Christmas is just around the corner. If you have a tea-loving friend who has everything, what could you possibly give as a present? Well, the answer could very well be goldfish tea.
No, do not worry, it is not made of goldfish but this product by Charm Villa certainly looks like it. Charm Villa is a creative agency from Taipei, Taiwan and they launched goldfish tea as a limited edition product two years ago.
See image here.
"The goldfish in Asian culture represents wealth and good fortune," a Charm Villa represetative explained.
Once the teabag hits the water, it swells up. The thread is attached to the mouth of the teabag and, when pulled, resembles a swimming goldfish, Eater reported.
The tea itself is sourced from Taiwanese farms and there are currently four flavors to choose from: rose oolong tea, ruby black, jin xuan oolong, and oriental beauty. Each has an interesting backstory to go with its impressive packaging.
Rose oolong is sourced from organic rose petals taken from Nantou, a city in central Taiwan known for their tea farms surrounded by bamboo forests. Ruby black is a blend of black tea from Myanmar and wild tea from Taiwan.
Jin xuan oolong comes from Alishan, a mountain that has world-famous and high-elevation oolong. Lastly, oriental beauty is white-tipped oolong that are hand-picked for the Charm Villa goldfish tea.
Demand has not waned since then and supplies are typically sold out. It is, however, now available in the US through third parties on Amazon. One box of twelve teabags would go for $80 but it is originally priced at $35 in its home market.
Goldfish tea is made from Japanese fabric and Taiwanese tea. It was designed by 28 university students from St. Johns University in Taipei. The Charm Villa representative said, “There are 16 steps that go into making the teabag. Nine of those require manual, handicraft skill.” The rep added, “As for the details of the production, those are trade secrets.”
Goldfish tea has earned itself two prestigious awards since its launch: the iF Design Award 2015 for Discipline Packaging and the Red Dot Communication Design Award.
