Tea is catching on in China -not hot in mugs but cold,bottled and sometimes even fruit-flavored.

The "new" beverage is expected to give other soft drinks a run for their money on the mainland.

Participants in the China Inter-national Food Products Exhibition, running until Friday at Shanghai's Everbright Convention and Exhibition Center,see tea drinks accounting for a quarter of the beverage market in a few years, double the ratio now.

Also doubling,they believe,will be the number of plastic bottles of ready-to-drink tea consumed this summer.About 42 million cases,each holding 15 bottles,are expected to be sold from June to August.

Cold bottled oolong tea has long been popular in Japan,and companies like Suntory introduced the product to China in the early 1990s.

The response was enthusiastic,and now you can also find cold green and black tea.Some manufacturers enliven their drinks with apple juice,lemon juice or lemon and honey.

"Low sugar content,refreshment and the cultural factor are helping tea to challenge fizzy and dairy beverages,"Zhao Yali,deputy chairman of the China Soft Drink Industry Association,said Wednesday.

"Processed tea products are gaining popularity among young consumers as they are easy to drink and keep," Zhao said.

Almost all international beverage makers doing business in China,from Kirin to Coca-Cola,have added tea to their lines.

"Orders have almost exceeded production capability since February,"said Lian Guoqin,general manager of Dongshan Greenland Foods Co.of Fujian Province,which bottles tea for producers including the Taiwan-based Uni-President.

"Beverage makers obviously have been paying more attention to tea drinks than other products in recent years,and hopefully the situation will continue,"Lian said.

Noh Hiroaki,sales marketing manager for Kirin,said the brewer turned general beverage company had introduced two brands and five flavors of ready-to-drink tea to the domestic market during the past year.

( People's Daily May 23, 2002)