ACCURACY
- Koi -
While the site had multiple mentions of fresh and quality teas, there is no precise or concrete mention of the location and source of tea leaves and other ingredients. While this could be attributed to trade secret, but some consumers would be interested to know at least the country/region of the tea source.
- Gong Cha -
As with KOI’s page, there is no mention of the source of Gong Cha’s teas. There are also numbers being used in its “About Us” page, showing their achievements, however there is no concrete information tagged to these numbers (ie “Gong Cha outlets around the world number near 1,500” and “In 4 years, there are nearly 400 stores in Korea”). It would give more accuracy and credibility if there is a link to Gong Cha’s international website which may display a full outlets listing.
- Yuan Cha -
The page is largely bilingual (in English and Traditional Chinese), with the front page alternating between the two languages. However one of the links and pages “特色產品” is not translated.
CREDIBILITY
- Koi -
The site dedicated a section for “Food Safety Standards”, once again placing consumers as top priority, ensuring that consumers can drink their bubble teas safely with assurance. Scanned copies of their SGS reports on raw materials and tea pesticide residue are shown. However there are no reports shown for packaging materials, which may be a drawback on this section. They should keep the site updated often to ensure the contents are available, otherwise perhaps they could remove the link for “packaging material” while keeping the other links on “raw materials” and “tea pesticide residue”.
- Gong Cha -
In the “About Us” page, there is mention that Gong Cha “was voted the most popular F&B brand in Singapore” in 2013 and 2014, amongst other accolades. However there is no citation nor credit given for the source of this fact, reducing the credibility of the information presented.
- Yuan Cha -
On the “Drinks Menu” page, there is an external link to provide information about the benefits of fruit vinegar. Credit was given to the author of the article. This shows that Yuan Cha is transparent with the provision of information on its site, which increases its credibility.
