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Blurred Boundary also lays in bakery products marked by soft bread, which When new-style
give customers more choices and enriched experiences.
Capturing lovers with its freshness, new-style tea However, when milk tea developers find no more space tea drink developers
drink which blends milk foam, fruit and tea breathe life to innovate tea itself and its form, they switch to replicate
into the stumbling market of traditional milk tea. From the old-school flavors. Last summer, tea drink stores find no more space
2015 to 2017, the novelty fruit tea topped with milk foam across the industry—be it leading brands or cheaper chain
gained a firm foothold in the Chinese market, motivating stores like JiDong and CHABAIDAO—all rushed to make to innovate tea
individual milk tea stores to figure out the recipes and mango pomelo sago, a traditional Hong Kong dessert
ingredient sources of those first-tier brands, leading to drink. While in last autumn and winter, cake milk tea itself and its form,
a lowered barrier for entry. As a result, new-style tea became the new favorite of the industry. Led by large IP
drink started to prevail across multiple customer groups, brands, stores of different scales brought back the strengths could be applied to other fruit series like kiwi- they switch to
and the tea drink at different prices thrived with adver- high-calorie and high-glucose flavor. For the new-style fruit, strawberry and peach, the success was not replicated
tised milk tea lifestyle. tea drink, the end of its innovation journey is sometimes a few months later when SWEET7 launched its fruit milk replicate the old-
For new-style tea drink, the milk foam is just the close, and sometimes far away. tea drink. The techniques and the earned reputation failed
start of innovation, and far from the end. The following If we have a look at stores with single trademark to revitalize traditional milk tea style, as the unbalanced school flavors.
tea drink series with sour cheese, salty cheese foam and products, we can see a larger tangle of innovations. For and cliche flavor didn’t keep customers. The similar story
cupful fruit have become classics; As a perfect marriage example, SWEET7, a brand dedicated to mango pomelo can be founded in ORITEA, which claimed to be the inven-
of seasonal fruit and varied ingredients, many trademark sago drink, stood out last summer with its premium ingre- tor of soymilk tea. As the single trademark product can’t
products with seasonal themes have emerged and rooted dients and stable flavor, and enjoyed possibly the most go on for long, and maybe to create a different brand image
themselves in the memory of customers. The innovation profitable time since its founding. Though its basic and appeal to different customer groups, the founder of
ORITEA set up a new brand WAKAMARU MOMO dedicat-
ed to providing peach drinks and occupying the segment-
ed market. But this courageous move didn’t work and
rarely echoed with the market.
Against this backdrop, many new-style tea drink
brands turn to different drink categories. Instead of set-
ting up a new brand for other products, CoCo Fresh Tea
and some others add ice cream and alcohol to their menu,
and also start to sell coffee, transiting from coffee tea
drink to pure coffee products. Heytea launches its coffee
products in pop-up buses in business districts, and offered
special drinks in selected stores from different districts.
Nayuki is the first one to set up its pub, and launches
simple meals in Nayuki Dreamworks, its experience store
covering about 1,000 square meter. LELECHA starts its
new retail model by offering prepackaged products in its
first flagship store in Wujiaochang, Shanghai.
While the cross-boundary exploration of tea drink
brands is still in full swing, brands of other fields also
want to get a slice of the ‘drink’. KFC, proud of its local-
First-tier cities New first-tier cities Second-tier cities Third-tier cities
ization ability in China, launches similar milk tea drinks
The Growth of New-style Tea Drink Shops in 2018~2019 in line with the new-style tea drink market. Its market
campaign normally echoes with festivals and even hot
trends in the tea drink market, like the 1.5-liter milk tea
*First-tier cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen. pot for ‘freedom to buy milk tea’. Daliyuan and White
New first-tier cities includes Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Xi’an and other cities.
Second-tier cities includes Ningbo, Zhuhai, Wuxi and other cities. Rabbit Candy, ingredient suppliers for many new-style
tea drink brands, also launch their physical tea drink
Resource: A New-style Tea Drink Consumption White Paper 2019 stores after witnessing the market potential.

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