Chinese medicine restaurants are blooming everywhere, can this wind continue?
This article was originally published by Red Meal Network (ID: hongcan18), author: He Peiling; Editor: Wang Xiuqing.
"Traditional Chinese medicine + catering" is making a comeback.
Recently, a variety of "Chinese medicine +" catering formats have continued to emerge. In addition to the traditional Chinese medicine coffee that has been popular before, "traditional Chinese medicine tea", "traditional Chinese medicine bread", "traditional Chinese medicine ice cream", "traditional Chinese medicine desserts" and "traditional Chinese medicine restaurants" have also appeared in various places......
How long can the wind of "Chinese medicine catering" be popular this time?
Tea, baking, ice cream, desserts......
There are more and more forms of "traditional Chinese medicine catering".
Since the beginning of this year, many "traditional Chinese medicine catering" formats have emerged across the country.
1. Some brands have opened hundreds of stores relying on traditional Chinese medicine milk tea
Traditional Chinese medicine tea, also known as "new Chinese herbal tea" or "herbal health tea", is a relatively common form of "Chinese medicine catering".
According to incomplete statistics from the Red Meal Network, there are more than 30 tea brands that focus on traditional Chinese medicine or herbal health preservation across the country, such as Lu Quinoa Kaifangzi, Qingnan Five Flavor Tea, Chunfeng, Zhima Health, Baicaojian, etc.
Some brands have opened hundreds of stores in first-tier and second-tier cities, according to the brand ordering applet, Lu Quinoa has opened a recipe with more than 150 stores nationwide, mainly distributed in more than 20 provinces such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Henan, Guangdong, Sichuan, etc., and Qingnan Wuwei Tea has also opened more than 65 stores in other provinces.
In terms of site selection, most of these brand stores are opened in shopping malls or popular business districts, and some Chinese medicine tea shops are opened in Chinese medicine halls or pharmacies. For example, the Shenzhen chain Chinese medicine hall "Zhongxintang" has opened a Chinese drink area in the clinic since last year, focusing on traditional Chinese medicine milk tea of "goat milk + Chinese herbal medicine"; A Nanjing pharmacy under Jiangsu Pharmaceutical has opened "Le Yin Heshan", which focuses on traditional Chinese medicine tea and health stews.
Traditional Chinese medicine tea drinks generally follow the style of "Chinese medicine shops" in decoration, and there are often elements such as medicinal materials, medicine jars, medicine cabinets, and acupuncture points in the stores that are easily reminiscent of traditional Chinese medicine.
Taking the Guangzhou brand "Chagong Cooking" as an example, when you walk into the store, you can see the big characters of "food and medicine homology" written with a brush at a glance, a row of Chinese medicine cabinets are hung on the background wall behind the clerk, and 48 flavors of Chinese medicinal materials are displayed on the pick-up table in front of the customer, such as Poria cocos, dandelion, hemp seeds, etc.
△ Image source: Photo by Red Meal Network
In terms of products, traditional Chinese medicine tea drinks not only contain more common health drinks, such as rose pu'er, tangerine peel roselle tea, sour plum soup, etc., but also some "efficacy" drinks.
For example, "Lu Quinoa has opened a recipe", its signature product Sun Tongming Tea contains ginseng, wolfberry and other multi-flavored Chinese herbal medicines, and the product name is specially marked with the words "stay up late water", "recommended for tired people", implying that this product has nourishing and health effects. In addition, the brand has also launched Yangming Liren tea, which is "recommended for people who are on fire", and Quinoa pear Yuan, which is "more suitable for frequent drinking with sore throat".
△ Image source: Photo by Red Meal Network
2. Traditional Chinese medicine bread, a side business in hospitals and pharmacies?
In recent years, many chain pharmacies and traditional Chinese medicine hospitals have opened a number of traditional Chinese medicine bakeries by virtue of their "professional advantages".
Founded in 2021, Zhongjing Life, a brand of Zhengzhou Zhang Zhongjing Pharmacy, has successively launched a series of health-focused products, covering pastries, snacks, bird's nest, milk tea, cakes, drinks, bread, etc. Since 2023, it has gradually focused on the model of healthy bread + healthy tea, and its products have also become popular on social media, such as wormwood sausage bread, toon assorted cheese bread, etc. At present, the brand has opened 8 stores in Zhengzhou and Nanyang.
△ Image source: Zhongjing Life Xiaohongshu account
Beijing Tong Ren Tang has launched a batch of traditional Chinese medicine bread, such as wolfberry puree croissant, tangerine peel and cinnamon apple crisp, monk fruit and blueberry bread, etc., and at the same time sells herbal coffee such as wolfberry latte, monk fruit American, tangerine peel latte, as well as Internet celebrity health water such as "stay up late water" and "good night water".
The First Affiliated Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has also opened a medicine and food shop focusing on health care packages. The main health series include Mai Dong Qingrun Toast, Ejiao Soft European Bun, Astragalus Health Pack, Lotus Leaf Cooling Bag, Angelica Luo Han Guo Toast and so on.
3. Chinese medicine ice cream shop, Chinese medicine dessert shop, medicinal food shop...... Everything can be "used in medicine"
Ice cream, desserts, medicinal foods...... This year, "everything" can be added to Chinese herbal medicines.
At the China-Russia Expo this year, a brand called "Zhongqi Shijia" launched several "Chinese medicine ice cream" containing Chinese herbal medicines to the public, such as "Yuyu Coconut Snow", which contains "probiotic fermented beans" and five major dietary fibers, including psyllium husk and other Chinese herbal medicines. In addition, according to the brand, the product also contains three major prebiotic ingredients: inulin, resistant dextrin, and fructooligosaccharides.
Nanjing Tong Ren Tang also opened a traditional Chinese medicine dessert shop, focusing on various health desserts and stews, such as sesame paste, almond milk, walnut dew, roselle black plum, etc.
Shandong brand "Hetian Water Shop" focuses on new Chinese herbal syrup and herbal tea, such as peach gum rose snow fungus, coconut milk peach gum taro round snow swallow, etc.
△ Image source: Hetian Shuipu Oriental Stew Drink Xiaohongshu account
In addition, Chongqing, Hefei, Guangzhou and other cities have appeared a number of dessert shops focusing on traditional Chinese medicine health preservation, such as Chongqing's Jiaowu, Hefei's Buzhi Health Bureau, Guangzhou's Tangxu, etc.
Last year, Dongjitang in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, opened a "food and nourishment kitchen", which once became an Internet celebrity restaurant for young people to check in, mainly selling all kinds of health staple foods, soup porridge and refreshments, such as six treasures of mushrooms across the bridge rice noodles, yam and kudzu corn soup, sour plum osmanthus cake and so on.
Panyu District, Guangzhou has also sprung up a "Xiangban Ruchu Medicinal Canteen", positioning the Chinese medicine hall medicinal food restaurant, the first floor of the restaurant provides herbal coffee, health afternoon tea, medicinal diet and health wine, covering the consumption period from morning to supper, and the third floor also opened a Chinese medicine hall that can check the pulse.
△ Image source: Xiangban Ruchu Medicine Canteen Xiaohongshu account
There is a "Dietary Source Herbal Tea Restaurant" in Dali, Yunnan, focusing on Chinese health tea, medicinal rice noodles, food and medicine homology health packages, etc., the store said that it can match suitable medicinal diet health tea and medicinal food cakes according to the customer's physique, and also hire health instructors to do physical analysis and physical reconciliation programs for members.
From tea, bread to desserts to medicinal diets, the application of Chinese herbal medicines is gradually penetrating into all fields of catering, constantly broadening the boundaries of traditional Chinese medicine and health catering.
How long can the wind of "Chinese medicine catering" be popular?
Almost every Chinese knows Hua Tuo, Li Shizhen, Zhang Zhongjing, and the traditional Chinese medicine concept of "food and medicine is the same" and "eating according to the season" has also deeply influenced the daily diet of Chinese. Based on such a cultural background, coupled with the fact that more and more young people are joining the health care army, the popularity of health catering has continued unabated in recent years.
From the development of "staying up late water" and "Ejiao milk tea", to the creation of "health coffee" shops, to the various "traditional Chinese medicine + catering" formats that have emerged today, the trend behind it is that the integration of catering and traditional Chinese medicine is becoming more and more in-depth.
However, Red Meal Network found that for some traditional Chinese medicine catering businesses, traditional Chinese medicine and traditional Chinese medicine elements are more of a marketing means, and the integration of "traditional Chinese medicine + catering" is still on the surface.
For example, a Chinese herbal tea store has introduced an "AI tongue diagnostic device" in its store to "see the doctor" for customers, and the brand's social media account describes it as a "high-tech" that "measures one's physical condition in three minutes".
△A customer experiences the tongue diagnostic instrument, picture source: photo by Red Meal.com
According to the clerk, customers only need to stick out their tongue to take a picture with the camera on the mirror, select the corresponding option according to the description of the symptoms displayed, wait a few seconds, and then scan the QR code displayed on the mirror with WeChat, and they can receive a TCM "conditioning plan" on their mobile phone.
However, when the staff was consulted after the experience of Red Meal Network whether the recuperation suggestions given in the plan were effective, the staff said that "it is just a reference, and the effect varies from person to person".
Clearly, there is a huge gap between the motivation and the results of the brand's introduction of "AI tongue diagnosis". In terms of motivation, the brand does this to strengthen the connection with TCM and make itself appear more "professional". But in terms of results, the tongue diagnosis experience, which is as simple as a joke, has once again exposed the hypocrisy of this pseudo-professionalism, and consumers will not believe that they can get real TCM diagnosis and treatment services in a bubble tea shop.
In fact, most consumers do not believe that eating Chinese medicine bread once in a while and drinking a cup of Chinese medicine coffee can achieve the purpose of health preservation, for young consumers, "soaking wolfberries in coffee" is more of a "punk health" attitude - even if life is hard and tired, you must take time to take care of your body.
△ Image source: Screenshot of Xiaohongshu
If the "professionalism" of most Chinese medicine restaurants is a false proposition, can the trend of Chinese medicine catering last?
Whether a new category can last for a long time depends on whether innovation can fundamentally improve product strength and whether it can support the life cycle of a subdivided category.
However, there are still many challenges in terms of products in traditional Chinese medicine catering. For example, Chinese medicine is generally bitter, after adding Chinese herbal medicines, is the tea good? Is bread good?
According to the official account of a Chinese herbal milk tea brand, its flagship store can sell about 100-200 cups per day, with an average daily turnover of 1,500-2,000 yuan, which is quite popular with consumers.
△ Image source: Screenshot of a brand's Xiaohongshu account
However, the sales and reputation of this store do not seem to be as good as the brand claims, and most of the consumers' evaluations of its products on Dianping are "average taste".
According to Dianping, since the store opened for more than 2 months, only one 9.9 yuan group purchase package showed sales, which was 40 orders, and the remaining 6 group purchase coupons did not show sales data. The gap between this traditional Chinese medicine milk tea and the surrounding chain milk tea is also relatively obvious, with only more than ten reviews in the store, while the number of reviews from milk tea merchants near the store reaches hundreds.
Some TCM catering brands that have opened stores in first-tier cities earlier are also facing the dilemma of closing stores. For example, after becoming popular in Hangzhou, the "Four Qi and Five Flavors, Medicine and Food Unbounded Inspiration Baking Bureau" opened in Shenzhen, public reviews show that its Shenzhen store has been "closed down".
△ Image source: Screenshot of Dianping
It is not delicious and the product is not distinctive, which is the main reason why consumers abandon this store. Dianping consumer "Fiona" said in a message to this store, "I hope that the merchant can pay attention to the product, and the environmental service is very good, but the most important thing in the bakery is the bread itself." Another anonymous consumer said, "A store where the form is greater than the content...... The clerk is constantly selling, and it is impossible to buy a loaf of bread. The taste is that ordinary bread has no characteristics, and the price is inflated, more expensive than the big brands that are also sugar-free and oil-free. ”
△ Image source: Screenshot of Dianping
A new Chinese herbal tea brand in Foshan, focusing on Qingrun pearl milk tea with ginseng, but its product structure is very complex, including "compound herbal drink" containing Chinese herbal medicines, as well as milk tea, lemon tea, canned tea, fresh rice milk, herbal coffee and other beverage lines, as many as 30 SKUs, the menu looks dazzling.
Although there are such a wealth of "traditional Chinese medicine +" products to choose from, the sales data of the takeaway platform shows that the best selling in this store is traditional milk tea, such as fresh milk rice mochi, and traditional Chinese medicine-related products have become "additive".
When the form of innovation is greater than the substance, and it is just a "showcase", consumers will vote with actions. For traditional Chinese medicine catering businesses, if they want to make good use of the element of traditional Chinese medicine, I am afraid that they cannot simply add traditional Chinese medicine to their products, but really develop delicious products that consumers are willing to repurchase.
Cover picture source: taken by Red Meal.