Leading tea brands like Goodme have achieved explosive sales with sweet soups, drawing renewed attention to this market track.
How long will sweet soups stay popular? Is it too late to step into this sector now?
Originated from Huzhou, Maiji Milk has launched more than 600 stores in under a year, quickly securing a top position in the sweet soup industry. What in-depth insights does the brand have about this track?
Before his speech at the All Drinks Power Annual Summit on December 2nd, I had a chat with Xie Yongliang, General Manager of Maiji Milk.
Over 600 Stores Opened Within A Year
A Dark Horse In The New Chinese-Style Sweet Soup Track
Starting last year, new Chinese-style sweet soups stepped into the public spotlight. Boasting eye-catching appearance and a healthy positioning, they quickly won over young consumers and fueled the rapid rise of a batch of brands.
Maiji Milk is one such standout. Its outlets have successively settled in core commercial districts across major cities, and nearly every new store becomes an instant hit.
By mid-November, the brand’s store count had exceeded 700. For reference, it operated fewer than 100 stores at the start of the year, with an initial target of opening 500 locations within the whole year.
"No one expected we would beat the target well ahead of schedule," Xie Yongliang remarked.
Currently, Maiji Milk is expanding rapidly with over 100 new stores added monthly, and a thousand-store milestone is just around the corner. Not long ago, its first overseas store opened in Los Angeles, USA.
In terms of space design, each store features dine-in seating areas, wooden decor, garden-style elements and warm-toned lighting to craft an authentic new Chinese aesthetic.
Its core product line is freshly-made sweet soups with more than ten unique flavors, priced at roughly 20 RMB per serving.
Take its signature Cassava Deluxe as an example: fine portions of cassava, lotus seeds, peach gum and red beans are neatly arranged, topped with fresh milk as the base, striking a perfect balance between visual appeal and taste.
In addition, the menu also offers milk tea, lemon tea and other tea-based beverages.
Customer reviews frequently highlight natural sweetness, rich milk flavor, photogenic presentation and affordable deliciousness.
Xie Yongliang revealed that all stores together generated 180 million RMB in sales this October, with an average daily revenue of 10,000 RMB per location. Top-performing outlets achieve daily sales of 30,000 to 50,000 RMB, with monthly revenue exceeding 800,000 RMB.
Without roots in the Guangdong/Guangxi region or the traditional sweet soup culture of Fujian, Maiji Milk has nonetheless become a red-hot brand in the sweet soup sector. What exactly has the brand done right?
Breaking Free From The Traditional Framework
Positioning Sweet Soup As A Brand-New Product Category
In Xie Yongliang’s view, traditional sweet soup shops suffer from multiple pain points: overly complicated menus, cumbersome production workflows and monotonous customer experience.
"We refuse to be confined by the rigid norms of traditional sweet soup. Instead, we treat it as an entirely new category."
1. Milk + Toppings As The Core Formula To Eliminate Regional Barriers
As seen on Maiji Milk’s mini-program ordering page, there are no classic yet labor-intensive sweet soups like double-skin milk or ginger milk curd, nor common side snacks. All core products follow the "milk + assorted toppings" formula.
A milk base delivers healthy benefits, and allows flexible hot and cold variations across all four seasons for year-round product launches.
The brand also turned the niche ingredient cassava into its signature topping. With a texture between sweet potato and taro, it offers a chewy, satisfying bite. Its flagship Cassava Deluxe alone accounts for 30% of total product sales.
More importantly, the milk-and-topping formula dilutes the strong regional identity of sweet soups, making the products widely palatable for consumers both northern and southern China.
"Our core customer base is women aged 15 to 40, and we also attract family diners. Since most stores are located in shopping malls, we enjoy stable foot traffic with no obvious off-seasons," Xie Yongliang explained.
2. In-Store Fresh Preparation Of Core Toppings Delivers Consistent Taste And A 30% Repeat Purchase Rate
Xie Yongliang shared that the brand adheres to a full supply chain model "from farm to store".
The homepage of Maiji Milk’s mini-program continuously plays videos tracking cassava from farm harvesting, cleaning and prepping all the way to finished sweet soup, showcasing full ingredient traceability.
"Purchasing pre-canned or semi-finished toppings would simplify store operations, yet compromise both flavor and health," Xie Yongliang admitted. The brand chooses to put extra effort into raw materials to preserve the natural taste of each ingredient.
All core toppings are freshly made on-site: red beans pressure-cooked in store, peach gum soaked, hand-sorted and stewed fresh daily.
To Xie Yongliang, sweet soup is not meant to deliver a fleeting wow factor, but steady, comforting satisfaction. "Every topping must be perfected, and taste consistency must be maintained across all stores."
This consistency builds stable customer expectations, and "our overall repeat purchase rate stands at 30%," Xie Yongliang stated.
3. Eye-Catching Presentation And Immersive Experience Make Every Bowl Share-Worthy
"New Chinese-style sweet soups can also be categorized as photogenic food," industry insiders commented.
Today’s young consumers habitually take photos for social media before eating. They visit stores not only for food, but also to source shareable social content.
Maiji Milk fully capitalizes on this trend, refining product visual appeal and interactive experience to the maximum.
For dine-in service, stores provide ample seating paired with landscape decor to encourage slow dining. Milk is served separately, letting customers pour it themselves to boost a sense of participation and ritual.
For takeaway orders, leak-proof PP5 grade containers are used and promoted for repeated reuse. Many consumers share DIY repurposing hacks online, turning the bowls into fruit trays, succulent planters and desktop storage boxes, seamlessly integrating the brand into daily life.
"Sweet soup is not a daily necessity. It mainly serves afternoon tea and casual snack scenarios, delivering emotional comfort," Xie Yongliang said. "That’s why we must excel in product appearance, taste and overall customer experience."
“The market is smaller than imagined,
The sweet soup industryis poised for market reshuffling”
Surprisingly, even with over 700 stores operational, Maiji Milk has not yet set up a dedicated investment recruitment department.
Xie Yongliang revealed that existing franchisees each operate 2 to 10 stores on average, with strong willingness to open additional locations and repeat investment.
The large-scale expansion of new tea brands over the past few years has cultivated a pool of mature franchise partners. "They have witnessed proven profitable business models and understand what brands can generate stable returns."
In Xie Yongliang’s view, franchisees can only make profits if customers keep coming back. And sustainable store expansion is only possible when franchisees achieve steady earnings.
"At the end of the day, only superior products and business models can win market share. The brand we admire most is Goodme."
Xie Yongliang holds a cautious outlook on the future trajectory of the sweet soup track.
"This market is not as large as many imagine, so entrepreneurs should avoid rushing in blindly," he warned.
Objectively speaking, as a product focused on emotional value, sweet soups are relatively limited in functional and cultural depth compared to tea beverages.
By contrast, tea drinks serve dual functions of thirst-quenching and cultural heritage, offering abundant room for innovation and brand storytelling. "A single shopping mall can barely accommodate three to five sweet soup shops at once."
With countless new players flooding the sector and business models rapidly replicated, he forecasts an imminent industry-wide reshuffle.
"The market may evolve into a winner-takes-all landscape, eliminating brands lacking core competitive advantages."
"In the current challenging catering climate, preserving capital is the priority. Minimizing losses equals victory," Xie Yongliang concluded.
