China News Service, Beijing, April 4 (Zeng Yue Guoxuan) The Tomb Sweeping Day holiday is coming again, and the seasonal food youth group has once again become the "top trend": it has been listed on the best-selling lists of major fresh food e-commerce platforms online, and attracted diners to line up offline. Long queue for purchasing and tasting. In response to the season, more and more young Chinese have not only become consumers of Youth League, but also joined the ranks of making their own Youth League. The "early adopters" of the Youth League's "new styles" are also becoming "first-time adopters".
Recently, the canteen of Renmin University of China launched a Youth League gift box set. Photo by Guoxuan
In recent years, Qingtuan has continued to come up with new styles and flavors. Some merchants have reduced the traditional youth dumplings into "one bite" snacks, and even launched "cross-border joint models", which have been welcomed by consumers. In many restaurants and college canteens, youth dumplings with diverse flavors such as pickled fresh food, jasmine longjing, and blueberry cheese have attracted many young people to "check in" to buy.
In the past few days, on the first floor of the cafeteria in the North District of Renmin University of China, students buying Youth League have been queuing from the Jiangnan Flavor window to the entrance of the cafeteria. Canteen staff told reporters from China News Service that a total of 9 flavors of Qingtuan have been launched this year, both sweet and salty, and new products are especially launched based on the preferences of young people. Since the launch of sales on March 8, the window has sold an average of about 2,000 Youth Leagues every day, and sales will further increase during the Qingming Festival. The three flavors of meat floss and egg yolk, cherry blossom cheese and purple sweet potato, and vanilla ice cream are the most popular among students.
"I bought sakura cheese purple sweet potato and shepherd's purse fresh meat green dumplings. They have enough fillings and don't taste greasy." Yu, a freshman from Jilin, said that it was his first time eating green dumplings and he planned to buy a gift box set to send to family.
While the popularity of “trying out” new Youth League products remains unabated, homemade Youth Leagues are leading a new trend among young people.
"I have a sense of ritual and like to make different delicacies according to festivals and anniversaries." Ms. Peng, 24, has made her own Qingtuan dumplings for three consecutive years and has made a variety of fillings such as red beans, sesame peanuts, and salted egg yolk meat floss.
For Ms. Chen, who is a Hakka, Qingtuan, also known as Ai Bo, is a common seasonal food. "Hakka people pick moxa leaves and make moxa sticks every Qingming Festival." During this season, she usually makes moxa sticks with her family, and likes to shape them into novel shapes such as piglets, rabbits, and bears.
As a food lover, Ms. Jia from Sichuan will pursue innovation in fillings and pay attention to the dosage of recipes when making her own green dumplings to avoid "overturning" the taste.
Hakka Ms. Chen’s homemade moxa cake. (Photo provided by interviewee)
With the "new styles" of Youth Leagues in various places, in addition to a variety of fillings and flavors, "cross-border" delicacies such as Youth League hot pot, Youth League cakes, and Youth League milk tea have also emerged.
"The youth group's 'new' and 'cross-border' food can not only attract consumers to buy, enrich the public's taste bud experience, but also arouse everyone's interest in learning more about food and its cultural background," Ms. Jia said.
Of course, not all new flavors are popular with young people. On social platforms, it is not uncommon to see “black and red lists” and “thunder” reviews of various youth leagues. For example, some cherry blossom-flavored green dumplings were criticized by netizens for having a “flavor-flavored” taste, while others were called “heavy-flavored” due to the uncoordinated fillings.
How do you view the youth league’s continuous innovation? Ms. Chen keeps an open mind. "Food is not static. It is necessary to constantly introduce new flavors and observe the market response. There is no need to be too resistant to new flavors." Ms. Jia also said that failure in taste innovation is inevitable, but if it can become popular , which is not a bad thing for promoting economic development. "With high acceptance and good reviews of new products, they will naturally become a long-term taste in the market."
Ms. Peng believes that it is not surprising to pursue novelty, but we should also pay attention to the direction. "The important thing when launching new flavors is to meet the public's taste, and it should be combined with the wormwood flavor of Qingtuan itself, rather than just pursuing novelties." (End)