Ice tea served around the fire is popular again. Why do young people love to drink ice tea around the fire?

Some time ago, brewing tea around the fire became popular, and now iced tea around the fire is popular again. Why do young people love to drink tea around the fire so much? The author of this article analyzes in detail the reasons why iced tea around the fire attracts young people and discusses the business ideas behind brewing tea around the fire. Let's take a look.

It is difficult to imitate a lifestyle, but it is easy to create an "atmosphere".

"Let's have a cup of iced tea around the stove, watching the clouds rise and fall; with a few plates of Jiangnan dim sum, we can appreciate the blooming and falling of flowers." A week ago, this ethereal copy quickly became popular on short video platforms and social media.

The #圍炉冰茶 related topic has been played more than 5 million times on Douyin. As the "summer version" of brewing tea around the fire, "圍炉冰茶" seems to have become a continuation of a certain lifestyle.

Last winter, cooking tea around the stove became a hot topic on the Internet. Tea houses and beverage shops in the streets and alleys followed suit, and it became a new social trend among young people in the city. On Meituan, if you search for the word "around the stove", you will also see spicy hot pot and barbecue around the stove. Various businesses tried their best to take advantage of the popularity of "around the stove". However, as the temperature rises, young people's enthusiasm for cooking tea around the stove gradually wanes, the equipment for cooking tea begins to gather dust, and the ceramic stove and grill are gradually forgotten.

At this time, it is the end of spring and the beginning of summer, and iced tea around the fire comes into being. The fire around the fire is replaced with ice, cold brewed tea is used instead of tea leaves, ice powder, fruit plate, and ice cream replace sweet potatoes, chestnuts, and roasted oranges, and dry ice is added to set the atmosphere, and a fireside iced tea can be prepared.

Image source: Xiaohongshu blogger @JOJO乔

Compared with brewing tea around the stove, it has less burnt smell and is filled with steam and smoke, so netizens directly label it "Fairy Afternoon Tea".

1. Why do young people love to sit around the fire?

On social media platforms, stove-side iced tea has continued the popularity of stove-side brewed tea, which is closely related to its product characteristics and marketing strategies that cater to the current market.

1. The atmosphere of the photo shoot around the fire is very strong, which is what young people call "making photos"

Sufficient dry ice - in an ice tea party, this is probably a more important prop than "the fire" and "ice tea". Pour water on the dry ice in the fire, and you will have a visual experience as if you are in a fairyland.

Netizens who have experienced the iced tea around the fire commented through the video: I simply fell in love with the process of pouring water over dry ice. The store also wrote in the promotional copy: "Iced tea around the fire is the afternoon tea that should be in summer. When the fairy air lingers, it feels like heaven on earth."

Of course, this sense of atmosphere cannot rely solely on the "fairy air" created by dry ice. Small round tables made of wood or bamboo, bamboo kettles, transparent glass containers, fruit baskets or snack stands of various shapes, with flowers, plants, streams, or a deep courtyard background, and decorated with fabrics similar to bamboo curtains and gauze curtains, the scene in the photo will be more realistic, beautiful and modern.

In the content related to ice tea around the fire, many store bloggers will focus on how to set the scene and adjust the color of the photo in order to achieve the best communication effect. The aesthetic experience of this activity is indeed excellent, and it has also attracted many photography bloggers to participate in it and conduct special shooting teaching - dry ice will melt quickly, so it is recommended to set the continuous shooting mode; if you want to achieve smoke similar to gurgling water, you can use a slow shutter speed; the color adjustment and parameters of the photos are also provided for netizens to refer to, etc.

2. The perfect sense of participation and simple gameplay of ice tea around the fire

Brewing tea around the stove is a relatively traditional and professional skill, but the iced tea around the stove currently on the market does not actually require consumers to have any special skills or experience. If you buy a set meal from the store to experience it, young people don’t need any "stove-side" skills, but they don’t have to just go through the motions and take photos.

Dry ice is purchased in advance, and the main ritual is watering; nuts, cakes, fruits, etc. are finished foods, and customers can match and arrange them according to color and shape. In this process, consumers can give full play to their creativity and aesthetics, freely combine and mix, and make the ice tea around the stove more unique.

In addition, although the specific production methods of "Iced Tea" are not exactly the same, the basic steps are not complicated, allowing consumers to feel a sense of accomplishment in the process of making it by themselves. In some services of iced tea around the fire, consumers can add flower and fruit tea, fruit, cream, etc. according to their preferences to mix their favorite tastes and flavors, making the production process more interesting and challenging. In the process of making and tasting, consumers can also communicate with each other, share experiences and feelings, establish new social relationships, and have a more relaxed and pleasant experience in a soothing rhythm.

3. Ice tea around the fire is highly adaptable to various social occasions of young people

The activity environment is relatively flexible, which increases the operability, which is also one of the important reasons why it is popular among young people.

In the hot summer outdoors, you can drink iced tea around the fire with a cool mat and umbrella, and the "fairy air" of dry ice can create a more comfortable and cool environment.

The ice tea around the fire can be customized according to the scene. By matching items of different materials and colors, there is more than one style of the fireside. There is the new Chinese style of gauze curtains, Hanfu, and oil-paper umbrellas, as well as the literary and cool style of falling flowers, paper fans, and cotton and linen products; there is the pastoral farm style of firewood piles, haystacks, and colorful fruits, and there is the modern business style of high-rise buildings, moonlit nights, and neon lights. Parks, teahouses, camps, rooftops - there is no scene that contemporary young people can't think of . As long as there is a piece of heaven and earth and a few "idlers", it is enough.

2. Boiling tea around the stove has little to do with tea

From brewing tea around the fire to iced tea around the fire, the popularity of tea around the fire has been rising, but doubts have never stopped. For consumers, whether tea around the fire can become a fixed lifestyle, and for businesses, whether the economy around the fire can form compound interest, there is still no conclusion, and how long the fire around the fire can burn, it remains to be seen.

Xiaohongshu user @杏露 is a tea lover who often shares knowledge notes about tea, such as "How to maintain an iron kettle" and "The lazy way to make tea". In early April, she tried to make tea around a stove after realizing it. After returning home, Xingrenlu immediately posted a post on Xiaohongshu to expose the "scam" of making tea around a stove. She used the word "disaster" to describe this experience.

First of all, most tea leaves are not suitable for boiling. The more you boil, the more astringent it becomes. Just soak it in hot water. Xingrenlu listed the tea leaves that are easy to fail in boiling tea: Oolong, Phoenix Dancong, Dianhong, Rock Tea, Longjing, Jasmine, Lu'an Guapian... These are the most common categories in the stove-boiled tea set. She added: "If you must boil it, it is best to choose tea with a long history, such as black tea and old white tea, but many merchants do not understand tea so well and will ignore this point."

Not only the tea, but also the snacks served with the tea had a terrible taste. She said: "The sweet potatoes were half-cooked, the fruits were limp, and the snacks were too sweet and greasy." At first, Xingrenlu and her friends came with the idea of ​​enjoying the "relaxation" in the tea culture, but in the end, they gradually became anxious in the frustration of the smoky smell and burnt food.

Xingrenlu told Hedgehog Commune: "It was far from what I imagined. I wanted to just take the photos and leave, but we spent 300 or 400 yuan after all, and the package lasted two hours, so I could only sit there and carefully edit the photos, write copy against my will, post on WeChat Moments, and then sulk ."

Image source: Xiaohongshu user @杏露

These two hours are torture for consumers like almond milk, and the same is true for merchants. As a synonym for "slow life" and "relaxation", brewing tea around the stove is mostly measured in hours. Unlike milk tea and coffee, consumers will neither drink it up and leave, nor place orders on food delivery apps. On the contrary, brewing tea around the stove requires a higher tea drinking and dining environment.

A wire mesh plate is placed on the small charcoal stove, and the coarse pottery teapot is surrounded by exquisite tea sets, Chinese calligraphy, and careful plate arrangement design, all of which focus on a "film-like feeling". Therefore, in order to increase the turnover rate and earn back the cost of venue rental, most merchants have time restrictions on the stove products, and the prices are not low. After all, you can stay for a day for a few dozen yuan, and in the beverage market, only Starbucks can do this.

A user on Xiaohongshu joked that the boss earned 390 yuan while the fireside tea cost 398 yuan, and this misunderstanding also made the merchants complain. Especially for the fireside iced tea, the cost of dry ice is very high, but it is consumed very quickly, so the consumption experience may only meet expectations in the first few minutes.

Once the experience fails and the novelty wears off, it is only a matter of time before such products are abandoned. One merchant told the media: "Almost all products around the stove are 'making money while losing money' because such products require too much space for tea and are very seasonal. When the popularity is high, you can make some money, but once the season is over, you lose money."

3. Traffic business or scenario business?

According to the founder of a teahouse chain in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, the way of making "ice tea around the fire" was created by her, and it was originally named "spring-boiled ice tea". In her Xiaohongshu notebook, the comment area was flooded with requests for "please teach me" and "please join us".

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

On April 3, the teahouse made a public statement on Xiaohongshu, organized a professional training team, and invited people to join or study nationwide. Less than 20 days later, the first franchise store was established in Shaoxing, Zhejiang.

It was also within these short 20 days that "Weilu Bingcha" blossomed all over the Internet, with the first store opening in each city one after another. On Douyin, searches for #Weilu Bingcha related topics are mainly based on regions. Among them, the speed of learning and launching new products in second- and third-tier cities is even more amazing.

Different from tea ceremony and tea art performances with professional and cultural attributes such as Gongfu tea and tea art, iced tea around the fire does not have the so-called professional threshold and does not require the influence of tea culture. It is rapidly spreading at a very low cost . At the same time, the harm of dry ice to the respiratory tract and the damage of cold brewed tea to the stomach are also being widely questioned and discussed in traditional Chinese medicine and nutrition.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

However, Hedgehog Community found that in first-tier cities such as Beijing, there is no experience service for iced tea around the fire on platforms such as Meituan Dianping and Douyin. An investor who has been paying close attention to the new tea market believes that the reason why the sinking market became popular first, while the first-tier cities progressed slowly, is that iced tea around the fire may not be suitable for the local environment when it comes to first-tier cities.

Compared to coffee, craft beer, and outdoor sports, which can truly become a lifestyle, iced tea is more like a gimmick. It does not require long-term investment of time, money, and energy, nor can it unlock a person's new skills. For those who really love tea tasting, it has long been a lifestyle habit. They drink tea regardless of time and place, and they don't pay attention to external forms.

He also stressed: "Without substantial content, cultural foundation, and product strength to support it, the transition from boiled tea to iced tea is just a temporary extension of the life cycle and is doomed to be short-lived."

At present, many homestays and teahouses are facing the crisis of iteration and transformation. As a means of attracting customers, brewing tea around the fire and iced tea around the fire can indeed attract consumers, drive customer flow, and temporarily alleviate the crisis. However, subsequent products and services cannot keep up, and it is difficult to make repeat purchases. In the final analysis, brewing tea around the fire can only be a traffic business to create and stimulate demand in the short term, but it is not a real demand.

In recent times, more and more young people have begun to understand that poetry and distant places cannot be obtained through external means such as consumption and travel, and the desired life cannot be created by relying on "atmosphere" and "relaxation". Therefore, the business of making quick money and cutting leeks is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Only by adhering to long-termism, polishing products, and shaping brand culture and influence can the business be sustained.

This is just as strategic marketing expert Xiao Ma Song said, "Marketing is first and foremost business management." Regardless of whether the fireside iced tea is extending the life of the "fireside" gameplay or trying to create a new and sophisticated consumption scenario, everything must serve the merchant's current business purposes.

For example, Quanquan, the founder of Man and Man, a local brand in Changsha, Hunan, keenly captured the pain points behind consumption phenomena such as boiling tea around the stove. She realized that this might be because consumers' pursuit of dining environment has reached a new level, and it is more important to take on emotional value and aesthetic needs than ever before. This will lead to a new "battlefield" in the future. So, she upgraded her garden restaurant to a natural aesthetic manor, which not only provides tea and Western-style simple meals, but also hosts theme parties, dinners, weddings and other activities.

It is not just the circle that has noticed this. With the promotion of social media and film and television dramas, the "small courtyard economy" is just in time. Many people in the catering industry believe that the "small courtyard + catering" business model is likely to usher in an explosive period this year, driven by new lifestyles such as camping and outdoor activities.

"Courtyard economy" is a typical scene-based business. The dishes and services are the same as before, but the original dining environment has been transformed into an outdoor immersive courtyard space, presented in the form of flowing water, fishing boats and gauze curtains.

The founder of the courtyard design studio VAGRANCY DESUGN also feels this deeply. She said that in recent times, the studio has received many more requests for courtyard planning and design from the catering industry than before.

From brewing tea around the fire to iced tea around the fire, for all hot products, when the dividend comes, the best solution is to grab the market. After the dividend ends, refined operations and improved conversion rates will be what innovators need to consider more.

Author: Yi Tong Jia Xuan

Source: WeChat public account "Hedgehog Commune (ID: ciweigongshe)"