Tea Party

An estimated 450,000-plus tea and tea-drink shops were operating in China at the beginning of this year, according to the China Tea Marketing Association. These include both traditional tea shops and new-style shops focused on flavored milk, fruit, bubble, and even cheese teas, with new-style chains growing quickly over the past several years (despite a bit of shrinkage since the pandemic began). Collectively, these tea shops drove sales of more than 50 billion yuan (U.S. $6.96 billion) last year, the CTMA says. And that number is expected to double by 2025.

Such a big and expanding market naturally attracts interest from brands and licensed properties, both local and global, who want to partner on promotions, product collaborations, and even branded tea shops. Conversely, many of the leading tea chains are eager to participate in ventures with properties from the worlds of fashion, entertainment, beauty, art, and more, as they look to differentiate in an increasingly crowded market.

Here are some examples of recent partnerships involving tea shops in China:

• Just this week, tea chain Chanyo paired with Smiley to create a Smiley-branded tea house featuring the Smiley name and imagery throughout the décor and menu items. The first location is in Beijing, with plans ultimately calling for a total of 100 locations across the country. Chanyo’s flagship brand is notable for its East-West fusion products that combine tea with other beverages like wine and coffee.

• Heytea is one of the most active chains when it comes to collaborations. Recent examples include a back-to-school initiative with the anime property Genshin Impact this fall. Components of the promotion include standees, paper bags, prepackaged fruit teas in grapefruit and peach, two flavors of low-sugar coconut tea drinks, gifts with purchase, downloadable digital wallpapers, and co-branded merchandise sold online. The chain also partnered this fall with the Chinese period feature film A Dream of Splendor, which takes place in a tea shop, offering a tea drink in a special cup and themed tea house pop-ups in key cities. In the spring of this year, Heytea partnered with Japanese streetwear designer Hiroshi Fujiwara and his Fragment label. Elements included themed cups, cup sleeves, paper bags, a special raspberry tea in limited-edition cups, pop-up activities in five cities, and a livestream on Heytea’s WeChat Channel. Additional promotional partners for Heytea in the recent past have included Fenty Beauty, Adidas, White Rabbit Candy, AAPE, QQ Music, and jewelry brand Zegl, among others.

• Nayuki is a fast-growing chain that is increasingly involved in collaborations. In August of this year, it paired with Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan as part of its ongoing Cupseum campaign, a “gallery experience” involving takeaway cups featuring imagery by different artists. The artwork by Cattelan, which features the classic Disney character Pinocchio, appeared on cups filled with Watermelon Sea tea, as well as being replicated as a sculptural piece of chocolate. The limited promotion was held in stores in five cities; a pop-up in Shenzhen and a 3D video production also were part of the effort. Other artists involved in the Cupseum initiative have included Christopher David Ryan, Pepe Shimada, and Cinyee Chiu. Separately, Nayuki, like its competitor Heytea, partnered with A Dream of Splendor, offering bottled red fruit tea; desserts depicted in the film, such as green bean cake; and a themed store in Shenzhen. The chain also collaborated a couple of years ago with the Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award in a promotion celebrating Hans Christian Anderson characters.

• In June 2022, CoCo Tea paired with Arena of Valor, a Chinese-origin multiplayer online battle arena game developed by TiMi Studio Group. For a monthlong period, select CoCo Tea stores featured décor on windows and throughout the interior that highlighted four characters from the game, as well as themed drink cups available online and in-store and a character folder with purchase. Cosplayers and mini offline game competitions were featured in some locations.

• Also in June of this year, Yum! China, which oversees the quick-service restaurant chain KFC in the region, founded Grandpa Comfy Tea, its first tea shop, located in the city of Suzhou. The shop’s light pink and green logo integrates a version of KFC’s Colonel in a hand-drawn style. The shop features healthier versions of new-style tea drinks, including fresh fruit tea and rice milk tea, as well as other seasonal offerings. KFC China got into packaged teas in 2019 by offering 10 different flavored oolong teas.

• In 2020, Lelecha, known for menu items such as black sugar milk tea and fruit cheese tea, partnered with KFC’s sibling in the Yum! Brands family, Pizza Hut, to create a limited-edition drinkable pizza featuring peach-flavored cheese tea on top of its pan-style cheese pizza, topped with pudding and a bear-shaped fruit-flavored figure. Lelecha also partnered with the British lifestyle property Flossy and Jim for a product collaboration in 2019, selling a collection of co-branded bags, apparel, phone covers, mugs, notebooks, cushions, and badges, through the chain’s flagship store in Shanghai. Also in 2019, Lelecha teamed with beverage brand Bei Bing Yang for Lelecha-branded soda water.

Some of the many other tea chains in the country, at least a few of which have also been involved in promotions similar to those on this list, include Cha Yan Yue Se, Chai Bai Dao, Honey Snow City, Yi Dian Dian, and Happy Lemon, among many others. It should be noted that milk and bubble tea shops are also popular in Hong Kong, Taiwan (where bubble tea was first introduced), and throughout Southeast Asia. Many of the mainland Chinese chains mentioned in this post are present in those countries and involved in collaborations there as well.

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