Cola Wars, China Style

(Guangzhou) -- Eighteen years ago, a Hong Kong businessman named Chan Hung-to took a sip of an herbal tea produced by a government factory in Guangzhou and tasted the future – a beverage that he imagined could be the Coca-Cola of China.

The sweet, cold drink called Wanglaoji herbal tea is an acquired taste, a blend of seven medicinal herbs and flowers, including honeysuckle, mint and chrysanthemum.