Autumn is getting stronger, and it seems that three or five friends making tea around the stove seems to be a new fashion.
During the National Day holiday, many places across the country have turned on the "quick freezing" mode. Many young people have replaced the ice American style in their hands and walked into the steaming teahouse on the street, ordering a pot of freshly brewed tea and chatting.
However, the teahouse that young people like to go to at this moment is not what the old teahouse looks like.
The traditional tea industry, which was once regarded as "old-fashioned", has quietly undergone new changes this year: a new teahouse brand with stylish decoration, diverse tea products, and the main focus on healthy and pure, has entered the commercial districts of first-tier and new first-tier cities, not only bringing the process Simplified but not simplified Chinese kung fu tea has also become a new check-in place for young consumers.
"Healthy", "National Trend" and "Cultural Confidence", many young people put fashion labels on new Chinese teahouses on social platforms.
Taking Xiaohongshu as an example, searching for the keyword "new Chinese teahouse", there are tens of thousands of punching notes involving all parts of the country.
However, some netizens also raised questions. At a time when coffee shops and milk tea shops are becoming more and more saturated, can the "rolled up" pure tea track inherit the time-honored traditional tea culture, or is it only on the surface of "net red shops"?
When more and more young people fall in love with drinking tea, how should China Pure Tea open up the market for young people?
Can the new Chinese teahouse become the next hit?
Find new ways to talk to traditional tea
"Coffee is used to 'renew your life' during the working day, and occasionally a cup of healthy pure tea is brewed." During the National Day holiday, Liu Yang came to Hangzhou Binjiang Tianjie after 1995, and checked in the new Chinese teahouse "Ha Cha Fu", which has been planting grass for a long time. , ordered a cup of Maofeng red pure tea with high aroma, and went shopping while drinking.
Claiming to be a "punk health" family who brewed wolfberry in a coffee cup, she was "hardly fanned" by such a cup of kung fu tea made with a stopwatch.
Sitting on the riverside with friends and enjoying the sunset comfortably, the "Laiqia Tea" opened in Changsha Beichen Joy City, with an outdoor scenic spot, touched the heart of the post-90s Wang Xuan.
Although the shop opened here not long ago, he and his girlfriend have already consumed it many times. Every time, he will order a pot of tea to drink slowly, and at the same time, he can also shoot a set of fashion blockbusters for his girlfriend. "The names of the tea products in the shop are very poetic, such as Chizi. Xin, Xiao Tuan Yuan, Bai Jian Jia, different teas are matched with different utensils, and the refreshments are also very interesting, delicious and beautiful. We fell in love with this new style of tea house after trying it once.”
Different tea bases, different utensils, different water temperature and brewing methods, present different flavors of Chinese Kung Fu tea, and with a new fashionable space experience, new Chinese-style teahouses have begun to emerge on the streets of many cities.
When the coffee and milk tea track is becoming more and more saturated, the addition of pure tea gives young people more choices.
Contrary to the traditional impression of "old-school teahouses are filled with older generations", both young consumers and entrepreneurs are looking for ways to communicate with the traditional tea industry: new tea brands have launched cold-brewed teas, bringing fire Introduced niche tea categories with interesting names, such as "Duck Shit Fragrance" and "Broken Silver"; during the Beijing Winter Olympics, the "tea brewing robot" skillfully pouring tea, pouring water, and making soup became popular; on short video platforms, no Fewer videos and live broadcasts are also showing the vitality behind picking and frying tea...
The "2022 Douyin E-commerce Tea Industry Insight Report" released not long ago also confirms this.
my country is the world's largest tea producer, and since 2020, China's tea industry has also entered a period of faster growth.
In 2021, the scale of consumers aged 18-30 in the Douyin tea industry will grow rapidly, and young consumer groups will use alternative teas such as herbal tea as their consumption entrance, and expand to oolong tea, black tea, Pu'er and other categories.
"People's consumption is constantly escalating and they are pursuing a healthy quality of life. There is nothing more healthy than drinking a cup of pure tea." Zhou Zhuoqun, a post-90s girl from Wenzhou, likes tea very much, but the traditional Chinese-style decoration of the teahouse always makes her feel very restrained. " Especially the enthusiastic staff, a set of tea brewing skills are displayed, I always feel embarrassed not to buy a bag of tea, but the price is not cheap."
One of the main reasons why many young people like to "soak" in coffee shops is the free and open atmosphere and more modern and comfortable decoration. The interpretation of traditional tea culture and the style of traditional tea houses can no longer be widely accepted by young people.
"Looking back on my country's long history and culture, pure tea is the oldest 'drink'. How can the traditional tea culture that makes the Chinese people be proud of, how can it really be used in the needs of young people's lives?" This is what Zhou Zhuoqun has been thinking about.
So, she borrowed the homonym of "drinking tea" in the traditional Wenzhou dialect, and founded the "Ha Cha Fu" brand in 2019. In addition to retailing tea in fashionable packaging, she also opened 3 new Chinese-style teahouses in Wenzhou and Hangzhou. The walking kung fu tea makes drinking tea easier', which is what our young entrepreneurs should try boldly."
There are also different "plays" and tricks for drinking tea
Can the traditional kung fu tea, which has always been about brewing and drinking kung fu, "walk" in the fast-paced modern life and take it away at any time?
In Zhou Zhuoqun's view, traditional tea can also "have different ways of playing and tricks" like coffee and new tea drinks.
In the Ha Cha Fu store, people can either choose the "quick drink mode" or sit down and taste it slowly.
Zhou Zhuoqun introduced that, taking the autumn special pure tea "Qiuguohong" as an example, customers can choose different recipes according to the time and taste. Another recipe, but the production time is relatively longer.
If customers can sit down and drink tea, they can provide pure tea soup and taste slowly according to the different brewing methods of different tea leaves.
In order to make the consumer experience better, Zhou Zhuoqun has made innovations in the structure of the cup in the more than a year since he founded the brand, and obtained a patent. A cup of plain water, but keeping the tea leaves, will always be inconvenient to drink. We have developed a new type of cup structure and added a special filter, so that every piece of tea can be seen, and you can even come back to refill the water.”
The tea brand "tea'stone", established at the same time as "Ha Tea Fu", recently opened a new store in Shanghai, where there are many coffee shops. Tea products attract young people to check in.
To change young people's inherent impression of pure tea through experience, and make tea drinking gradually become a way of life, "tea'stone" COO Hu Yue told reporters, "What we need to do is to accompany consumers from tea to old tea. Every step of the customer, bring tea culture into the life of young people."
Therefore, even though the store is located in a commercial area, "tea'stone" extended its business hours to 1:00 a.m. "It breaks the time limit for drinking tea and allows tea to keep up with the rhythm of modern life."
Inside "tea'stone", the process of researching and developing tea products is also called "Shouzheng Innovation".
According to the staff, keeping upright means focusing on the essence of Chinese tea, "108 kinds of pure teas come from 18 core producing areas across the country, and we interpret the tea's origin, terroir, flavor, craftsmanship and form in detail, and follow the brewing method and culture of traditional tea. At the core, it focuses on showing the sensory flavor characteristics that each tea should have.”
The presentation methods such as the tea utensils that carry the tea soup can be continuously innovated, from the most basic pots and cups to the tailor-made specific tea utensils such as "moon bottle", "slim cup" and "happy cup".
In addition, in their view, pure tea drinking methods can also be innovated, such as extracting ice hockey, dense bubbles, salt edges and other elements from Western wine culture, and combining with pure tea to present an interesting "unfamiliar and familiar" tea experience.
"Internet celebrity" attracts young people to come into the store to get in touch with tea culture
On October 8, the reporter came to the new Chinese-style teahouse "tea statement" located in Joy City, Chaoyang, Beijing.
On the first working day after the long holiday, the store was full of consumers.
Here, consumers can not only choose pure teas such as floral white peony, autumn-picked duck feces, Anji white tea, but also novel teas such as hand-made lemon tea.
If you like a certain type of tea, you can also choose the same type of tea in the retail area to take away.
This is the second store opened by "tea statement" in Beijing. The founding partners are a group of post-90s people who love Chinese tea culture.
Chen Qian, one of the founders, told reporters that they often lamented the rise of the national tide in recent years, "Tea culture is also a national tide. After the opening of the first store, we were pleasantly surprised to find that today's young people can not only accept it Pure tea, and have a certain knowledge of tea culture. The healthy life and concept brought by pure tea are also loved by young people, which puts forward high requirements for the quality of tea.”
Although it is a small team that has just started, Chen Qian and the team still insist on the direct supply of raw materials from the origin of tea.
In order to ensure the stable production of each pot of tea and the best taste, they have formulated standardized brewing specifications for each tea served in the store, and have strict requirements on the brewing temperature and time. training.
Zhou Zhuoqun also mentioned that it is difficult to show all of China's ancient and profound tea culture. They are currently focusing on the origins of Fujian and Yunnan to choose the tea they need. "I think it is necessary to start with raw leaf tea, and only let consumers understand tea first. The essence of the tea can be introduced accordingly, and even let consumers mix their own flavors to 'play' the tea."
Although the teahouse has been recognized by young people since its inception, Zhou Zhuoqun has also heard some criticisms.
She said frankly that some tea drinkers think that tea cannot be brewed in this way, "I myself like to make tea in a gaiwan, but it is undeniable that gaiwan tea is very hot, which is almost unacceptable to young people, especially office workers. Convenience, if you want to integrate into modern life, you must give up some content to make innovative breakthroughs.”
When it comes to packing hot tea, Chen Qian also has a problem: the hot tea is packed in a take-out cup, and changes in the material and temperature of the cup will bring about changes in taste. Always looking for a breakthrough.”
However, Chen Qian has a different opinion on the concern of netizens that "the new Chinese teahouse has become a trend of Internet celebrity punch cards".
In her opinion, the new era has new forms of presentation, "Just like many people like cold brewed tea with fire, even if it is an Internet celebrity check-in attribute, it is necessary to attract young people into the store first, so that they can have Opportunity to be exposed to changes in the tea industry, and then make them like this lifestyle. Therefore, while the new Chinese tea culture has become a check-in point for Internet celebrities, it does not prevent it from becoming an emerging leisure lifestyle for young people.”
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Meng Peipei Source: China Youth Daily
China Youth Daily October 11, 2022 Edition 07