Chinese people swear by traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to cure all kinds of ailments, but for a new generation reared on Western soft drinks such as Coca-Cola, the prospect of swallowing a foul-smelling brew made of insect larvae and tortoise shell is hard to stomach.
With this in mind, Coke has set up a research centre that hopes to incorporate the healing effects of traditional Chinese herbal ingredients and formulas into marketable drinks.
Coca-Cola said yesterday it had opened the Beijing-based centre at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Public Health and is China's national centre for research, healthcare and education in traditional Chinese medicine.
"This is an important step in strengthening our innovation pipeline for beverages that contribute to wellbeing," said Rhona Applebaum, Coca-Cola's chief scientist. The company is the world's biggest non-alcoholic drinks maker.
"This collaboration will ultimately help us bring the insights and benefits of traditional Chinese medicine to consumers all over the world," she said.
Ms Applebaum said in a joint statement with academy president Cao Hongxin that the move would connect Coke's global reach and marketing with Chinese medicine's "more holistic view on health".
Traditional medicine is popular because evidence shows the ancient ways are effective and Chinese young people like to complement western treatments with the more holistic approach.
The problem is, it has an image problem, and it tastes awful.
The Modernised Chinese Medicine International Association in Hong Kong has advocated using traditional medicine in granulated form, so the patient simply whisks in boiling water rather than letting an array of rank herbs and questionable ingredients sit in a pot of boiling water for hours.
All over China, scientists are encouraged to use new technologies to standardise doses and practise more rigorous testing to work out why TCM works.
Coke said its Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness, a research group formed in 2004, will open an office at the academy.
And the institute's executive director, Maurice Arnaud, will join the advisory board of the academy's Experimental Research Centre.
Coca-Cola is a growing presence in China. The Atlanta-based firm's business in China, its fourth-largest market, doubled in the past five years to more than one billion unit cases, which accounts for about 5 per cent of Coca-Cola's worldwide sales.
However, many Chinese are still keen to stick to their usual drinks such as tea and water, and also find sugary soft drinks hard to stomach, prompting Coca-Cola to add bottled tea, water and energy drinks to its range of carbonated drinks.
In July, Coca-Cola said it would spend €56 million in Shanghai on a research centre to develop non-carbonated beverages.
Chinese medicine is based on a belief in "yin" and "yang", which describes the balance in nature, but also describes all the parts of the body. You need to keep your "yin" and "yang" balanced, otherwise you get sick.
The traditional Chinese medicine industry is worth nearly €100 billion a year, with revenues growing by 20 per cent a year.