Text | Yao Lan
36Kr exclusively learned that the original pure tea space brand "One Tea One House" announced the completion of a multi-million yuan angel round of financing, the investors are Xinxian Capital (Qiaqia Family Investment Fund) and Pro-Family Food, this round of financing will be mainly used to improve the store product sales system and talent introduction.
Founded in 2016, "One Tea one house" has opened 5 directly operated stores in Shanghai, namely Xuhui Hengshanfang Store, Nanxiang Impression City Store, Qibao Vanke 5th and 6th floor two stores, Minhang South Mall Store, the store mainly operates tea space, and sells self-created pure tea drinks, refreshments, tea sets, tea leaves and other products, the unit price of pure tea drinks is between 28 yuan and 158 yuan. By providing tea products that retain the "tea rhyme" and are easy to operate, as well as creating a quiet, comfortable and cultural atmosphere, "One Tea And One House" hopes to realize the rejuvenation of tea drinks and convey a "tea life concept" that conforms to contemporary life scenarios.
Images courtesy of the company
In the view of founder Xiong Wei, coffee and tea have a refreshing function, coffee will make people enter a state of excitement, but tea can make people feel comfortable and happy, and even alleviate the fatigue of fast-paced people.
"It's not that young people don't like tea, it's that tea doesn't like young people. Chinese have a natural affinity for tea, and a considerable number of young people are very interested in mentioning tea. Xiong Wei told 36Kr that the reason why drinking tea has not become the mainstream lifestyle of young people is mainly due: one is that the process of drinking a good tea is too complicated; one is that although some people make tea very simple, it is not delicious enough.
How to make tea products convenient and delicious, but without losing the sense of ceremony?
The "One Tea, One House" team conducts direct selection from the origin of tea leaves, covering oolong tea, Pu'er tea, green tea, black tea, white tea and other categories, ensuring the flavor of tea at the source. Considering that the tea itself covers a wide range of people, in order to meet the needs of young people and older users at the same time, "one tea and one house" has made a better balance between the public taste and the characteristics of traditional tea, with strong palatability and in line with the general trend of healthy life.
Take Taiwan's milk fragrant oolong as an example: the main tea is selected from the high-quality Green Heart Oolong of Taiwan's century-old tea-making family, natural with milk fragrance, and the variety of incense is the treasure of the same kind of tea; and then with the same kind of oolong in Fujian, the charm of the tea soup is made up; the final tea soup is high and sweet, whether it is 18-year-old "little young" or 58-year-old "old tea guest", they can drink the tea aroma or tea rhyme they want to meet the essential needs of users for tea.
It is worth mentioning that the original hand-brewing pot set, the tea making apparatus developed by "One Tea and One House", creatively simplifies the cumbersome process of making tea to "only add boiling water" under the premise of ensuring the traditional taste, relying on the standardized quantitative double flow rate setting and customized original leaf blending process, which can ensure that 3-5 pots (about 8-12 bubbles) of tea soup maintain a stable taste. The appliance is simple to operate, can enhance the user's tea drinking experience, has served more than 10,000 customers in multiple offline stores, and also greatly improved the efficiency of store personnel.
From tea product research and development to appliance production to store space business model, it can be effectively innovated, which can be regarded as the core competitiveness of "one tea and one house".
It is understood that "One Tea, One House" also provides product development support for some new consumer brands; its bagged tea has been launched on the Mini Program, Tmall and Weilai Mall, all of which have obtained good feedback from consumers.
Xiong Wei said that China's tea culture is extremely rich, when users fall in love with drinking tea, there will be a very strong desire to taste a variety of tea and learn tea-related knowledge (from tasting to health, as well as the correspondence with the solar terms, etc.), and the team has a lot of research on this, can present a wealth of content to communicate with users, increase each other's emotional links.
To create a warm Chinese tea social space, it is necessary to achieve an innovative integration of tea products, tea drinking methods and store scenes.
The users of "one tea and one house" are more likely to be 30 to 35 years old, and the real needs of TA are not just tea, but more for communication. Xiong Wei summed up three words to summarize its space needs:
First, be quiet, be able to focus on work, or find your own moment;
Second, relaxed and comfortable, can form a relaxed body memory, is the general existence of the "city parlor";
Third, there is a cultural heritage, the store can see chinese traditional utensils and murals everywhere, you can also hear music with ancient style, modern elements and oriental aesthetics have been creatively blended.
Taking Shanghai Xuhui Store as an example, the space on the first floor is relatively open, the second floor is a relatively quiet private seat, and the third floor provides a private private room, "One Tea and One House" hopes to provide users with a clearer space for the scene, so that they can experience the process from noisy to quiet. "From the first floor to the third floor, the age group of users is gradually moving upwards, and you can always find a space environment that suits your current needs here." Xiong Wei told 36Kr that after the later store products and retail products are polished better, the future customer base of "one tea and one house" will continue to expand, whether it is a young middle-aged or a 25-year-old youth around the age of 35, they can find the corresponding space and tea products in the "one tea and one house".
It is reported that "one tea and one house" will focus on selecting core business districts and high-end office buildings to open stores next year.
In terms of team, founder Xiong Wei once worked at Baidu, and other core members include senior tea masters who have been in the industry for 30 years, as well as talents from modern enterprises such as Starbucks, Alibaba, and Weilai Automobile, and have rich experience in product research and development, e-commerce operations, channel expansion, brand planning, etc.