Chinese embrace new twists on gelato textures, flavors amid tea crossover

With competition in China's new-style tea sector heating up, merchants are opening up a new track — gelato.

This ice cream category, which was once a preserve of Italy's high-end dessert shops, is now appearing on the menus of China's food and beverage districts, the basement level of core business districts and even tea shops.

Priced around 30 yuan ($4.4), and with descriptions of "handmade", "fresh ingredients" and "dense texture", gelato is attracting young people to lock in and make repeat purchases.

With all the frenzy, players of all sizes are vying to enter the game. New brands are being incubated, old brands are accelerating their expansion, and tea beverage brands are following suit.

In February, Heytea launched a limited-edition gelato blended with meat floss and salted egg yolk at its Fengshengli outlet in Shanghai. Meanwhile, it sells four laboratory sections, including gelato lab, to explore different combinations with tea.

On May 21, Chagee launched geelato — a combination of gelato and tea — at nine of its outlets in five cities — Shanghai, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Beijing, Chengdu in Sichuan province and Wuhan in Hubei province. The new products combine original leaf tea with Italian ice cream craftsmanship to provide consumers with a diverse modern tea experience.

The new products contain 10 flavors including jasmine green tea, matcha peak latte and caramel infused pu-erh tea, and three types of "geelato" tea products. During the Labor Day holiday in May, geelato went on trial sales at the Wukang Road outlet in Shanghai, becoming an instant hit with customers.

"Compared to simply adding tea elements to the product, we hope to further expand the product form of tea through the new element of Italian ice cream. In order to maintain the layering and recognition of tea aromas in low-temperature dessert form, the research and development team repeatedly adjusted the ratio of milk and tea, steepping times, temperature control and other aspects," said the spokesperson of Chagee.

"In order to find the 'right' moment, we often have to test nearly a hundred times until we find the non-greasy and non-stagnant flavor critical point. Finally, while retaining the dense taste, the product retains a unique aroma, aftertaste and flavor changes of the original leaf tea," the spokesperson said.

Jin Tao, senior director of the public relations center of Chagee, said: "Culturally speaking, Chinese people have a tradition of 'eating tea', where tea is ordered and ground. Making tea-flavored gelato is a new way of modern 'eating tea'. Ever since the Labor Day holiday, we have had good feedback."

Gao Chengyuan, president and CEO of Guangzhou TY Marketing, said: "Gelato itself has a 'high-end feel' — Italian handmade, low-fat and healthy and visually appealing, which coincides with the transition of new-style tea — from 'functional thirst quenching' to 'emotional consumption'. The pricing of 18 yuan to 26 yuan is stuck between milk tea and specialty coffee, which not only increases the average purchase price, but also does not discourage those who try new things."

Huang Tao, an independent expert in public relations, said: "Gelato's popularity in the tea beverage industry is somewhat sustainable, but it may not sustain explosive growth over the long term. In the short term, gelato's unique taste, freshness, and social attributes (such as being suitable for taking photos) can attract consumers to try it out, especially catering to the innovative needs of young people."

"Over the long term, whether the business can be sustainable depends on the following factors: whether the price is affordable, the product can realize constant innovation, the supply chain is stable, the consumption level is supportive, and the channel distribution is complete," he said.