Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesian tea products, which featured at the "Explore Indonesia: Ikat and Tea Festival" held in Santa Monica, California, attracted American buyers.

During the nation branding event to support Indonesian products entering the US market, tea master Inggrie Wijaya presented the original Indonesian tea combined with specific spices of the archipelago.

"Various tea creations displayed in this Tea Bar made use of a blend of original Indonesian tea combined with the countrys typical herbs such as ginger, cinnamon, and lemongrass. The new flavors resulting from the mix of these ingredients attract visitors," Head of Indonesian Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) Los Angeles, Antonius Budiman, said in a press release made available for ANTARA on Thursday.

The flavors made using natural ingredients are organic spiced black tea latte, organic lemongrass jasmine tea, as well as organic lemongrass ginger tea garnished with lemon.

"The use of natural ingredients has become a necessity to compete in the US market as it will help in drawing public enthusiasm," Budiman noted.

The potential of the tea market in the United States is quite large, reaching about US$462 million. The US Tea Association noted that the Americans consumed about 84 billion cups of tea in 2016.

An increase in US tea consumption trend is reflected by an increase in Indonesian tea exports to the US.

"We expect this Indonesian tea promotion to continue to be consistent so that Indonesias tea export to the US can increase," Antonius remarked.

Indonesias total tea exports to the US in 2016 reached US$8.8 million, an increase of 33 percent from 2015.

The export composition of Indonesian tea products to the American market consists of 78 percent black tea and 19 percent green tea. Currently, Indonesia is ranked 12th as a tea-exporting country to the United States. The top three tea exporting countries to the US are China, Argentina, and India. (*)

Editor: Heru Purwanto
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