Gong Cha () is a tea drink franchise founded in 2006 in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City ( Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Ka ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. Gong Cha expanded to

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in 2009, and by 2012 had further expanded internationally to

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, the

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, the

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, the

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, and

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Name

The name is a combination of the

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

s “,” meaning contribution or tribute, and “,” referring to tea. Together meaning "Tribute tea".

History

Gong Cha, which translates to “tribute tea for the emperor”, was founded in 2006 in

. Gong Cha's first

store was established in 2009 by a

native who had lived in

for five years. As of 2012 it had about forty-six stores in

, mainly in

MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

stations and shopping centers, but that number has dropped to five due to decreased business from several health and safety scandals. Gong Cha serves a total of about fifty-seven different drinks, which can be divided into seven types: house specials, brewed tea, milk tea, "Creative Mix",

coffee Coffee is a drink prepared from roasted coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content. It is the most popular hot drink in the world. Seeds of ...

, "Healthy Series", and ice smoothies. They also offer drinks in medium and large sizes. Gong Cha also offers tea sets and tea in stores, such as Bi-Luo-Chun Green Tea and Darjeeling Spring Tea. In some locations they also offer food, a new recent addition being "Mochi Waffles". In 2017, 70% of ownership was sold to Kim Yeo-jin (), owner of Gong Cha Korea, Gong Cha's Korea franchisee, with backing from private equity firm Unison Capital. In January 2017, Gong Cha's main headquarters was acquired by Gong Cha Korea. CEO Kim Soo-Min has announced plans to reach out into the Middle East and Latin America, while promising to "change everything but the taste". In 2019, TA Associates agreed to provide growth investment to Gong Cha and later bought 100% of Gong Cha Korea. UK company GC Group BIDCO Limited bought the remaining 30% in the same year, with GC Group BIDCO renamed to Gong Cha Global in 2020, moving the global headquarters to UK.

2011 Taiwan food scandal

In May 2011, a scandal broke out in Taiwan when many drinks were found to contain

DEHP Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate, diethylhexyl phthalate, diisooctyl phthalate, DEHP; incorrectly — dioctyl phthalate, DIOP) is an organic compound with the formula C6H4(CO2C8H17)2. DEHP is the most common member of the cl ...

, a

plasticiser A plasticizer ( UK: plasticiser) is a substance that is added to a material to make it softer and more flexible, to increase its plasticity, to decrease its viscosity, and/or to decrease friction during its handling in manufacture. Plasticize ...

which was added as a

clouding agent Clouding agents or cloudifiers are a type of food additive used to make beverages such as fruit juices to look more cloudy, and thus more natural-looking and visually appealing, typically by creating an emulsion of oil droplets. Natural fruit ju ...

in order to improve the appearance of the drinks. Ingestion of DEHP is known to cause heart problems and to affect male genital development. Even though Gong Cha's products were proved to contain no DEHP, the sales record of its branch in

Causeway Bay Causeway Bay is an area and a bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, straddling the border of the Eastern and the Wan Chai districts. It is a major shopping, leisure and cultural centre in Hong Kong, with a number of major shopping centres. Th ...

dropped approximately 30%, caused by the news spread to Hong Kong. Gong Cha took a variety of actions to restore consumer confidence in the products, such as conducting tests on ingredients imported from Taiwan in order to prove their safety and in June 2011 discontinued certain kinds of juices in its Hong Kong branches before the test reports released. In the end, the products were proved to contain no DEHP.

Rebranding in Singapore

On May 29, 2017, it was announced that all 80+ Gong Cha stores will be closed and replaced with another brand, Liho. However, Gong Cha's Singapore Branch announced its return on 1 December 2017.

Name

History

2011 Taiwan food scandal

Rebranding in Singapore

See also

References

External links