He Coca-Cola Drink Tea In Spain it is now sold under a new brand called FUZE TEA. But its flavor is the same as always, and so we have wanted the company responsible for the company in an organized visit to its research center + Development in Brussels.

Founded in 2000, this R&D center is one of the five that the company has throughout the world and is strategically located to cover 122 countries in Europe, the Middle East, Eurasia and Africa. And it is relevant because there is the original Fuze Tea formula that the company now wants to value as part of its Positioning strategyafter disconnecting from Nestea in early 2025: “We have the formula that Spaniards want and like Comment to Reason.WHY Edgar Escará, Tea Marketing Director in Coca-Cola Europe, during the visit to the center.

The machinery of marketing That Coca-Cola has to build brands is now put at the service of Fuze TEA in Spain, where it has been progressively marketed since 2023-if the brand is already present in 90 countries-and where now it competes directly with others such as Nestea (Damm), Lipton (Pepsico) or the White brand.

With the aim of value the taste of Fuze Tea, from Coca-Cola we have wanted to open the doors of their center In Brussels for “Remember that Fuze Tea Original Taste has the usual formula”as Edgar Edgar explains. And that formula has its home in Brussels, where the recipe has been constantly revalidating through the consumer feedback For 25 years.

During our visit we have been able to simulate precisely The route that would follow the development of a formula in the Coca-Cola R&D center: first an initial testing with consumers; Then the validation and formulation of the recipe in the laboratory, and finally an essay of the production process at the pilot plant, before the drink reaches each of the markets where it is going on sale.

Focus Group

“In Coca-Cola we always listen to consumers to identify new needs or consumption trends”explains Edgar Escará, tea marketing director in Coca-Cola Europe. Hence the Focus Group are so common in the different R&D centers of the company, “To understand and know what our consumers need and demand.”

Through the Social listeningfor example, new tastes or patterns of consumption among the population in the different markets are detected. Thus, curiosities such as some consumers mix the sprite with Fuze TEA come to be analyzed when investigating new formulas and product developments. And, on the other hand, from this center in Brussels qualitative studies are carried out in which, through different surveys and conversations with customers, information is obtained when and how Coca-Cola drinks are consumed.

As part of his philosophy of put the consumer in the center Of all decisions, in 2010 the company carried out what they define as a great project around the “lemon” flavor, which today is known as the original Fuze Tea. For this, new prototypes were created and face -to -face Focus Group with Spanish consumers were asked to compare the original recipe and other new options.

Spaces for Focus Group in the R&D center in Brussels

The tests of this type are performed in Salas where red light is used So that participants cannot identify the color of the different varieties of the drink that they are testing or have perceptions outside the own taste that is being valued, thus canceling any external stimulus to the ongoing test.

The result, as they tell us from the company, made clear that “Spanish consumers prefer the original lemon formula”so he reaffirmed his taste for this flavor against other alternative recipes. And so, since 2000 The original tea formula ready to drink -What is owned by Coca-Cola- it has been preserved in this R&D center in Brussels: “We have dedicated twenty -five years to preserve one of the flavors most appreciated by Spanish consumers”explains Itziar Tolosa, director of R&D tea in Coca-Cola. “The Fuze Tea formula is one of the best examples of how Coca-Cola has maintained a consumer-centered approach over the decades, guaranteeing the continuity of the flavor during these years.”

LABORATORY

In the center of R&D of Coca-Cola in Brussels a team of more than 80 scientists and experts of 26 nationalities works, including Spain. “We focus especially on new consumer trends, such as integrating healthier products or responding to the demands of young-adult consumers who value discovering new experiences.”Edgar tells us.

And although the environment is scientific, Itziar Tolosa, director of R&D tea in Coca-Cola, explains that they work here from ideas that solve consumption problems and creative concepts which is reached by different brainstorming. At a cross between marketing and science, “We can have up to 50 different prototypes in the same project”. From them the tests are being done with consumers of different markets and that is how the definitive formula of a new drink is reached.

“Every time we add a new ingredient to a mixture, you have to maintain the balance and flavor that consumers likes, but also to test different things that can fit”Itziar Tolosa tells us. This has been reached, for example, black tea with peach that works best in France, carbonated options Black tea to lemon in Belgium or green tea that, they tell us, fits more in Poland. “The consumer expectation is the first for us, so we are always in contact with consumption trends and analyzing the feedback that comes to us.”

Pilot plant

Many Coca-Cola formulas in Europe They are created or developed in this center of Brussels and then they are manufactured and marketed in other countries. Hence there is a constant dialogue between the R&D center and local plants. so that the flavor and characteristics of each drink are identified identically in its elaboration. To do this, this center has a pilot plant where the production process is rehearsedwith the objective that the drink, validated by consumers, arrives equal to the market in terms of flavor, aroma and texture. For example, as Itziar Tolosa tells us, the process is not the same if the drink will be packaged in a bottle or in a can. “We have to verify that there is a consistency throughout the development chain.”

In Spain, Fuze Tea occurs in six Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Coca-Cola Factories located in Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, Tenerife, Coruña and Barcelona.

An area of ​​the pilot plant in the R&D center in Brussels

Through this tour of the R&D center in Brussels, the goal of Coca-Cola has been to open the doors of its Beverage formula development Like Fuze Tea, but too “Offer a perspective of the future, how we have to continue supporting the growth of the tea category in Spain”Edgar tells us.

In this sense, the tea marketing director in Coca-Cola Europe ensures that since FUZE TEA “Now we are focused on bringing the brand to our Spanish consumers and being where they are”. Hence they have been done Sampling activationsfundamental to convey the idea that the taste remains the same as always, as well as experiences in the Points. “And we will continue to surprise with new marketing activations in the coming months.”

Worldwide Global Sales from Fuze Tea They represent more than 2.8 billion dollars, according to the company’s own data. And in Coca-Cola’s objectives it is “Continue expanding and promoting the growth of the category of tea drinks in Spain.” They will do so from their proposal of the original Fuze Tea recipe-both in “low-calorie” version such as “without sugar”-in addition to other flavors such as “green-marracuyá tea” and “mango-piña”, available at the moment in the Canary Islands.

Thus, in the road map is duplicate the value of the category of tea to drink In Spain by 2030, compared to the data of 2023. Something that, as Edgar Edgar Edgar, will be sought through the increase in consumption frequencyrecruiting consumers for example “From other categories such as water or juices, which we have seen that they have similar attributes to tea.”

During the visit, from Coca-Cola they have not hesitated to value a statement related to all of the above and it is that it is a company that not only knows how to make brands, but also knows how to make drinks and then knows how to sell them.