China 101
New-style Chinese tea drinks
茶饮
The category of freshly-made tea-based drinks, from cheese-foam fruit teas to lemon teas, that Chinese chains built into one of the country's hottest consumer industries.
Chayin, tea drinks, refers to China's new-style tea beverage industry: freshly brewed tea combined with fruit, milk, cheese foam, or brown sugar pearls, sold by chains like HEYTEA, Nayuki, ChaPanda, and Mixue BingchengChina's ultra-budget tea and ice cream chain, famous for one-dollar drinks, a catchy jingle, and one of the largest store counts of any food chain in the world.. The category split from older bubble tea around the mid-2010s when HEYTEA's cheese-foam teas drew hours-long queues.
It is now one of China's most competitive consumer arenas. Chains fight over seasonal fruit launches, brand collaborations with games and museums, and price bands from Mixue's one-cup-for-one-dollar floor to premium thirty-yuan creations. Several chains have listed on stock exchanges, and overseas expansion across Southeast Asia and beyond is the industry's current growth story.
Tea drinks also carry cultural weight: young Chinese consumers see them as a modern expression of tea culture, and brands lean into Song-dynasty aesthetics and regional tea origins for storytelling.