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Tea or coffee?
The second decade of the 21st century saw two trends
growing side by side. One is specialty coffee, the other one
is new-style tea beverages.
Though both are categorised as freshly-made bever-
age, in a market dominated by tea for thousands of years,
the boom belonged to new-style tea. Brands including Hey
Tea and Nayuki led the new-style tea market to become a
US$15 billion giant. Typical features of a new-style tea
brand normally include fresh ingredients, healthy combi-
nations, fast update of seasonal drink menus, and Insta-
gram-friendly design of both the products and the shop.
Coincidently, the second decade was also when Chi-
nese fad blossomed. It is not surprising that the new-style
tea market is in a better position to benefit from Chinese
fad. According to the editor-in-chief of KAMEN, the lead-
ing new media focusing on new-style tea and specialty
coffee markets, there are 2 reasons behind it.
“First of all, tea is part of the Chinese culture. The
union of the 2 (tea drinks and Chinese fad) is natural and
logical, and there are many sides that they can work to-
gether, such as the space, the visual design, the product,
and the event organising. Second, tea drinks started to
borrow (ideas and elements) from Chinese culture much
earlier (than coffee)... Nowadays, using Chinese culture
has become an industry standard for tea drinks.”
The Changsha based bubble tea chain, Sexy Tea is a
typical hybrid. The way it combines traditional Chinese
elements and fashionable modern design made it not only
one of the most successful new-style tea brands, but also
a model followed, imitated, and even copied by many oth-
ers.
Data shows that by the end of 2021, the market size In addition to the function of coffee
of fresh tea beverage grew to nearly 11 times bigger than itself, speciality coffee is also a part
that of fresh coffee. Though continuously compared with of the aesthetics of life, which be-
each other, the two beverages are never complete compet- longs to the same category of beauty
itors. as the aesthetics in the field of art.—
KAMEN told us that the new-style tea market should Café by the Forbidden City
be recognised as a contributor to the development of spe-
cialty coffee.
“Freshly-made beverage is one single market. When
people are getting used to having a glass of fresh fruit tea
in a tea shop, they will be even more interested in walking
into a stylish coffee house and taste a cup of coffee.”
On the other hand, many new-style tea brands are
also seeking to merge specialty coffee into their business
strategy. Many are releasing a coffee menu in store, some
are investing in existing specialty coffee companies, and a
few are establishing their own coffee brands.
“The boundary between tea and coffee on a brand
level is getting vague.” KAMEN said.
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not to dress it up with Chinese fad.”
Her words speak for many others.
As a general rule, anything that’s widely in trend can
hardly be related to taste and class, and history has taught
us that trends would come and go. Therefore, when tradi-
tional Chinese culture transformed to fashionable Chinese
fad, those who were loyal to the origin would not agree and
follow easily.
The foundation of a trend is the acceptance and adop-
tion by the public. In order to include more people, a poten-
tial trend often needs to modify to some extent to better suit
the public’s preference.
So did Chinese fad. One defining feature of traditional
Chinese philosophy is the pursuit of balance and harmony.
When interpreted into daily practices, it includes being
reserved and low key. Obviously, the way Chinese fad is
currently represented contradicts this philosophy.
Generally speaking, many businesses simply haven’t
made enough efforts in joining this trend. Most of them took
the easy route by adding some loud Chinese-style patterns
on the product packaging, and then call themselves a Chinese
fad brand.
That might catch some eyes and even gain some pop-
ularity, but that doesn’t have much to do with the culture.
In contrast, a real fusion is well interpreted in TEASURE’s
brand philosophy.
From Chinese fad to Chinese culture
As many benefits Chinese fad has brought to various
industries and brands, the market and the society have always
kept a rational eye on it.
It is agreed that the current stage of Chinese fad has
been influenced by street fashion, a style that has been
dominating the fashion industry for over a decade. While
street style is often considered as the opposite to timeless
classic, Chinese fad is also questioned on whether it is ex-
pressing the real Chinese culture.
TEASURE is a new-style tea brand well known for a
strong focus on tea and a world-class visual design. Its
founder, Liu Fang, never thought there’s any connection
between TEASURE and Chinese fad.
“What we do is bring traditional culture and modern
lifestyle together, and then express it in the most suitable
manner.” She said, “We are not followers of any fashion or
trend. Our value is to keep the core of Chinese culture, but
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