Store revenue increased by 40%, the first autumn limited drink has gone wildly popular far ahead of schedule. How anxious are the milk tea and tea drink brands this year?

The first cup of autumn drinks in 2026 arrives a little earlier than in previous years.

Mixue's "full payment for the first autumn cup" ritual is fully staged, Guming's autumn cup packaging is all over social media, Shuyi's limited-edition autumn cup tomato and egg soup is a bestseller, and Huicha's autumn cup products reach a peak order rate of 30%...

How hard are tea brands working to prepare for this year's autumn cup peak season?

Unable to wait for an "early taste", brands collectively "race ahead" for the autumn cup trend

The Start of Autumn has not arrived yet, but posts about "getting your first cup of autumn drink" have been trending on social platforms for a whole week.

Consumers can't wait — People who always find excuses to treat themselves to milk tea can't wait for the Start of Autumn. No matter it is the first cup of autumn or the last cup of summer, they just want to drink it first.

Brands can't wait either — Mixue Ice City has long prepared big honor certificates and banners, holding a drink collection ceremony for customers to "get your first cup of autumn milk tea with full payment". Some stores even prepared large red sashes. Netizens commented: "After taking a sip, even the autumn wind tastes sweet."

Shuyi launched its limited-edition autumn cup "tomato and egg drop soup" in North China on August 1, selling 70,000 cups on the first day of regional launch. The average daily cup volume per store exceeded 60 in the first 3 days on the market, driving the revenue of more than 50% of regional stores to rise by 40%.

Guming designed a full set of limited-edition packaging for autumn milk tea, which has been eagerly anticipated by netizens even before its official launch;

Luckin Coffee's "Little Monster of Langlang Mountain" osmanthus series was officially launched yesterday;

Aunt Fu Shang collaborated with cute pets to launch the "Blood Orange Series" that perfectly matches the autumn sunset.

Oriental Molan took action as early as July 30: it collaborated with the Chinese anime IP *Under One Person* to launch the new autumn milk tea product "Coconut Icy Milk Series"; Huicha launched "Golden Icy Milk Right Now" last Saturday, and made a giant handheld milk tea cup, with the order rate of top-performing stores reaching 30%.

Platforms and shopping malls are also making every effort to boost the trend —

Meituan launched the activity "Happy Autumn Milk Tea, This Cup Is On Me", giving away 50,000 cups of milk tea from August 2 to 5. Beijing Changying Paradise Walk launched a voting activity for the first cup of autumn drink, the giant LED screen of Grand Joy East Gateway City went online, and Wanda Plaza launched the campaign "Just Say It If You Want To Drink Milk Tea"...

Online, custom stickers for the first cup of autumn milk tea, straw cards for the first cup of autumn drink, milk tea bouquets for the first cup of autumn, autumn drink emojis, and social media post materials for the first cup of autumn have already formed a complete industrial chain for the autumn drink trend.

"The first cup of milk tea in autumn" is being extended by brands and consumers together into a full "autumn milk tea season".

The big battle is imminent, this year brands are competing on "exclusive new products"

The performance of the autumn cup trend never fails to impress beverage industry practitioners.

On August 7 last year, Meituan and Taobao platforms generated more than 260 million orders in total, more than twice the number of the year before, hitting a record high. In the three days before the Start of Autumn, the total order volume exceeded 600 million, of which milk tea and coffee orders accounted for more than half.

On the Start of Autumn day, Mixue Ice City sold 75 million cups of drinks and ice cream, with the per-store sales volume more than 3 times that of an ordinary day in the previous year; Luckin Coffee sold 20 million cups of drinks on the first day of the peak season.

How hard are the tea brands that "raced ahead" this year? After interviewing more than a dozen brands, I found that the 2026 "autumn cup battle" has been significantly upgraded.

1. The autumn cup trend now has "exclusive new products" and has become an important new product launch node for brands

Compared with previous years when brands only changed packaging to cater to the autumn cup trend, this year's tea brands are putting in far more effort.

Huicha launched the exclusive new product "Golden Icy Milk Right Now" for the autumn cup trend. It is not a simple iced milk, but a special blended bubble tea, which uses seven-times scented jasmine tea, organic milk, and the signature golden caramel pearls. On top of the cheese milk cap, there are custom printed words, and consumers can choose "fortune" or "prosperity".

Aunt Fu Shang customized 3 new autumn limited-edition blood orange series products for the autumn cup trend. The popping blood orange and grapefruit drink has an all-orange cup body, which is full of autumn atmosphere, and is rated by netizens as "perfectly matching the autumn sunset".

Chahua Nong launched 3 new "Gardenia Series" products on August 4, meeting consumers as the first cup of milk tea in autumn.

Luckin Coffee launched the osmanthus rice wine series, Oriental Molan launched coconut iced milk, Grandpa Doesn't Make Tea launched its Xianning osmanthus product, and Momo South Road's green grape series also followed up one after another.

It can be said that this year the autumn cup trend is competing on "exclusive new products", and this time period has also become a new product launch node for many brands.

2. "Get the first autumn cup with full payment", brands are striving to pull consumers offline

On social platforms, Mixue stores across the country are showing off their drink collection ceremonies, some with big honor certificates, some with banners, some with large red sashes, and some stores added ancient-style NPCs to help take photos. As long as consumers pick up their orders in the store, they can take check-in photos for "getting the first autumn cup with full payment".

Let buying a milk tea for less than 10 yuan have a ritual sense no less than buying a car for hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Huicha reproduced the giant milk tea cup that is very popular on short video platforms in its stores, inviting consumers to interact in person. Consumers can customize the printed text on the top of their cups, and the brand also thoughtfully set up group meal packages for enterprises.

Beijing Changying Paradise Walk held the "Take a Big Sip" activity for the first cup of autumn milk tea, gathering 27 brands to let consumers vote for their favorite brands on site.

"I hope everyone can put more effort into offline gameplay, don't compete on price online, take profitable GMV as the premise, and don't waste this opportunity to increase performance." said Chen Zhihai, founder of Huicha.

3. Brands are putting more effort into co-branding and inviting celebrities for the autumn cup trend

Just today (August 5), Nayuki's autumn sky yellow packaging and peripheral products were officially launched. Together with cute doll peripherals, they hit the sweet spot of milk tea lovers. More importantly, Nayuki also collaborated with "the top representative of powerful mature actresses" Liu Xiaoqing to add extra highlights to the autumn cup trend.

Aunt Fu Shang's new autumn cup products directly collaborated with 3 top influencers in the pet circle. Netizens have expressed that they "want to collect all 3 popular cute pet influencers at once" and "the soft fluffy pets and autumn tea drinks are a perfect match".

Brands are making special co-branding efforts and inviting celebrities specifically for the autumn cup trend, the commercial value of this festival is being gradually enhanced by tea brands step by step.

The 7th year of the "autumn cup" trend: evolving from an internet meme to a national carnival

On the Autumnal Equinox day of September 22, 2020, a netizen posted a screenshot on WeChat Moments showing her boyfriend transferring a 52-yuan red envelope, with the note "the first cup of milk tea in autumn" (the number 52 is homophonic for "I love you" in Chinese).

This screenshot went viral on WeChat Moments, and rushed to the 4th place on Weibo hot search the next day, with 290 million views in a single day, and was selected as one of the top 10 internet buzzwords of 2020 at the end of the year.

In 2021, the industry realized the commercial value of "the first cup of autumn milk tea", and collectively moved the marketing campaign from the Autumnal Equinox to the Start of Autumn (around August 7), giving brands a longer marketing window, and the concept of "Double 11 in the milk tea industry" was officially formed.

This year, this node has been further extended from "the day of the Start of Autumn" to a 10-day long period from August 1 to 10.

Now the commonly recognized "autumn cup" trend is actually a consumption consensus continuously strengthened by 6 years of brand marketing.

Festival creation is very common in the marketing field. Why can the autumn cup trend remain fresh after all these years, and consumers are still enjoying it after 7 years?

Behind this trend is the emotional demand of consumers, as well as the continuously iterating festival gameplay of tea brands, which inject new attraction into the festival through product innovation, packaging innovation, co-branding and other methods, thus forming a two-way interaction between supply and demand, making the "autumn cup" trend evolve from a popular meme to a life ritual that young people truly need.

The gameplay is being updated, but the underlying logic remains unchanged: whoever lets consumers get the feeling of "being cared for" with a drink of more than ten yuan on the Start of Autumn day can continue to grab a share of the market.

This article is from the WeChat public account "Kamen" (ID: KamenClub), written by Guojun, authorized for release by 36Kr.