From hot milk to making tea around the stove, who is vying for the limited traffic in winter?

Last winter, "mulled wine" became popular, and this winter, the topic of "cooking tea around the fire" has been on the hot list of various social platforms. At the same time, "cooking tea around the fire" has also derived corresponding business strategies. So based on the data, what are the popular items this winter? What traffic businesses are hidden behind these popular items?

"In winter, light a copper brazier and throw a few chestnuts into the red-hot charcoal fire. After a while, a cracked, cooked chestnut pops out. Grab it, turn it back and forth in your hands, blow on it to cool it down, peel the shell and eat it. It is extremely sweet and delicious. It is a joy on a snowy day."

The warmth of roasting chestnuts in winter described by Wang Zengqi can be felt through the words. Sitting around the stove, roasting over charcoal, frying, and boiling, a wisp of hot air spreads out, instantly bringing a sense of happiness to this cold winter season.

Decades later, the simple winter cooking together was replaced by a more ritualistic form - cooking tea around the stove, with three or five good friends sitting around a table, a charcoal stove and a teapot on the table, the tea boiling and steaming, and snacks such as sweet potatoes, corn, and chestnuts roasted next to the stove.

These warm elements combined together make it hard not to be moved. According to the data tool of Xiaohongshu under Xinbang, nearly 12 million people have browsed the topic #圍炉煮茶#, more than 30,000 people have participated in posting in the past month, and the average number of likes for the notes has exceeded 20,000 times per day, which can be called the new "top stream" of winter Internet celebrities.

Screenshot from Xinhong

At the same time, the popularity fermenting on social media has become the code for attracting traffic to offline businesses. Many teahouses and coffee shops have launched "tea brewing around the fire" packages, with prices ranging from just over 100 yuan to 300 to 500 yuan. As long as the atmosphere is right, people will pay for it. There are also many businesses selling barbecue charcoal fire on Taobao and Douyin, which have ushered in a new peak in sales.

This is similar to the popularity of "mulled wine" that became popular last winter. Every time a new solar term comes, there are always some new trends, and this year is no exception.

Taking the popularity of "brewing tea around the fire" as an opportunity, we took stock of the popular online items this winter, trying to study the business secrets behind the trend.

1. Hundreds of millions of people watched and checked in online, and those "Internet celebrities" who were popular in the cold winter

The most direct manifestation of becoming an "Internet celebrity" is continuous hot searches and continuously rising data.

Combining Xinbang’s multi-platform data tools with reference dimensions such as hot searches, we found that this winter, the three most popular products are “hot milk treasure”, “boiling tea around the fire” and the long-lasting “hot red wine”.

1. The frequently searched "hot ice cream" in winter - hot milk treasure

As the weather started to turn cooler this year, hot milk bottles became quietly popular.

It is impossible to know who started this trend and when. By the time netizens came to their senses, this snack from Xinxiang, Henan Province had already spread throughout the streets and alleys of many cities and had even been on the hot search list on Weibo several times.

The method of making hot milk treasure is not complicated. A crispy egg cone is spread with a layer of butter, and a large spoonful of hot rice cooked from a mixture of glutinous rice, purple rice, and black rice is scooped. Another layer of butter is spread on it, and some Oreo crumbs and other small ingredients are added for garnish. At first glance, it looks like steaming ice cream.

The method is simple and the cost is not high. Basically, the price of each one is between 4 and 8 yuan. In addition, its characteristics such as "hot" and "sticky", as well as the internet celebrity concept of "winter ice cream", immediately piqued the interest of netizens and thus led to widespread dissemination.

On Douyin, the topic #热奶宝# has been played nearly 800 million times; Xinhong data shows that on Xiaohongshu, there have been 4,570 notes with the theme of Re奶宝 in the past month, with a cumulative number of likes reaching 750,000, with an average of 25,000 likes per note.

There are two main types of popular content. One is the popularization of hot milk treasure making, from how to obtain raw materials to the nanny-level tutorial of making step by step:

The Xiaohongshu blogger "Grandma Loves Food" with 236,000 followers demonstrated the specific method of making hot milk treasures. She even made the egg cones by hand, mixed different flavors of cream, and added various small ingredients. The video received 35,000 likes;

The Douyin account "咸鱼翻身记" posted the source of cost-effective raw materials for finished products. This is lower than making raw materials by yourself and more suitable for most people to get started. It has been liked 85,000 times.

The other is the "shop visit" check-in content of the hot milk treasure stalls on the street. Because it is simple to make, it attracts many young people to start a hot milk treasure stall business, and netizens who are curious about the popular items will also go to the stalls to check in.

The check-in videos often record the process of the stall owner making hot milk treasures, and sometimes they also talk about the specific raw materials or how many were sold that day, which triggers a lot of discussion in the comment section.

2. A new winter ritual watched online by 2 billion people - brewing tea around the fire

The late autumn and early winter, when it is still warm, is the hottest time for hot milk babies. With the recent cold wave and the interweaving of rain and snow, "drinking tea around the fire" where people sit together and chat to keep warm has become the "new favorite" of many people.

What is "cooking tea around the stove"? As the name suggests, several people sit around the stove, brewing tea while grilling some snacks, drinking tea and chatting, usually accompanied by exquisite and artistic environment embellishments, and any photo taken will be full of atmosphere.

In fact, since the beginning of this year, "brewing tea around the fire" has become popular in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other places. Until the hit of "Dream of Red Mansions" in June, "brewing tea" has reached a new peak of popularity, and there are more and more contents about brewing tea on the Internet.

The topic #圍炉煮茶# on Douyin has been played more than 2 billion times . Most of the content is the process and on-site records of brewing tea around the stove. There is no need for any narration or dubbing. Just a short piece of music can convey a comfortable and cozy atmosphere. The wisp of hot steam coming out of the teapot adds a lot of warmth to the winter.

The main reason why brewing tea around the fire became popular so quickly is its social attribute that connects online and offline.

For online communication, the success rate of photos of people brewing tea around the stove is very high. The artistic teapot and scenery, paired with exquisite snacks and refreshments, can be easily captured by taking a few photos and adding a filter to obtain high-quality check-in photos, which can be liked online. Many netizens are also attracted by the sense of ritual and atmosphere of the photos.

Those who were inspired online also started to "drink tea around the fire" offline after calling their friends, chatting with friends, taking photos of each other, and then posting them online, forming a cycle of inspiration.

In this way, "brewing tea around the fire" has become a new "ritual" this winter.

3. The "mulled wine" that became popular last year is still popular this winter

In the winter of 2021, mulled wine, a traditional hot drink in Europe during Christmas, became popular across the country from a small shop on Fuxing Middle Road in Shanghai. The aroma of fruit and the heat of red wine warmed the entire winter.

By this year, hot red wine has not become a passing internet celebrity. Xinhong data shows that the total number of views of the topic #热红酒# exceeded 26.85 million times, and after entering December, the number of people sharing related content continued to rise.

Although there were a large number of mulled wine tutorials last year, so far this year, the most shared by netizens is still the step-by-step instructions on how to make delicious mulled wine. The most popular video has been liked more than 120,000 times on Xiaohongshu.

To some extent, mulled wine seems to have become a long-term topic in winter. It never goes out of style when it is brought up every year for discussion.

2. The business philosophy behind the winter hits: Who made money? How did they make money?

There are often business opportunities behind the explosive traffic.

Whether it is hot milk, mulled wine, or tea brewed around the fire, they are visible and tangible entities, and traffic can be easily converted into product sales.

Who can make money from these winter hits? And how can they make money? We have sorted out three business strategies.

1. Setting up a stall: You may not make a lot of money, but it is the first step to start a business

For most people who want to catch this wave of winter traffic, setting up a stall is an operation with low threshold and easy to learn.

Zoe and her friends set up a street stall in a busy area of ​​Shanghai to sell hot milk cones. According to her, the wholesale cost of the egg cones is 0.5 cents each, and the Anchor animal cream they use costs 49 yuan a bucket. They cook a big pot of glutinous rice themselves and sell it for 7 yuan each. Various Oreo crumbs, nuts, meat floss, etc. require additional charges.

"When there are many people, I can sell forty or fifty, with an income of three to four hundred yuan, and a profit of about 100 yuan. I'm not losing money, but it's just a small profit," Zoe said. Now the competition for selling hot milk treasures at stalls is very fierce, and it is not easy to have a relatively stable profit. Most of the money earned is hard-earned, and sometimes people have to avoid urban management.

According to our observations, there are many young people like Zoe who set up stalls to sell hot milk treasures. They operate several private consumer groups and announce the time and location of the stalls every day. Those who do well can earn one to two thousand yuan a day. Others have a scarce and unstable customer base, and have invested hundreds of dollars in initial material and equipment costs, but have not made any money.

Many people share their experience of setting up stalls with Renabao on Xiaohongshu

This situation is very similar to the situation of setting up stalls for mulled wine. Not many people can really get rich by setting up stalls. Those who are luckier can earn some money. Some people set up stalls while doing self-media or live streaming, and they can also earn some extra income.

"I didn't make much money. I shared some of the extra ingredients with my friends, and exchanged some with nearby stall owners for braised food, flowers and other things. I made some more friends and was quite happy," said Chengcheng, who has just set up the stall for three or four days and is in a good mood.

2. Online business: Brands also love to follow hot spots, with monthly sales of single products approaching one million yuan

In addition to the "individual business owners" who set up stalls, many brands will not give up this wave of winter traffic.

After mulled wine became popular, alcoholic beverage brands such as Zui'e Niang also launched mulled wine drinks. Slowly, the head of alcoholic beverage brand Jollee, revealed in an interview with Xinbang that mulled wine was Jollee's main product for Double 11 this year. They originally prepared about 1,200 sets of goods, but they were sold out so quickly.

The recently popular “brewing tea around the fire” has also had a significant effect in promoting sales.

On Taobao, "brewing tea around the fire" has made it onto the recent popularity trend list. The popularity of related content on Taobao has reached 7.324 million, with more than 25,000 products, and the popularity has increased by 1% within a week.

Browsing related products, you will find that the monthly sales of many items reach one or two thousand pieces. Among them, a stove-based tea-making set with a starting price of 355 yuan has a monthly sales volume of more than 2,000 pieces. A rough estimate of the sales volume is nearly one million yuan.

On Douyin, the "equipment" for brewing tea around the stove is also very popular. According to the data from the new Douyin app, the sales of charcoal fires, teapots and other products have continued to rise in the past month, with the monthly sales of charcoal pieces reaching 5,000-10,000 pieces, and the monthly sales of teapots also reaching 1,000-2,500 pieces.

3. From online to offline: high-priced group purchases, some people are willing to pay for the atmosphere

Offline brands and businesses also took advantage of the situation to launch single products or package services. For example, Mixue Ice City has provided a "hot milk treasure" combination plan, but the cream has been replaced with real ice cream.

By searching for "brewing tea around the fire" on the group buying platform, we can find various packages ranging from a few dozen yuan to five or six hundred yuan. Most of the merchants are teahouses, and more than 700 packages have been sold for the popular ones.

Although the set meal is much more expensive than a simple cup of tea, and the snacks in the set meal are mostly common ingredients such as rice cakes, oranges, corn, chestnuts, etc., there are still many people willing to pay for it.

Ajin and his friends just experienced a limited 3-hour fire-brewing tea package over the weekend. The group purchase price for three people was 599 yuan. "The weather has suddenly become cold, and brewing tea around the fire is both warm and atmospheric. It's very suitable for gathering with friends. The scenery outside the window is great, so it's worth the extra cost."

From mulled wine to hot milk to tea brewed around the fire, the Internet is not short of fresh celebrity topics and trends. While online traffic is exploding, it can also bring short-term sales growth to businesses and brands.

However, the short-term popularity affected by the season is difficult to last. After the temporary freshness and gimmicks, whether consumers are willing to pay for it in the long run will ultimately come down to quality and service itself.

Zoe, who sells hot milk babies at a stall, is already looking for the next stall project. "Now we are still selling for the novelty. After the craze has passed, the sales volume will gradually decrease, and it will be difficult to continue doing this."

Author: Truffle; Editor: Zhang Jie; Proofreader: Yun Feiyang

Source public account: New List (ID: newrankcn), focusing on observation and reporting in the field of Internet content, and caring about people and things related to the content industry.