[OUR STORY] From Cold Shoulders to a Clearer Vision: Our Tea Brand (PART 2)

That initial success from our launch felt great, but 2024 brought a whole new challenge.

We launched two more flavors -- Royal Oolong and Milky Oolong -- in Q2. The same, beautifully crafted tea with the right price tag. We had teas we were proud of and a sales goal in mind, so we started reaching out to cafes all over Seoul.

Frankly, we got a lot of polite 'no's.' Those cold shoulders taught us a valuable lesson, fast.

We realized the problem wasn't just that we were new. It was how people thought about tea in the first place. For many cafes, tea was just the less-caffeine option or the "fun drink with the colors and boba" on the menu. The main reason for choosing a tea was simply, "I'll have tea because I've already had too much coffee."

We knew our tea was more than that, and that we had to change the conversation. So, 2024 became the year we tried to answer a big question: how do we give people a better reason to choose tea?

Getting Out There

To change the story, we had to tell it ourselves—in person.

We stepped away from cold calls and focused on the community. We started  entering fairs, hosting small tea classes, sponsored a few local events, and did some volunteer work, all to show people that tea didn't have to be "traditional" or "difficult." We wanted to prove how accessible and interesting it could be.

This was our very first exhibition. Can you see the stitching on the wall scrolls? The folds, and the fabric yanked everywhere?

There's a first time for everything. We weren't about to spend thousands on decorations, just to get approval on the visuals from customers.

The Moment Things Clicked

These events basically became our classroom.

We listened to every question and every comment. We weren't just trying to sell a product anymore; we were trying to start a new conversation around tea, showing that there was room for everyone.

All that listening and sharing led to an incredible opportunity toward the end of the year: I was invited to teach a regular monthly tea class at the Amorepacific headquarters. The theme was "Finding My Own Taste in Tea."

While Amore is a huge cosmetics conglomerate, they also have a well-known tea brand called O'Sulloc and make deliberate efforts in helping find their inner beauty.

This was more than just a class—it was a real breakthrough.

"Do you like tea?"

"Yes, but I don't really know much about tea, so I want to learn more about it." 

Why do people take an academic approach on tea? 

Having these honest conversations with the visitors, helping them figure out what they truly liked opened our eyes to what customers actually wanted and proved that people were ready for a new way to approach tea, one based on personal joy instead of strict rules or fancy knowledge.

What the Crowds Told Us

We felt that same energy when we took our teas to different events. We saw what we believed in come to life. With no fancy marketing or artificial flavors, our teas managed to stand out. They came back for our tea, our lessons, our attentiveness, and renewed interest in enjoying their break time.

People were curious about the clean, complex flavors coming from just the tea leaves themselves.

Maybe our products stood out because they were just tea—good quality, carefully crafted, and nothing else. It was the best feeling to see our simple approach not just noticed, but genuinely appreciated.

A New Dream Began to Form

By the end of 2024, we started to see our future more clearly.

The classes at Amorepacific and the feedback from the fairs gave us a new sense of mission. I wasn't just happy with curating anymore; my head was full of ideas.

The real turning point was realizing that I wanted to create even more diverse and unique flavor profiles, but I was determined to do it by sticking to our principles of introducing great tea at a great price.

To do that right—to really innovate and make the new teas our community was asking for—we needed more control. We needed our own space to experiment, to perfect our craft, and to create.

The path forward was suddenly obvious. The year that began with cold shoulders ended with a bold and exciting new dream. We started building our own factory.