates stress and anxiety as you can, you
Speaker 1: can tell when you know, you know, old people, they
Speaker 1: would just sit around and they would just drink some
Speaker 1: sort of, you know, you never see old people sit
Speaker 1: around and drink pot of like you know coffee or something.
Speaker 1: That's a really good point, Ethan, and just to share
Speaker 1: because I personally, I don't drink coffee at all, but
Speaker 1: I drink tea, a lot of tea. I really enjoy tea,
Speaker 1: green teas, white teas, black teas, uh, so I understand
Speaker 1: what you're saying about tea and you're right and then the,
Speaker 1: the good thing about tea is they're also caffeine-free versions,
Speaker 1: whereas coffee, uh, decaf coffee is like you might as
Speaker 1: well don't drink coffee, right? So I love that versatility
Speaker 1: about tea. Uh, I want to know how the both
Speaker 1: of you met and then start the started the ball
Speaker 1: rolling for Origin Tea House.
Speaker 1: Who's this? Uh, so we had like some mutual friends,
Speaker 1: so we see each other pretty often like on at
Speaker 1: dinners and stuff. So, you know, just one fine day
Speaker 1: we eventually exchanged contacts, started talking, hit off pretty well
Speaker 1: because I think we have very similar character in the
Speaker 1: sense that we have, we are able to think differently
Speaker 1: in the sense that if if I'm unhappy with a
Speaker 1: certain thing and Ethan is unhappy with a certain issue
Speaker 1: with me.
Speaker 1: You know, we can just scold each other off and
Speaker 1: you know, but we can still be cool the next
Speaker 1: second because I know that he's targeting this incident or
Speaker 1: this event and not me personally. So, so kind of
Speaker 1: you know respected each other in a way I feel
Speaker 1: like it makes me, you know, feel like maybe this
Speaker 1: guy could be a business partner and then one fine
Speaker 1: day while we were talking like, you know, what are
Speaker 1: we doing recently, we're just having a casual chat and
Speaker 1: Uh, Ethan actually proposed an idea and actually I was
Speaker 1: already acting on it, so like I was acting on
Speaker 1: it for like almost a month and uh just so
Speaker 1: coincidentally that yeah brought up the same topic so we're like,
Speaker 1: why not just join forces and it was it was
Speaker 1: it was it was really like, you know, you know sometimes.
Speaker 1: If you ask me, I mean, I think doing business, right,
Speaker 1: the hardest thing is to find someone that's aligned with you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, especially when it's the call team, it's really very
Speaker 1: hard to find someone like that. So I was really
Speaker 1: lucky that, you know, just nice when I was talking
Speaker 1: about this because I mean, I was very interested in
Speaker 1: doing this. And then when I was talking to Mi
Speaker 1: about this idea, and then he was like telling me
Speaker 1: I'm doing the same thing, you know. Oh, OK, then
Speaker 1: we we have to, then we have to, you know,
Speaker 1: discuss this thing more and then yeah, eventually became where
Speaker 1: we are. Yeah, OK, that's great.
Speaker 1: Uh, and so, so, so this whole collaboration brought you
Speaker 1: on a 13 month R&D journey in China. Tell us
Speaker 1: more about that whole experience and what you took away
Speaker 1: when it comes to 16 months, wow, that's even longer,
Speaker 1: more than a year. Yeah, tell us. I learned that
Speaker 1: it's it's really, really, really not easy. I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean we have we have been to places that can't
Speaker 1: even like you I think nobody will usually just go
Speaker 1: to those kind of places and
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, one of us fell into like the bushes,
Speaker 1: you know, and so did you go to like like
Speaker 1: the more ulu parts of China? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I can share the Jasmine part, so, um, uh, they'll
Speaker 1: say there is a little, I will call it a
Speaker 1: town in Guangxi, Guangxi province in China.
Speaker 1: So there's this little town called Hengxie. Apparently, you know, 80%
Speaker 1: of the jasmine flowers in the world comes from this
Speaker 1: particular town. So, but the town is really, you know,
Speaker 1: a town like what you expect.
Speaker 1: Like, even the toilets you have to squat down.
Speaker 1: But, but interestingly enough, it's uh it's very run down,
Speaker 1: about 70% of all the people living there are actually
Speaker 1: in the Jasmine farming business. So, but not as much
Speaker 1: as it's run down, you know, the food is great
Speaker 1: and I think the one most memorable incident is really.
Speaker 1: Uh, when I just got off the car, right, even
Speaker 1: the air smells like jasmine flowers must be very fragrant,
Speaker 1: because the entire place is like surrounded by jasmine farms
Speaker 1: and factories. Yeah, yeah, so that was one of the
Speaker 1: more incident, but I will say if anything that we learn, right, honestly.
Speaker 1: I will say it's like literally everything we know now,
Speaker 1: you know, we we actually like you're applying what you
Speaker 1: learned into your business, yeah, yeah, it's like from I
Speaker 1: think doing nothing to, you know, knowing, knowing a lot
Speaker 1: of like the industrial secrets and also because we also
Speaker 1: met like uh what's the word for it like mentors
Speaker 1: like mentors, yeah benefactors yeah OK.
Speaker 1: All right, that's cool. Um, I want to find out
Speaker 1: a bit more about the different types of tea that
Speaker 1: you offer at Origin because I understand you have pure milk,
Speaker 1: fruit tea and lattes. Can you tell us a bit
Speaker 1: more about the different variations? Yeah, you don't want to go. Yeah, OK, so, uh,
Speaker 1: for pure tea, right, we actually we have 5 kinds. Uh,
Speaker 1: let's start from the lightest, the lightest, uh, this two
Speaker 1: has flocent, which is our jasmine that we were just
Speaker 1: talking about it.
Speaker 1: Uh, jasmine green tea, I think that's the most common
Speaker 1: one that a lot of people know as well, right? So, uh,
Speaker 1: followed by Gardinia garina green tea, and then, uh, we
Speaker 1: continue to, uh, Yuui tea, yena we call it yena,
Speaker 1: so it's.
Speaker 1: Next, it's it's a special type of tea that you know,
Speaker 1: it's quite cool. So it actually doesn't grow like other
Speaker 1: normal tea, they actually grow in mountain creeks, you know,
Speaker 1: so their root goes deep into the creeks and all.
Speaker 1: So you absorb all the minerals, giving you this cinnamon taste.
Speaker 1: Yeah, followed by the next one, the Jin Jin Mei, so, uh,
Speaker 1: it's uh
Speaker 1: It's a type of hong cha, right, that hongcha is
Speaker 1: a red black tea, black tea, sorry, yeah, it's a black,
Speaker 1: it's not a black tea that you know I think
Speaker 1: that is like one of the most special one that
Speaker 1: we have also because.
Speaker 1: The tea leaves itself, right, it actually gives this honey scent,
Speaker 1: so it actually elevates elevates the sweetness of the tea while,
Speaker 1: you know what, still keeping the sugar level in check,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of people after they drank our tea,
Speaker 1: they ate.
Speaker 1: They they they thought there's a lot of sugar, but
Speaker 1: you know what, there's only like 5% of the entire drink.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, followed by Tang, I think a lot
Speaker 1: of people know that's quite famous, right? Yeah, yeah. So, uh,
Speaker 1: these are like the tea base that we have, uh,
Speaker 1: we can do it milk or without with milk or
Speaker 1: without milk, yeah. So another 11 that is quite cool
Speaker 1: is our tea espresso. So correct, so coffee drinkers will
Speaker 1: want to if that once an alternative, right, they can
Speaker 1: actually consider this because.
Speaker 1: I mean, the whole process of making coffee, you know, you,
Speaker 1: you get a coffee bean, you grind it, and then
Speaker 1: you jack it up into the machine, the espresso machine,
Speaker 1: and then it will, it will use high pressures, uh,
Speaker 1: steam and hot water to actually get the thing out, right? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so instead of coffee bean, we basically use a duck
Speaker 1: roasted cake wanting for this. Yeah, correct, correct. It's a
Speaker 1: very good alternative for people that's keen to explore because
Speaker 1: uh it's actually a lot.
Speaker 1: Uh, in my, in my opinion, I think it's a
Speaker 1: lot healthier than, you know, because it doesn't, uh, it
Speaker 1: doesn't give you the caffeine crush like coffee. What's the
Speaker 1: difference between a milk tea and a tea latte?
Speaker 1: OK, uh, it tastes like coffee. It's literally, uh, let
Speaker 1: me just add on this point. So, uh, the tea
Speaker 1: latte is intentionally designed to be a coffee alternative, right?
Speaker 1: Ethan mentioned because it tastes almost like coffee firstly because
Speaker 1: of the dark roasting of the taekwaning beef, and secondly
Speaker 1: it also uh it's a perfect alternative in the sense
Speaker 1: that Ethan also mentioned.
Speaker 1: There's no caffeine crash or jitters. So, you know, if
Speaker 1: you are a coffee drinker and you know you need
Speaker 1: 2 or 3 cups a day, I think the second cup, right,
Speaker 1: this could be a very good and it's also less
Speaker 1: stressful on your gastric. I drink a lot of coffee
Speaker 1: and I now I have a gastric depending on the
Speaker 1: days I might not be able to drink one.
Speaker 1: OK, so, um, my producer Janine, she went down to
Speaker 1: check you guys out and she said the Yuui cha
Speaker 1: was her favorite because it has a bit of a
Speaker 1: cinnamon taste that, you know, she really enjoyed, especially when
Speaker 1: it was paired with milk. I got to ask the
Speaker 1: two of you, what are your favorites at Origin tea?
Speaker 1: We see, what's your favorite? Yeah, it's a very complex profile,
Speaker 1: it's not just a cinnamon, you know, you get a
Speaker 1: very mild hint of also.
Speaker 1: Uh, nectar at the end, so it almost like a
Speaker 1: sweet finish, but at the same time it's very complex,
Speaker 1: it's multilayer. So, uh, I think that's the one that
Speaker 1: gets you hooked for the people who are willing to try.
Speaker 1: I'm definitely coming down to check you guys out. Ethan,
Speaker 1: what's your favorite?
Speaker 1: Mine, uh, OK, so I, I don't really drink. I'm
Speaker 1: lactose intolerant, so yeah, I try to avoid milk. I
Speaker 1: try to, but I still love milk, so I mean
Speaker 1: it's a love it situation here. So, uh, I usually
Speaker 1: just go for pure pure jasmine tea, pure jasmine green tea, so, uh,
Speaker 1: without sugar as well, so yeah, I try to take
Speaker 1: less sugar for me. Yeah, and I can imagine because Jasmine, uh,
Speaker 1: after you swallow the tea, there's a bit of that
Speaker 1: aftertaste that kind of lingers in your mouth as well, right?
Speaker 1: So that's really enjoyable. Yeah, I can imagine.
Speaker 1: Uh, how jasmine tea would be favorite as well. Uh,
Speaker 1: there's also a very nice tea that's quite popular. Can
Speaker 1: you tell me a bit about that one?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, uh, we use fresh strawberries for this, you know,
Speaker 1: it's delivered every day and then we prepare the strawberry
Speaker 1: puree in the morning before you know, serving it all.
Speaker 1: I mean, we usually just run out, you know, we
Speaker 1: would prepare it again. So there's actually 100 g of
Speaker 1: strawberry in every single cup of it.
Speaker 1: You know, it it it we we brought it in
Speaker 1: as a seasonal item, but yeah, I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be permanent. Yeah, OK, sounds sounds interesting. I mean, we're
Speaker 1: almost out of time, but I just want to ask
Speaker 1: before we let you go, I mean, obviously you guys
Speaker 1: are very committed to the authenticity of the tea and
Speaker 1: that's what you're trying to serve up with your customers.
Speaker 1: How do you hope to differentiate Origin tea house from
Speaker 1: all the other tea brands that are available in Singapore's market?
Speaker 1: So for us, right, it's very simple. We like to
Speaker 1: keep things basic, basic, uh, so it's really just 100%
Speaker 1: fresh and natural tea beverages, right? Just no, no frills,
Speaker 1: no fuss, right? If you want a good cup of tea,
Speaker 1: and you know you want to indulge in something like,
Speaker 1: you know, your favorite bowl.
Speaker 1: Wow, we are concerned about your health and you know, just,
Speaker 1: just come down, just use origin you'll be pleasantly surprised that,
Speaker 1: you know, a healthy drink can also be very tasty.
Speaker 1: I really regret missing the tasting that day but I
Speaker 1: had a meeting, so I will come and check you
Speaker 1: guys out on my own time. Ethan King and Lee Wensi,
Speaker 1: co-founders of Origin Tea House, they are located at 5
Speaker 1: Kada Ya La Street.
Speaker 1: 01-058 Kada, that's a mall. They open from 11 a.m.
Speaker 1: to 9:30 p.m. daily, but they close a little bit
Speaker 1: earlier on Sundays at 8 p.m. if you want to
Speaker 1: check them out online, Origin Tea House on Instagram. Ethan
Speaker 1: and WeC, I wish you all the best with what
Speaker 1: you're trying to do with Origin Tea House and I'm
Speaker 1: sure your commitment to authenticity will take you very far.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us on E Drink Singapore.
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. Thank you for letting us.