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A thousand stores in 10 months, milk tea and merchants going to make sugar
The sugar and water shop in the mall is already on fire
In the case of beijing's super-synthesis, the sugar and water stores are cooped up and one can be seen almost two steps。
There are old-fashioned seats like sweets, tacos and milk companies, zhao's legacy chinese sweets, and so on. All of them come out of the red horse。
There are at least three sugar and water brands in a number of malls that compete with each other, and hard-brained people turn the business circle into a battleground for sugar and water。
This intense start-up is a golden age in the milk and tea industry, which also coincides highly with the milk and tea industry。
As the new tea is becoming more convoluted, the mature milk and tea merchants begin to look for new breakthroughs, and the once cold-door “sugar water” business becomes the best course for their next stop。
Unlike traditional hong kong sugar, the sugar business, which is dominated by milk and tea conglomerates, brings its own “milk genes” — with an emphasis on emotional values, good at product innovation, and, while preserving the uniqueness of sugar and water, successfully embraces the explosive logic and operational efficiency of new tea。
Data from the survey show that, as of early march 2026, there were 309,000 sugar- and water-related enterprises in the country, of which 4545 were registered in 2025. At the same time, in 2025 alone, according to the data of tai chi, the number of medium-sized sweet shops grew by almost 10,000, at a rate exceeding 120 per cent。
Windwards, and the ability of super-cooperatives, have allowed a number of sugar and water brands to show clear expansion。
Founded in 2021, mckenzie milk has received a lot of attention on the internet with its “precision + ready-sand milk”. The director-in-chief of the mackenzie milk company, xie yong-ling, publicly stated that he had accumulated many super-cooperative resources, having opened 1050 shops in 31 provinces of the country, and 1,000 in about 10 months during the sprinting phase。
The zhao tradition of investing in “china's sweets”, the former founder of le baix, and the founder of the tea, nie yun chong, is based on radiation from the guangdong region, which now has 626 shops, 274 of which opened in 2025。
In addition, there are 480 shops in guangdong that opened their first shop in 2022 and then boarded the local delivery platform top1
Founded in 2024, the main restaurant has opened 86 shops, including in shanghai, beijing; jiangxi's branded sugar store has exceeded 366, of which about 90% were opened in 2025。
At the end of 2025, the sweet cassava water accidentally went red. In the mini-red book, in only half a month, cassava-related topics have reached 200 million views. The introduction of cassava sugar, such as the mackenzie milk company, the falciparum, and so on, has added a fire to the continuing warming track。
From the cold to the hot, how can sugar water attract a super-member
The first wave of sugar-water heat, driven by consumer health concerns and the rapid rise of milk tea, has taken over the market, while the new round of sugar-water shops has re-enjoyed as more differentiated complementarys, as a result of the shift of tea from internal rolls to quality competition。
In an interview with a sugar-water unionist, it was stated: “products can't work with tea, fresh fruit supply chains can't work with tea, sex prices can't work with honey, and there's almost no path through pure tea and drink products, but sugar gives me new hope.”
And there's something unique about this sugar stand。
>drugs co-sources, local foods to match health consumption trends with the “breeding” properties。
With the advent of the era of great health, young people's emphasis on “culture” is increasing. The z generation health consumption trends report 2025 shows that 71. 8 per cent of the z generation chooses healthy drinks or medium adjustments, a trend that coincides with new chinese sugar。
Unlike the stereotypes of traditional sugar, “high sugar, high heat”, new chinese sugar is mostly used in raw materials such as cassava, peach glue, and lotus, where the staples are the same, making handmade works in a way that is “good, good and useful” and precisely stomping on the consumption needs of young middle-aged consumers for “healthy breeding”。
For milk and tea companies, the supply chain of food and small materials required for sugar and water shops is highly compatible with the tea and drink supply chain and does not need to be re-engineered. It can be used directly from existing resources, significantly increasing entrepreneurship efficiency and reducing operating costs。
Grab the "pretty rice" flow code and provide emotional value and immersion experience。
Most of the traditional sugar shops are found at the end of the street and the main is the widespread “plastic bag” wind that brings gas to the ground; today's sugar shops have also been upgraded in the dining environment, focusing not only on the taste and face of the product itself, but also on the development of a “small and fortunate” consumption experience。
For example, most of the stores are equipped with new chinese-style, field wind, etc., with warm, soft-temperatured consumption scenes with a sense of quality and culture; and the open-storey kitchens that are branded by the store are more transparent and visible, greatly enhancing consumer trust and comfort。
For example, in the case of the sweet soup, an open-door shop has been set up to display the small items as if they were cooked by guandong, allowing consumers to choose and match them on their own, which reduces the cost of decision-making and increases the sense of interaction, as one of the netizens said: “it is not the small things that are chosen, it is the control of life.”
The single store model is more flexible and suitable for a variety of scenarios and allows direct re-use of tea-drinking experience。
Today, sugar and water outlets mostly use the mall as their primary site. For example, the mackenzie milk company, 86. 9 per cent of its stores are malls, and the share of zhao's store is also over 70 per cent。
The concentration of merchants and their ability to consume can help the brand quickly reach the core target groups of young white-collar families, etc.; at the same time, the market is equipped with an operating management system that reduces the daily operating pressure on the store; and “someplace's head shop” is a natural ad, which attracts more young people to the market。
Of course, beyond the reputation, today's sugar and water brands are adapting the single store model flexibly to the location. The ability of large shops to experience, small shops to be efficient, and the ability to judge the scenes and then deploy business strategies coincided with the ability of milk and tea traders to operate。
However, when the milk and tea comptoirs arrived with mature experience, they quickly found that sugar water was not a “downside” business and still needed to learn again。
There's a concern that the rent is going to fall
In addition to the environmental impact of the market, the problem of “old sugar water” is characterized by inadequate premiums and uneven value for money。
Today, although the per capita price of most sugar water has been lowered to around $20, the ratio remains problematic compared to the return to the milk and tea industry of almost $10. Some of the refined sugar water, with a unit price of around $30, had also worn a “sugar-water assassin” hat, further affecting consumption willingness。
In addition to this core problem of quality versus price, there are many concerns about the development of new medium-sized sugar shops。
1. High non-negative properties, low repurchase rates and wide variations in the sugar and watery seasons
Although 60%-65% of the gross domestic product of sugar is significant, sugar has a stronger “recreational” properties than milk tea that is suitable for a variety of fast-paced scenes, such as travel, office and so forth, requiring consumers to devote time to the experience。
In addition, sugar water consumption is still dominated by the southern market, and the acceptance and consumption habits of northern consumers remain to be nurtured. The addiction of milk tea comes from a combination of caffeine and sugar, and the “breeding” properties of sugar water inhibit high-frequency consumption, which is a contradiction of the ethos。
At the same time, strong demand for sugar and water during the summer seasons has led to a significant decline in the flow of passengers during the winter, although some brands have done this by adding sweets, staples, etc., the stability of the harvest remains limited compared to milk tea。
2. Sugar water, milk and tea are cross-cutting operations, with blurred boundaries
The entry of the milk and tea brands has further squeezed the space for new chinese sugar。
On the one hand, the head crosses the sugar water track. For example, ruxu under the flag of tea riichi enters a sugar shop, invests in a sugar-incubated sugar shop in light tea, and the tea-in-sweet sugar shop under the colourful flag opens up a market in the form of a shop. This pool of sugar, with a mature supply chain system, can significantly reduce product costs and losses and impact on pure sugar and water brands
On the other hand, more tea brands have chosen to add sugar products to the original menu. It's typical of stomping the sacraments. The direct transformation of the brand for the “tea + sugar” double-type business model has resulted in a significant improvement in the performance of 90 per cent of the upgrade stores and an increase of over 200 per cent in some of them。
Most of the current heat in the sugar and water industry comes from paint and creativity. With the diversion of consumers, sugar and water brands have begun to be added to milk tea products. Fuzzy class positioning affects consumers ' clear understanding of the class, and long-term profitability is difficult to achieve with wind dividends alone。
3. Product volumes have intensified and central brands have accelerated。
The current sugar industry has entered a new phase of “inner roll-out”, ranging from paint, small material to packaging, concepts, and is described as a reset of new tea drinks. However, unlike the new tea, the sugar and water industry currently has only one miller in size, and most of the industry remains small and medium。
In such markets, over-encrypted doors would only lead to increased homogenization and the overall profit space being compressed. In particular, some stand-alone brands, with neither the advantages of their head brands nor the value of their wives' shops, are highly vulnerable to “failure and disadvantage” and have already seen mass closure and clearance。
In the little red book, there are a number of sugar and water shopkeepers online who say they “invested 210,000, tried to capture the dividends, and could not sell even 300 a day”; there are shopkeepers who “lost 160,000 at 28” ..
Can sugar go through the cycle
From hong kong sweet water to self-help sugar water, and now redish new chinese sugar water, sugar water is always supported by real demand. Today, for example, at the new year's eve, a large number of young people are calling for a “generation of soup” to pour into the sugar shop to vote for a “lightly nourished” lifestyle。
Overall, however, sugar water is now more a complement to milk tea than a substitute for it. How to strengthen the product class and create more differentiated products is not simply a reset of milk tea, but perhaps a matter for more brands to think about。
For the allies, it is necessary to be rational, to reject blindness, to look at the genetic slabs of sugar and water, to make site selection, pricing, supply chain planning, and to avoid falling into a vicious circle of “shattering shop, closing shop”。
