Is “Healthy Milk Tea” a tax on your IQ?

Health preservation for college students, health preservation for young people, and early retirement... Health preservation is a hot topic for this generation of young people. New tea drinks have insights into the consumption habits of Generation Z, and time-honored brands have collaborated with new tea drinks to create a different spark. This article introduces the current consumption status and popularity of health tea drinks launched by several leading tea brands, and reveals the reasons behind this phenomenon. Recommended reading for those who are interested in new consumption, new tea drinks, and brand marketing.

Key Points

• Young people's health concept
• Mainly focus on health and nourishing style
• How long will the heat last?

At the beginning of the New Year in 2023, new tea drinks continued the "national trend of health preservation". In the advertisement, after drinking "ejiao milk tea", the urban white-collar workers traveled through thousands of years to become the vigorous ladies of the Tang Dynasty Palace. The eye-catching calligraphy font on the cup label attracted the attention of young people.

Recently, "Nayuki's Tea" and the time-honored brand "Dong'e Ejiao" jointly launched a series of new health products: Ejiao milk tea, Ejiao black sesame and red date cake, Taohuaji Ejiao cake...

Image source: Nayuki's Tea official image

From Nayuki's publicity, we can see that this time, two drinks, "Nayuki Dong'e Ejiao Treasure Tea" and "Nayuki Dong'e Ejiao Milk Tea", are jointly launched to "replenish" the health of workers after the holidays. Dong'e Ejiao, Tremella and red dates, which are nourishing and beautifying, Fuding old white tea, which clears away heat and removes fire, plus "Lo Han Guo 0-calorie sugar" which is said to be the first of Nayuki, are a set of nourishing "combination punches", and each punch hits the pain points of young people's health.

On the day of the new product's launch, the topic immediately became a hot search on Weibo, and has received 210 million views so far. The main product "Ejiao Treasure Tea" once became the store's single product sales champion. A netizen checked in and exclaimed: "The Z generation of elderly people have opened up new ideas for health preservation."

Image source: Weibo hot search interface

Time-honored brands and new tea drinks, functional tonics and contemporary "happy water", these two seemingly unrelated categories, when collided together, are catering to the consumption needs of many contemporary young people with a "punk health mentality".

01 Young people’s health anxiety is resolved through new consumption

Jiang Xiaochen, a senior in Beijing, was born in the 2000s, but she is already an expert in health preservation. After entering university, Xiaochen was busy with homework during the day, and often stayed up late at night to relax and have fun. She tried almost all the health products promoted by major KOLs, including instant fish maw desserts, black sesame balls, and five-red beauty cakes.

Xiaochen told Value Planet that she has never consumed any single "tonic product", but is very interested in "health snacks" that combine milk tea, desserts and other forms.

Traditional tonics, which have always been considered unrelated to deliciousness and fashion, have now been extended into the consumption scene of young people. What kind of psychological changes have consumers experienced after adding warm and nourishing donkey-hide gelatin and wolfberry to milk tea, which is known as the two "happy waters" along with cola?

"I think it's more fun to replace milk tea and desserts with donkey-hide gelatin milk tea and bird's nest syrup. When you eat snacks, you're eating things that are good for your body. Psychologically, you'll feel less guilty and feel like you're paying attention to your health."

Nowadays, the topic of health preservation has long broken through the circle of middle-aged and elderly people. Faced with academic and workplace pressures, young people find it difficult to "quit" bad habits such as staying up late, but this has pushed "health consumption" to become an indispensable expense.

According to the "Z Generation Nutrition Consumption Trend Report" released by Xinhuanet last year, the scale of China's health and wellness market has exceeded one trillion yuan, of which young people aged 18-35 account for as high as 83.7% of consumers, and more than half of them spend more than 500 yuan per month on health and wellness. The "life-loving" Z generation young people pay special attention to health and have become the main force of health consumption.

When it comes to how to pay for health, young people of Generation Z have their own "consumption temperament" and are not satisfied with traditional functional nourishing methods that mainly rely on medicines and health products.

The "Observation on the Differences in Health Concepts among Generations in 2022" released by iResearch Consulting shows that in the minds of young people, the value of health products does not only depend on their functional attributes. They value a more pleasant consumer experience, and products with topical and internet celebrity attributes are more popular.

Instant Fish Maw Dessert

Novel health drinks

Recently, Xiaochen made a special trip to Sanlitun to check in at a health-preserving dessert shop. Freshly stewed bird's nest with traditional methods, five-red bird's nest warm soup, beauty-enhancing brown sugar milk peach gum bird's nest soup, old rock sugar loquat kumquat snow pear soup...

The beauty-enhancing effects of these drinks and their unknown and novel taste are very attractive to her. With the "blessing" of expensive nourishing ingredients, the price of health drinks is much higher than that of ordinary freshly made milk tea. In the store where Xiaochen checked in, the minimum price of a cup of health milk tea is about 30 yuan, and drinks with expensive ingredients such as bird's nest can even sell for more than 100 yuan.

A clerk told Value Planet that despite the high price, the product has never had trouble selling, and bird's nest soup priced at more than 50 yuan has always been the store's star product.

The consumption psychology of Generation Z has endowed health preservation with entertaining and social attributes. When new tea drinks become a trendy lifestyle for young people, it has naturally become one of the main tracks of "new Chinese health preservation".

The popularity of health-preserving milk tea is driven by multiple factors. On the one hand, major brands that launch mid-to-high-end health-preserving milk tea are mostly located near shopping malls and office buildings, and with the help of takeaway channels, the convenient attributes meet the needs of "fast health preservation" in contemporary life; on the other hand, health-preserving milk tea brands are also catering to the health-preserving habits of young people in all aspects.

The Zhima Health team told Value Planet: "Young people are afraid of getting sick, but they don't know what the problem is or what products can really work." The major health tea brands have hit the "pain point" of young people who love health preservation but don't really "know how to preserve health".

The "2022 National Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Index Research Report" shows that although the post-90s generation is not very old, their "disease ratio" is 38.6%, the highest among all age groups.

Lin Lin is a programmer born in the 1990s who works in a large company in Shanghai. Her daily high workload and irregular eating habits have forced her to face health problems such as hair loss and weakened immunity. She has also fallen into a kind of "health anxiety": whenever she sees sub-health symptoms on social platforms, she always identifies herself with them. But every time she is ready to take good care of her body, she feels that it is "very complicated and troublesome" and lacks the patience and energy to study it carefully.

When Lin Lin saw the health-preserving milk tea in the mall for the first time, she was inspired. "Since I have to drink milk tea anyway, I might as well drink something healthy." Lin Lin called this "taking advantage of every opportunity to preserve health."

02 “New Chinese” nourishment, milk tea is popular

If the core strategy for the evolution of traditional milk tea into new-style tea drinks is the upgrading of raw materials and brand effect, then new tea drinks seem to have found a new direction after showing signs of fatigue due to "excessive internal circulation" - targeting young people who have health needs but lack in-depth knowledge of the efficacy of ingredients and do not want to take the effort to study how to eat them, and launching new products that focus on "health and nourishment".

In addition to donkey-hide gelatin, nourishing ingredients such as bird's nest, ginseng, royal jelly, and black wolfberry have long crossed over, from flavors to condiments, constantly "adding buff" to milk tea and participating in the dietary consumption of young people.

In fact, "nourishing and maintaining health" has become the next new growth target of the new tea industry a few years ago. In 2019, the popular "LeLeCha" and the bird's nest brand "Yanzhiwu" cooperated to launch "Iced Bird's Nest Pink Peach Yogurt", priced at 49 yuan per cup. But at this time, LeLeCha had not yet sensed the trend of "national tide", and took the "modern luxury" route in marketing, using expensive prices and exotic ingredients to attract attention.

In the same year, the first store of "Chunfeng Health Tea Drinks", which focuses on the national trend, opened in Shanghai. Founder Hu Kaiji said that he has always been optimistic about the market space for health consumption, and tea drinks, with their characteristics of being "the most popular and young", have become the path for brands to enter the market.

Initially, Chunfeng's beverages were named after the ingredients, such as ginseng and kudzu root tea, mulberry, chrysanthemum and honeysuckle tea, etc., and sales were dismal. Later, a key brand strategy adjustment brought a turnaround in sales - naming teas according to their functions and drinking scenarios, such as royal jelly water for staying up late, green juice water for fat removal, and collagen three treasures milk tea. This more intuitive and effective naming method quickly resonated with young people.

Similarly, Shandong brand Hetian Shuipu also marked words such as "Happy water for menstrual liberation" and "Don't worry about the cold and changing seasons" in the ordering app.

Another brand that seems a little "transparent" in the tea industry is now also entering the health track with high-end lines. Its brand "Niu Cha", known as the "Hermes of milk tea", is located in mid-to-high-end shopping malls such as Beijing SKP. Consumers can choose to add 20g, 40g or 100g of freshly stewed bird's nest to different drinks such as osmanthus milk tea, mango sago, duck shit lemon tea, etc. The clerk weighs it on the spot, and the price ranges from about 40 to 150 yuan.

In addition to new tea brands, time-honored Chinese medicine brands are also actively trying to become younger, trying to capture the "Generation Z" population and get a piece of the "tonic beverage" pie.

The most representative of these is Tong Ren Tang, which has a history of more than 350 years. Tong Ren Tang launched a trendy health store called "Zhima Health", which not only provides herbal drinks such as staying up late water and health water, but also provides innovative coffee drinks such as wolfberry latte and monk fruit Americano. It intends to integrate the national trend that young people love based on the quality and reputation of the time-honored brand and build a more diversified consumption scenario for Chinese medicine culture.

The method used by health tea brands to simplify the "homework" and deliver it directly to the door is very effective in capturing the minds of young consumers.

Meituan Takeaway data shows that last fall, the national search volume for "healthy milk tea" increased by 118% week-on-week, of which young users aged 20 to 30 accounted for more than half.

Pear Soup Drink

In addition, another reason for the hot sales of health tea is the impact of the epidemic at the end of last year. During this special period, some young people who were not interested in drinks in the past also began to pay for health tea. In response to the needs of relieving "razor throat" and driving away the cold, brands such as Cha Baidao, Coco, and Shanghai Auntie have launched products such as ginger wolfberry brown sugar milk tea and fresh stewed pear.

The manager of Chunfeng's Shanghai Sun Moon Light store told Value Planet that this winter, Chunfeng's classic drink "Xiaodiao Pear Soup" has increased its daily sales from 100 cups in previous winters to 300 cups, accounting for 60% of the store's sales and becoming the champion of single products; Chunfeng also adjusted the formula of a retail tea bag of "Lo Han Guo Throat Treasure Tea" to make freshly made tea drinks, which were sold out in stores very quickly.

Whether it is "following the trend for fun" or "taking advantage of opportunities", psychological comfort or real effect, "nourishing and maintaining health" is becoming an important part of the consumption concept of many young people. When "maintaining health" is constantly being deconstructed and reshaped by new consumption, its combination with new tea drinks seems not difficult to predict. However, a cup of milk tea can also pry open a larger business blue ocean.

03 Expensive supplements "sink", a cup of milk tea paves the way

In recent years, although the health needs of young groups continue to emerge, due to the stereotype that traditional nourishing ingredients are "unpalatable", "complicated to make" and "expensive", there is still a "barrier" between these ingredients and young consumer groups.

The 2022 "Double Eleven" health consumption trend report shows that middle-aged and elderly people are happy to buy products such as "Tiepi Fengdou Granules", while young people are more likely to choose instant probiotics, black sesame pills and other more widely recognized health foods.

Choosing to collaborate with new tea drinks can just break through this barrier.

In the new consumer era where "everything can be co-branded", one of the most anticipated marketing effects for brands is to expand new consumption scenarios through co-branding, thereby reaching consumers from different circles. The entry of health brands into the new tea beverage market has inspired young people to understand traditional health supplements. Through milk tea, snacks and other methods that young people are familiar with and love, "expensive supplements" have quietly completed their own consumer cultivation.

Targeting this breakthrough point, the traditional nourishing brand’s youth strategy has begun to take effect.

Beijing Tong Ren Tang is transforming from an "old shop selling Chinese medicine" to a popular check-in spot for young people. The youthful attempt represented by "Zhima Health" has not only made Tong Ren Tang popular, but also provided young people with a new Chinese health-preserving lifestyle. In Zhima Health stores, the area that sells new tonic products such as small jars of paste prescriptions and canned bird's nests is larger than the coffee and beverage area.

In August last year, Zhima Health’s Beijing store zero opened at the Daxing base, using coffee shops, tea shops, bakeries and other “food, drink, shopping and entertainment” functions to drive casual consultations and narrow the perception distance between young consumers and traditional Chinese medicine ingredients.

The staff of Zhima Health Beijing Junhao store shared with Value Planet: "Many times customers first come to buy monk fruit coffee or water for staying up late, and then when they need to give as gifts or use for themselves, they will think of coming to us. We feel that health care is a 'soft but rigid demand' because there are so many repeat customers, and they basically make secondary purchases in addition to drinks."

The financial report disclosed that after Tong Ren Tang's revenue and net profit both declined in 2019, attempts represented by its new retail "Zhima Health" and new tea drinks "Zhicha Si" enabled Tong Ren Tang to "recover" 14.603 billion yuan in revenue in 2021, achieving a year-on-year growth of 13.86%, and a year-on-year growth of 2.03% in the first three quarters of 2022.

In the past two years, Qingxintang, a time-honored brand of herbal tea in Guangzhou, and Tonghanchuntang, a time-honored brand of traditional Chinese medicine in Shanghai, have also tried their hand at health-preserving milk tea. A cup of health-preserving milk tea can attract a lot of Chinese medicine nourishing ingredients.

Dong-E-Erhu’s achievements in achieving “upgrade and renewal” through its youth strategy are also remarkable.

On January 31, Dong-E-Erhu disclosed its 2022 performance report, predicting that net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies will reach 760 million to 810 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 73% to 84%. Cheng Jie, president of Dong-E-Erhu, once said in an interview with the media that he hopes that the first donkey-hide gelatin that young people will taste is Dong-E-Erhu.

Zhao Lu, a traditional health care product practitioner, told Value Planet that during the collaboration between Dong-E E-Jiao and Nayuki's Tea, the number of customers inquiring about E-Jiao-related products in his store increased significantly, and most of them were young people.

Zhao Lu said: "High-quality donkey-hide gelatin has a soft and glutinous texture and basically no bitterness. In fact, it is very suitable for pairing with many scenarios in life and diet. We would recommend it to customers before, but generally middle-aged women are more interested in it. Now more young people are asking about it." During the joint venture, Dong'e Ejiao's instant donkey-hide gelatin powder, the flagship store's nut donkey-hide gelatin cake, donkey-hide gelatin and red date candy and other nourishing snacks also sold well.

Ginseng water for staying up late

On May 17, 2022, a health drink containing a whole ginseng root in a glass bottle was put on the shelves of Lawson convenience stores for 19.9 yuan, setting a miracle of selling 10,000 bottles a day. Soon, photos of the drink were everywhere on Weibo, Xiaohongshu and other platforms, and comments were filled with "please restock". Among similar products, "a whole ginseng root water" ranked first in search volume, transaction volume, and average daily sales in convenience store channels.

Before the launch of "Yiquangen Aoyeshui", the health food supplement company behind it, "Yinghe Yanjiusuo", had already produced 4 youth-oriented health products in one year. Although the average daily sales of the main instant bird's nest in a single store was only 0.3 bottles, this post-90s entrepreneurial team still succeeded by grasping the path of "light health preservation".

A co-founder of the "Hardcore Beauty Research Institute" shared that in their opinion, "light health preservation" will be a popular lifestyle in the future. The "tonifying" ginseng used for medicinal purposes and wine soaking does not meet the consumption scenarios of contemporary young people, while the food-grade ginseng under 5 years old with the characteristics of "medicine and food are of the same origin" has a relatively blank market in China. Promoting ginseng through plant beverages is more in line with the young people's eating habits of light burden and light supply.

Despite the phenomenal popularity of "A Whole Bottle of Staying-Up Water" and the criticisms that it is "too hard to drink" and "low cost and weak efficacy", it is undeniable that the Hardcore Beauty Research Institute has indeed found the point of convergence for people to participate in young consumption.

Whether it is promoting freshly stewed bird's nests through "bird's nest milk tea" or driving sales of traditional tonics with "herbal coffee", all health brands are actually trying to bring traditional Chinese tonic ingredients back to the young group's vision in a new product form. For traditional expensive tonics that continue to be unpopular with young groups, cross-border "sinking" may still be the best strategy.

04 Placebo, or a new landscape of “medicine and food having the same origin” in the contemporary era?

As traditional tonics such as ginseng, donkey-hide gelatin, American ginseng, royal jelly, etc., which were once regarded as "exclusive for middle-aged and elderly people", have been freed from the complicated processes of decocting medicine, boiling water, and making soup, and have entered milk tea cups, beverage bottles, snack packaging... the traditional concept of "medicine and food have the same origin" is constantly being reinterpreted today, opening up many new tracks.

As the trend of youth-oriented health care is gaining momentum, are there any hidden problems and risks?

The Z Generation Nutrition Consumption Trend Report shows that among the health consumption trends of young people, keeping up with the trend and being lazy are the two key words. More than half of the "Z Generation" believe that it is easy to give up on a healthy diet and lifestyle after sticking to it for a few days, and 62.44% of consumers said that there is a phenomenon of waste after purchasing nutritional products.

It is widely noticed in the new consumption field that the young group does indeed have great potential and space for the development of health and wellness. However, the trend-following "pseudo-health" mentality among them seems to be difficult to maintain momentum after setting off a wave.

Some young people who check in for health-conscious milk tea do not actually pursue the "effectiveness" of milk tea.

"Drinking it once won't have any effect, but I don't really care. The main reason is that these flavors sound novel, and I really want to try them." Xiaochen believes that it is worth it to occasionally pay a slightly higher price to experience expensive tonic milk tea.

"After all, my current spending power is not enough to support me to buy traditional nourishing products, and the fusion with milk tea also makes the taste of these supplements more acceptable." Xiaochen said.

In addition, taking photos and checking in for the novel internet-famous milk tea has attracted a lot of attention in her circle of friends, which has also become another important motivation for her consumption.

There are also many consumers who, driven by curiosity, bought health-preserving milk tea for the first time, but soon tasted a hint of "leek flavor".

After Sun Ying bought bird's nest milk tea for the first time, she took a photo and posted a message on Xiaohongshu: "48 yuan a cup of bird's nest milk tea, local dogs should just drink non-dairy creamer!" She said she probably wouldn't buy it again, after all, diet therapy relies on "long-termism" and the effect is unknown. At 48 yuan a cup of bird's nest milk tea, there is nothing special about it.

"After taking a sip, I found it too sweet. The taste is not as good as the milk tea that costs more than 10 yuan a cup. The difference between it and ordinary milk tea is just a small spoonful of bird's nest. I think the price-performance ratio is not high." A young female consumer described to Value Planet her "unsatisfactory" experience when trying bird's nest milk tea.

In the promotional poster of Naixue's donkey-hide gelatin milk tea, there is a sentence: "Cramming at the last minute can also replenish your body." Is this really the case? How long can the popularity of nourishing milk tea last?

Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng told Value Planet that in the post-epidemic era, Chinese consumers' rigid demand for "big health" has generally increased, and appearance management, weight management, nutrition management, and big health management have all become life trends for contemporary young people.

Based on this situation, Zhu Danpeng is optimistic about the future development of nourishing and health-preserving foods and beverages. "From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, this type of food has a good effect in improving immunity and overall health index."

It is undeniable that "new Chinese nourishment" is a new trend that has emerged based on the consumer psychology of contemporary young people. A novel and pleasant consumer experience that combines deliciousness, fashion and health is naturally a necessary condition for commercial brands to focus on.

However, after major brands enter the market, how to further meet the "big health" consumption trends and improve user stickiness and repeat purchases will become the highlight after the heat cools down.

Author: Ma Jiujiu; Editor: Ma Ji;

Source public account: Value Planet