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I

Plant-based milk drinks

have become an additional
supplement and signify

the awakening of Chinese

demand for protein intake.

Three decades in China resented by UBC Coffee entered daily life. While white
sugar and brown sugar bottles used to tune coffee and
In 1974, General Wang Zhen, then agriculture tea gracing luxurious dinner tables, coffee mates found
minister in China, recited his memory of almond tea their own seats at bar counters. Every mother tended
during his visit to a canned food factory in Chengdu. to buy coffee packs including one or 2 bottles of coffee
This inspired the first almond drink product in the mates and creamer. In 2000, massive coffee mate facto-
factory, with the registered trademark of “Lulu” in 1990. ries settled down in China, using imported vegetable oil
Coincidentally, Hainan Yeshu Group launched their as ingredients, namely fresh hydrogenated palm oil and
coconut juice through oil-water separation technology, milky hydrogenated soybean oil. Meanwhile, plant-based
completing an annual sale of one billion yuan in 1990. powder marched into the sphere of milk tea and instant
In addition to these 2 big names, you can also see oth- red tea, creating a variety of flavored milk tea.
er plant-based drinks in everyday life: hot soybean milk Before the release of National Food Safety Standard
in breakfast stalls, Yangyuan’s nutritious six-walnut for Nutrition Labelling of Prepackaged Foods (GB28050-
drink , and Weiyi’s peanut soybean that goes well with 2011) in 2011, coffee mates and plant-based powder
spicy hotpots ... gradually disappeared from the market because of ex-
When instant coffee entered China in the 1980s, cessive trans fatty acid content. Deliciousness had to
Chinese taste buds were not used to the bitterness of give way to health.
plain coffee. Taking cues from sweet coffee brewed by However, plant-based drinks never lowered their
Chinese people in Southern China and Southeast Asia, banner. Flourishing itself as a “brain-boosting drink”,
a special condiment to sweeten coffee was born. This the six-walnut drink achieved a peak annual sale in 2015,
condiment, composed of protein from milk, carbohy- a total of 9.1 billion yuan. The long-standing Yeshu
drates from corn and fat from palm fruit, was given a Group had its peak in 2013 with 4.4 billion yuan, while
fashionable name: coffee mate. Lulu reached 2.7 billion yuan in 2015. In the last 3 de-
In the new century, cafes and tea restaurants rep- cades, plant-based drinks have never been absent.

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