The author | Maureena
Editor| Li Chunhui
Cheese-attended dining occasions are becoming less and less disciplined. At first, it was only covered with sweet potatoes or potatoes, which were similar to its initial partners, bread, and later, it did not even let go of the liquid.
No matter what new tea you're popular with, cheese milk caps can't be saved. Contemporary young people can tolerate little or no sugar, but they can't get rid of milk caps that mix salty and milky tastes.
A step further, cheese has penetrated into restaurants, especially the back kitchens of traditional Chinese restaurants. The original internet celebrity restaurant "Green Tea" added cheese grilled shrimp to the menu; the Black Pearl Restaurant Yanjintang, which focuses on Jinglu cuisine, sold cheese shark fin rolls; and even the bureau of Beijing roast duck added a layer of cheese milk cover to the small hanging pear soup!
To some extent, cheese even unifies the taste of the north and south. Zongzi tangyuan and even tofu brain still have meat and vegetarian sweet and salty disputes, when it comes to cheese, the attitude of young people is surprisingly consistent: to be thick and mellow not to be greasy.
Remember that around the turn of the millennium, Chinese and foreign people-to-people exchanges increased, and many foreign friends who came to China to travel questioned "why chinese food does not add cheese". "Whether the Chinese stomach can digest foreign cheese" has also been a topic that is often discussed by traditionalists and innovators in the catering industry.
From "lactose intolerance" to no cheese, how has cheese conquered youth and dominated the catering industry in the past ten years?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > cheese to save the restaurant</h1>
In the autumn of 1992, Luo Hong, a Ya'an native, pulled a few brothers to a storefront in Lanzhou, and the cake shop was named "Hollywood" in order to please the restaurant. Maybe it was named Metaphysics, or there were too few Western-style cake shops at that time, in short, this cake shop attacked the city from the northwest and opened more than 600 chain stores in the country in 5 years.
But the moat of the cake shop is not high, and with the birth of other large and small brands, Hollywood's uniqueness has become a hundred flowers, although the management team has turned its attention to traditional foods such as mooncakes and tangyuan. However, there are old shops such as Daoxiang Village and Lao Dafang in the front, and there are mom-and-pop shops with lower costs and prices, and Hollywood has little competitive advantage. Coupled with the fact that Hollywood's own pricing is not low, the former crowded stores are gradually cooling down.
A box of cheese changed Holly's fate. In 2015, Holly Lai's "semi-cooked cheese" came out, from copywriting, packaging to publicity means, changing the early "earthy taste" and taking the Japanese small fresh route. This product has also naturally become a popular snack in 2015, and the monthly sales of Tmall channels alone have reached 40,000 boxes in the off-season and 100,000 boxes in the peak season.
Tasting the sweetness brought by cheese, Hollywood simply built its own "cheese empire", and successively launched double cheesecake, cheese tarts, cheese strips, cheese soy milk blocks and other products.
Cheese saves more than just Hollywood. Around 2015-2018, there was a "cheesecake" fever in domestic cities and large and small. The little-known Uncle Chersy and Grandpa Rick attract people to a long line with a cheese cake. More franchisees said that they could return the cost in about a month.
Nowadays, the uncle war has become a cloud of smoke in the past, and these two brands have also embarked on the old road of closing stores and shrinking due to problems such as single products, excessive hunger marketing, and too many cottages. However, cheese has taken root in pastry shops, and even the mo mo mo dim sum bureau, which specializes in Chinese pastries, has a place for cheese crispness.
Not to mention the help of cheese to new tea drinks, the question of "who is the first original cheese tea" brand is enough to play several brands such as Xicha, Naixue and Lele Tea for a few days and nights. Unlike the early years when BRANDS such as COCO and typhoon shelters became popular with "bubble tea", the killer of this generation of new tea drinks is the salty, sweet and milky milk cap.
In the early days of the birth of cheese tea, the cheese milk cover is not a thin layer, and the main content is still the tea drink below. Now it is different, new tea into the arms race, whoever gives more cheese milk cover, cover thick, can retain the young people's heart of new and tired of the old.
The slightly more famous tea brands on the market have launched milk cover tea. On the Little Red Book, "more milk caps and mellow taste" is the key to whether a product can be recommended. In the evaluation of Changsha's net red tea drink "tea color", "the milk cover is very thick, absolutely the best", "add a more mellow taste", "milk cover is not greasy to drink" and so on.
Cheese affects not only restaurants, but even the small snacks in the live broadcast room that are snapped up for a limited time rely on cheese to "lift the coffee". Sausages and dried meat can be married to cheese, and the anchor will definitely emphasize "can be brushed" and "full of milk" when introducing the product to indicate that the cheese is enough.
It is said that Generation Z likes the new and is tired of the old, but it is extremely loyal to cheese. Why are young people willing to be conquered by cheese? Let's start with its "history of ascension".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" > cheese is "superior"</h1>
Dairy products are not purely imported, and the ancients also had the habit of eating dairy products. In "Dream of the Red Chamber", Aunt Li scolded the fox charmer because of a bowl of sugar steamed puff pastry (sweet milk), and made a Yihong courtyard uneasy. In the Qing Dynasty imperial diet notes, it is also mentioned that the Western Empress dowager likes to eat milk tea, milk dumplings and other dairy products.
However, due to cooking habits, geographical climate and other issues, except for the alpine or arid ethnic minority areas, most Chinese people do not have such a deep love for dairy products. In the 1990s, experts from the National Advisory Committee on Food and Nutrition proposed to promote milk drinking by primary and secondary school students. But even if they have been cultivated to "drink milk every day", most primary and secondary school students are not because they love to drink, but to strengthen their bodies.
Later, the popularity of cheese among the Chinese people was directly related to Korean popular culture. Due to the influence of the United States, Koreans are extremely enthusiastic about cheese, and the per capita consumption of cheese is as high as 3.2kg. Compared with pure Western-style cheese, this wave of Korean dairy products is also more suitable for Chinese's eating habits.
Hard Candy Jun learned from a caterer that although cheese has become popular, the acceptance of traditional cheese by the Chinese people has not increased much. "It is not so much that everyone has a high degree of acceptance of dairy products, but rather that the improvement of dairy products is more in line with the tastes of our people."
The ability of Korean dramas to carry goods is amazing, and a "Star You" was popular with beer and fried chicken combination that year. Unlike beer fried chicken, which has such an iconic drama blessing, cheese's ascension relies on long-term subtle penetration and influence. It's hard to say which Korean drama has specifically highlighted cheese-like foods, but if you think about it, every Korean drama has the shadow of cheese:
The first time they met, they held a cheese pasta in the restaurant, the two sat together to eat a pot of cheese instant noodles when they were in love, and the cheese fried rice cake that was eaten with tears in their eyes when they were in love. These clips are constantly reproduced, and "cheese" has been implanted in the hearts of the audience.
In addition to Korean dramas, Korean aidou is also the promoter of "cheese on the top". Aidou competition is fierce, and large and small brokerage companies will launch a large number of group comprehensive solid powder, especially the group that records the daily life of Aidou. Love bean daily life, in addition to practice, running the field is three meals a day, cheese ribs, cheese pot, etc. are the first choice for love beans to go out to dinner group building. As a fan, I naturally hope that food, clothing, housing and travel will get the same love beans, cheese ribs, volcanic ribs and other Korean restaurants into China, fans must be the first to punch the clock.
In particular, cheese snacks in Korean dramas do not require high cooking techniques, and it can even be said that there is no threshold. People with hearts saw the business opportunities behind them and launched street snacks such as cheese sweet potatoes and cheese potatoes, and cheese was able to break through the wall from Korean drama audiences and rice circles to the public.
Immediately after that, eating and sowing further expanded the influence of cheese. Yuka Kinoshita, the king of The Japanese stomach, was ridiculed, "Kinoshita has three treasures, cheese, eggs, and minazi", because these three ingredients appear too frequently. Kinoshita recipes have been improved by other creators, and cheese has achieved secondary and multiple circle breaks.
"Western-style cheese has a strong taste and appears as a main course. However, the popular cheese in China has a lighter taste, retaining only the salty taste and milk flavor, more like a condiment. The difference between the two is like milk and yogurt. The caterer told hard candy jun.
In addition to condimentization, cheese is also endowed with various functions. "Cheese is concentrated milk", "Lactose intolerant people can eat cheese", "cheese calcium supplement is a high-quality protein", so that cheese further impresses the young people of "Buddhist health".
Sugar-free tea drinking inevitably tastes bitter, salty and sweet cheese milk cap, but can make up for this sugar-free deficiency. So the young people who talk about sugar discoloration refuse to add sugar to tea, and then add double or even triple cheese milk caps in a big way, "Cheese will not become fat, it will make me healthier."
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" > giant Tim Chai cheese fever</h1>
Cheese fever naturally led to the development of the domestic cheese industry. According to the China Dairy Industry Association, the average cheese consumption in Chinese in 2017 was less than 0.1 kg, and the data rose to 0.23 kg in 2020. In the same period, the cheese market size reached 8.843 billion yuan, an increase of 22.72% over 2019, and a compound annual growth rate of more than 20% from 2006 to 2020.
Although today's young people are not happy with cheese, milk caps have to buy double portions, in general, the cheese market is still in its infancy in China. Chinese average cheese consumption of 0.32 kg / year, not to mention the United States and other Western countries, even compared with South Korea is also a big gap.
The growth rate of traditional liquid milk has slowed down, dairy companies are in a hurry to break through, and high value-added cheese is a new direction that is optimistic. A few years ago, domestic dairy companies mainly targeted at the children's cheese market to make a fuss, Miaoke Lando is one of the representatives, relying on "children to eat the cheese stick", in the traditional giant dairy enterprises to tear open a hole (do not know what taste of children, this thing is really not delicious).
Although the business of children must be done, the market of adults must also be grasped. In 2018, Mengniu and Yili, two old rivals, established a cheese division. Last year, Beijing Sanyuan also set up a new business unit, with a cheese-based all-dairy product line, mainly for catering, schools, Western-style fast food, baking, tea market to provide procurement solutions.
Cheese and new consumer brands love inseparable, Chinese restaurants welcome cheese dairy products to join, in addition to the aforementioned Korean dramas, short videos, the pursuit of health and other factors, the implementation of the "one cup of milk a day" program in the 90s, but also did change the taste of a generation.
From the development of the Japanese cheese market, we can intuitively see the cause and effect.
Japanese people also did not have the habit of widely consuming dairy products in history, and in the 1960s and 1970s, the enlightenment of dairy products began through government intervention. After the primary and secondary school students of "one cup of milk a day" gradually grew up and became the mainstream consumer group, dairy companies developed localized cheese products, further expanding the market.
Localized cheese products include casual dairy products such as wine cheese and instant cheese, as well as condiment-style dairy products combined with scenes such as catering and family tables. Through the guidance of the government and the efforts of several generations of dairy companies, the per capita cheese consumption in Japan has reached 2.56KG/person.
Japanese sake cheese snacks are quite plentiful
It is worth noting that Japan's dairy product consumption is mainly C-end, while the current domestic dairy product consumption is mainly through catering channels, rather than direct sales to the C-end. Euromonitor consulting shows that domestic Western restaurants, bakeries and other corporate customers consume 70% of the total amount of cheese, while only 30% of ordinary consumers buy cheese independently through convenience stores and supermarkets.
At the recently concluded "China Cheese Industry Forum", a number of dairy enterprise leaders and industry observers said that the incremental breakthrough of China's cheese industry will fall on the combination with catering, especially Chinese food, through the combination of cheese and Chinese dishes, to develop new dishes.
This can also explain why more and more Chinese restaurants have engaged in a combination of cheese and everything. Compared with Western-style meals and baked dim sum, the vast majority of Chinese families' tables are still dominated by Chinese food, and the chance of cheese dishes provided by Chinese restaurants appearing on the family table is much higher than that of Western-style cream stews and cheese pasta. Enterprises then use ready-to-eat cheese Chinese food and other products to lead the consumption scene of cheese from the restaurant to the family table, increasing the frequency of C-end consumption.
But the idea of the dairy giant is good, and we have to consider whether cheese is really suitable for everything. At least as an ordinary consumer, the hard candy king should firmly say "no" to the heresies such as cheese ribs and milk lid pear soup.