'Garlic Health Tonic'

Korea Yakult introduces new drink made with black garlic good for health

Korea Yakult has introduced its brand new drink made with black garlic in the market, which is dubbed as 'A thousand year acid foodstuff,'The company put the new drink on the market following the success of its 'daily vegetable'sold through the company's corps of door-to-door sales ladies.
The company is surprised by phenomenal jump in the average daily sales for the new drink around 50,000 bottles. The company said 97 percent of the new drink is fermented juice of black garlic mixed with pear concentration and plum extracts.
Black garlic is made with fresh garlic by let them grow in a certain temperature and moisture conditions for 20 days and them fermented. It lacks hot element, but still maintain the original effects of garlic.
The new drink was made for men and women, by the company but especially for women who care about the beauty of their skin. The company added that the drink has anti-cancer elements due to increases in polyphenol, which produces s-arylsystain.The drink comes in glass bottles for differentiation with other similar drinks on the market and bottles have silk prints to make them look luxurious, the company said.
Garlic is said to have hundreds of ingredients for human, except its strong smell and its medicinal effects have been scientifically proven lately and has been emerging as an element for health tonics.
The plant made the list of 10 healthy foodstuff made by Time magazine in 2002 for its effects of helping blood circulation, anti-biotic, anti-cancer, good for liver and the beauty of skin for women. In 1999, the New York Times said garlic is a top foodstuff plant for thousands of years.
Korea Yakult plans to develop diversified healthy food drinks and sell them through its sales lady network, which will be expanded as a network for delivery of health foods.
Lee Chang-hi, head of the Marketing Team for Korea Yakult said garlic, despite its outstanding quality as a foodstuff people find it difficult to eat because of its strong order. But 'Thousand Years of Acid Foodstuff'changed all that because it is made with black garlic with a smooth taste so that every one can drink the tonic made with it.
'Haru Yachea'or Daily Vegetable is the name of the drink product that Korea Yakult put on the market in 2005, but its sales zoomed this year with the daily sales reaching 160,000 bottles on average lately, up from 120,000 last year,
which is a phenomenal jump. Chang Seung-gon, director of the company's door-to-door marketing division, said the sales would reach 110 billion won this year if the current trend keeps up.
He said the company thought about the popular desire for 'well-being'emerging in the country and developed the vegetable drink which began to gain customers, especially for 'daily vegetable purple'made with purple carrots imported from Turkey. The product has to be taken every day to be a medicinal effect. The company depended solely on its network of door-to-door sales ladies some 13,500 strong across the country since it was put on the market from March this year.
This is the first time that Korea Yakult launched the sale of its new vegetable product through the sales ladies, except the fermented milk products, creating an impression that the company may try to change the image of the sales ladies.
Director Chang said the company is in the process of developing vegetable drinks for children in a variety of colors like the purple vegetable drink in the hope that they would become an instant success.
In the meantime, Korea Yakult has put on the market 'Muhayu Tea'made with extracts from 14 kinds of vegetables including mulberry leaves, buckwheat and arrowroots. Rutin in buckwheats has the element to help neutralize fats and thus reduce sugar in blood, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
The product was first introduced in 2002 in cans, but it now will be sold through sales ladies and discount stores, convenience shops and retail outlets with its taste softened up to appeal to young customers. nw

(from left photo) A 'daily vegetable'tonic marketed by Korea Yakult.
A health tonic made with black garlic put on sale recently by Korea Yakult.
Korea Yakult President Yang Ki-rak.