Changing coffee-mad Thais into a nation of tea drinkers may seem an impossible mission, but Englishman John Cornish is confident that there's room for Britain's favourite brew to grow in Bangkok.

The international marketing director of R Twining and Co Ltd, one of the world's best known speciality tea suppliers, points out that afternoon tea is all about taste and style, attitudes that are compatible with Thailand's rising middle class.

Cornish has every reason to envisage a strong presence for Twinings in the Asian market now that the company's ever-growing client list has stretched to 150 countries.

Just like tea making, conquering Asian markets is an art: it requires observation, patience and knowledge of the local flavour. And Cornish has been observing the tea-drinking trend in Thailand for a while.

"There's definitely an increasing interest in the ritual of tea drinking. Middle-class Thai women enjoy going to have tea in the lobby lounge of four or five-star hotels around 3 or 4pm.

"It's a very pleasant environment with high quality tea and cakes. When people go home, they like to try tea instead of coffee. That's why green and black teas are so popular," he says, also pointing to the influence of Japanese food on the popularity of green tea among Thais.

Cornish, who was based in Bangkok in 1996, regards the Kingdom as an important Asian market.

"Thailand has the most potential in the short term. In the long term, it's China. The No 1 priority for Thailand is to really understand what makes consumers say 'yes, I'll take Twinings'." he says.

His confidence suggests that Thai consumers are already on their way to accepting the tea drinking lifestyle.

He doesn't refute this. "An element of it is related to the Twinings brand. It sort of says 'I know my tea because I'm buying Twinings.'"

The same trend is noticeable in other Asian nations too, including China, the Philippines and Indonesia. Of all these key markets, China is the toughest despite the opportunities. What amazes Cornish about China is the rise of the middle class in big cities who, he says, are "looking for something different.

"We'll be pushing our speciality black tea. We can't tell the Chinese about green tea - they know their teas! What they do want is a reassurance of better quality and image.

"And the English Twining tea

works very with the Shanghai type

of consumer. We are making real inroads."

Cornish is shy about revealing the information about China that he has. But he admits that the company's marketing surveys show that the country's consumers are willing to try something new.

The trend is not exclusive to China, which is why Twinings' 100 plus blends are doing well throughout the region.

The company has been helped by the wave of health consciousness that's sweeping the world. "The global trend for eating healthily is putting us in a fabulous position," says Cornish.

"We offer teas that are far healthier than coffee. Our flavoured green teas and herbal infusions have caught on with young women.

"The herbal infusions are seen as cleansing. Many of today's consumers are very aware of caffeine intake. So our peppermint and camomile teas are extremely popular.

Helping the health consciousness trend along is Asia's economic growth, which has upped purchasing power. Ultimately this helps define consumer behaviour.

"People want to try something different from what they had as a child. When I was growing up in Britain, you didn't drink bottled water. You went to the tap," he recalls.

"Now people have bottled water at home. As a child, I didn't drink Twinings because my family couldn't afford it.

"But now people are buying Twinings, filtered coffee, pure olive oil. If you walk around London today, you'll see the explosion of different restaurants, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese. People want to experiment. The trends are putting us in a fabulous position."

 Englishness is Twinings' No 1 strength as well as its strategy.  "Most people say nobody knows tea like the English. And no brand is more English than Twinings. That's our real competitive edge."

And Twinings is by far and away Britain's oldest, founded by Thomas Twining in 1706 with the first shop in Strand, which still remains to this day. Its founder claimed it was the world's first tea and coffee shop, which over time concentrated on blending and selling dry tea.

When Thomas died in 1741, his son Daniel inherited the business and began exporting, initially to America with high-profile customers like the governor of Boston.

The tea business has passed down the generations and is now represented by Stephen HB Twining who joined the firm in 1985.

The shop has changed little over the past 300 years and still offers the finest quality tea in the original premises.

"Twinings is not a massive food company that does tea as well. Even though we are part of Associated British Foods (a result of the 1964 takeover), the management team is focused on tea.

"The British think that nobody does coffee better than the Italians. Twinings is like that really," says Cornish.

Despite the threat of coffee in London, tea enjoys the pride of place in British society and is part of the national identity.

Cornish believes nothing can change its place even though previous attempts at marketing tea along the lines of famous coffee shop chains have failed.

"People have tried in Britain to do a type of Starbuck's for tea.

"But it didn't work. The reason lies in the difference between tea and coffee for the British.

"Coffee is seen as very sociable, extroverted and stylish, but tea is much more at home, personal and seen as a friend, something like a blanket you wrap around you, something you grow up with."

Twinings has undertaken taste profiles in different countries to help it spread the unique character of the English tea worldwide.

"Italians like a light refreshing tea, the British a stronger, darker tea," says Cornish.

"The biggest challenge is making sure that the taste is distinctive but right for the palate in those markets. For example, in Thailand we are introducing flavours and blends that complement the spicy Thai food.

"It's about raising the delivery with the more robust flavour. In China, we need to be a little more delicate with our flavour.

To get the best taste, Twinings buys the best-quality leaves mainly from China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya. Its green tea comes from China, for example.

As Twinings does not own tea plantations, the company has representatives in each of the main tea markets who will buy tea leaves on a weekly and monthly basis.

"We basically build relationships with independent growers.

"So if it ever happens that the quality goes down, we can go to a different grower.

"It's not unheard of that we end up calling our competitors too, and ask if they have any green tea because sometimes the market runs out," he says, adding that currently the market is trading in premium white tea.

Much of Cornish's up-to-the-minute knowledge comes from Stephen Twining, the company's roving tea ambassador.

The two frequently travel to Asia, encouraging people to experiment with new blends.

"Our message to all markets this year is go out and try something new," he says with a smile.

Manote Tripathi

The Nation

LONDON