Morinaga Milk brought back the original Lipton Milk Tea after a record 667 complaints

What was changed

Lipton Milk Tea had been a fixture of Japanese chillers since 1989, loved as a cheap milk tea and a default student drink. But the paper-pack beverage market outside milk was shrinking with the birthrate, and from 2020 COVID cut the commutes, classes and club activities that fed sales. In its biggest redesign in 34 years, Morinaga Milk Industry ended the drink on March 28, 2022 and launched Lipton Royal Milk Tea the next day: 5% more tea leaves, at least 1.5 times the milk solids, a more 'adult' taste — and a shelf reclassification from tea drink to milk beverage.

Early sales held up — the new product's initial sales were at or above the prior year's. But the company's customer desk filled with opinions at a pace it had never seen: a company-record 667 contacts, topping 40 on the busiest days, asking for the original taste back or saying they had stopped buying. ('No renewal needed,' wrote contact No. 293, a man in his 30s.) Morinaga weighed keeping Royal and pushing it with PR, comparing survey answers and repeat-purchase numbers, but about six months after launch it decided to pull Royal and revive Lipton Milk Tea — within a year of killing it.

Both named decision-takers describe how hard the call was: the renewal had consumed real development effort, and marketing's Tamami Shibata suspects the developers wanted Royal to survive. Nikkei Xtrend's case study, whose headline notes the revival was promoted with a romance-anime campaign, presents the reversal as proof the company reads its customer desk. The piece carries no post-revival sales figures.

Why it worked

The core customer was shrinking: the paper-pack drink market outside milk was contracting with the birthrate, and from 2020 COVID cut the commuting, school and club routines that sustained sales.

Morinaga hoped a bigger, more premium 'adult' reformulation would widen appeal beyond student loyalists — its biggest redesign in the line's 34 years, validated by pre-launch taste surveys.

The complaint desk said otherwise: a company-record 667 opinions, some days over 40, with buyers saying they had stopped purchasing — the renewal broke what loyal customers were actually buying.

Management compared surveys and repeat-rate data against a PR push for Royal, judged the repeat-buyer loss the bigger risk, and reversed about six months in.

What can be applied

Taste panels can bless a reformulation loyal buyers still reject. When the feedback channel lights up with record volume, treat it as data and reverse early enough that lapsed customers return.

Aftermath

Royal Milk Tea was discontinued and the original Lipton Milk Tea returned within a year of its removal — a decision the article calls unusual for its speed. Per Nikkei's headline, the comeback was promoted with a romance-anime campaign; the paywalled part of the article does not give the campaign's details or post-revival sales figures. The 667-contact wave stands as the most customer opinions in the company's history.