1. Tell us about Ainriver Market and Ainriver Dawon.

Ainriver Dawon is a tea brand that captures the beautiful tea culture and four seasons of Korea. It is a new tea brand launched by Namhae’s representative local brand, Ainriver Market, which offers differentiated products with historic tradition and quality. We self-produce our tea from Boseong and Namhae, and our product R&D is all done with our in-house manufacturing facilities, without outsourcing anything from tea ingredient selection to tea production.

2. What inspired the creation of ‘Tea Cakes : Ainriver Flavored Tea’?

There is a long-standing tea plantation at Yongmunsa Temple in Namhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, which was on the verge of disappearing because nobody wanted to carry the torch. That is why we created the brand ‘Ainriver Dawon’ – to inherit the beautiful tea culture of our ancestors by researching and developing various blends of tea from Namhae.

3. What aspect did you focus on the most while developing the product?

More than anything, we focused on maintaining the consistency and the quality of the raw ingredients. The tea we manufacture uses 100% domestic green tea leaves. We meticulously select tea leaves cultivated at our tea plantations in Boseong and Namhae. Additionally, we have worked hard to create premium packaging using paulownia boxes and traditional knot wrapping. To enhance consumer convenience, we adopted individual tea packages for easy consumption.

4. What challenges did you encounter during the production process?

Long ago, tea cakes played a central role in Korea’s tea culture. However, with the changes in beverage culture impacted by rapid industrialization, and with traditional tea production facing near extinction, consumption of tea cake plummeted and is nearly vanished in our lives. Growing tea ourselves and mastering traditional production techniques to revive Korea's traditional tea culture is undoubtedly challenging, but we take pride in choosing this path.

5. What was most memorable moment during this contest?

I vividly remember the moment when, after extensive consideration and research to enhance the product’s marketability, we finally visualized our goals for the product. That sense of fulfillment stands out the most.

6. What are Ainriver Market’s future plans and aspirations?

We plan on continuing business based on three agendas. We want to expand our brand image as a licensed ‘rural convergence industry’ business, and expand across the country by co-operating with local brands of different regions. Lastly, we seek to set up a global distribution network by making a multi-lingual website. By concentrating our effort on establishing a mass distribution system, we aspire to be a national brand and a global brand that contributes to the creation of local value.