A personal care company based in China has brought out green tea flavoured toothpaste to appeal to the tastes of the domestic market.

Hawley & Hazel, which was acquired by Colgate-Palmolive in 1990, makes Darlie toothpaste, a well-known toothpaste brand in Asia, which now comes in green tea, jasmine tea and chrysanthemum flavours.

Manufactuers describe the Darlie Tea Care Green Tea product as “containing accredited organic Longjing tea leaves, allowing you to start the day with a fresh taste and lingering aroma of green tea.”

Market insiders are now suggesting that mass-market retailers such as Coca Cola and Proctor & Gamble may have to adapt their product ranges to keep up with local preferences.

With a population of 1.2 billion and a rapidly expanding middle class, China is the second-largest consumer goods market after the US and is key to the profitability of global brands.  Yet according to a recent report from Bain & Company and Kantar World Panel, domestic firms are attracting more Chinese customers than foreign brands and nearly two thirds of foreign brands surveyed in the report lost market share in China last year.