Thanks to the viral popularity of its signature ice puck product, each store rakes in over 500,000 yuan in monthly revenue, and Hong Kong-style milk tea has caught fire all the way from Shanghai to Beijing.

Recently, a "Hong Kong-style premium milk tea" has been trending all over WeChat Moments.

This "Amber Ice Ball Super Rich Hong Kong Milk Tea" accounts for 41.7% of in-store sales, driving an average monthly revenue of 500,000 to 600,000 yuan per store, and the brand HONGTEA has directly climbed to the Top 1 of the Beijing popular drinks list on Dianping with this product.

Brands including Heytea, Honeymoon Dessert, Chalees, OT Tea are also launching Hong Kong-style drinks.

After being quiet for a long time, is Hong Kong-style milk tea finally going to make a comeback?

With sales share exceeding 40% and topping popularity lists, new gameplay has emerged for Hong Kong-style milk tea

"Have you checked in at the viral HONGTEA?"

If you go shopping at Shanghai Jing'an Joy City or Beijing Hopson One recently, you will most likely be attracted by a cup of milk tea topped with a huge "amber ice ball".

This is the signature drink of the new black tea brand HONGTEA, "Amber Ice Ball Super Rich Hong Kong Milk Tea". It uses 3 times concentrated Ceylon black tea frozen into an ice ball placed on the top. The ice ball melts slowly and continuously releases tea aroma, solving the problem of traditional Hong Kong-style milk tea that "ice cubes melt quickly and the taste is unstable", while forming a distinct visual memory point.

The tea base adopts a blending concept, with Ceylon black tea sourced from different producing areas including Uva Highlands, Dimbula, Kandy, and Little Lipton Alpine, with significantly upgraded concentration and aroma layers.

Zhou You, the founder of HONGTEA, introduced that this product accounts for 41.7% of in-store sales and is the absolute traffic driver.

The brand is positioned as "inheriting the classics of Hong Kong milk tea, focusing only on black tea", and "Hong Kong-style inheritance" is presented as an independent major category on the menu. In addition to the Amber Ice Ball Super Rich Hong Kong Milk Tea, it has also launched cheese flavored salty cheese Hong Kong milk tea, classic Hong Kong milk tea in aluminum can, coconut flavored egg custard Hong Kong milk tea, etc., priced at 18 to 25 yuan.

The store adopts a British retro style with burgundy tone, which is extremely photo-friendly.

At the end of June this year, HONGTEA opened its first store in Shanghai, followed by the Beijing Hopson One store. At present, 3 stores have been opened, with an average monthly revenue of 500,000 to 600,000 yuan per store, topping the Beijing popular drinks list on Dianping.

In less than two months, they have verified the explosive power of the old category of Hong Kong-style milk tea in the new consumption scenario.

Hong Kong-style milk tea is heating up, with some brands seeing sales surge by nearly 400%

Apart from HONGTEA, chain brands have also been focusing on Hong Kong-style drinks recently, launching new products one after another.

Honeymoon Dessert launched the aged Hong Kong milk tea series at the end of June, releasing 6 products at one go, including Golden Brick Double Skin Milk Brown Sugar Hong Kong Milk Tea, Crispy Popcorn Coconut Hong Kong Milk Tea Special, Butter Cookie and Salted Cheese Cocoa, Snow Mountain Vanilla Seed Brown Sugar Hong Kong Milk Tea, French Snow Mountain Vanilla Seed Hong Kong Milk Tea, and Hong Kong-style Taro Ball Tofu Pudding with Salted Cheese.

The recipe is well-designed, retaining the iconic rich tea taste and milk aroma of Hong Kong milk tea, while combining the brand's advantages in desserts to expand on flavor, ingredients and drinking scenarios. In particular, the combination of Hong Kong milk tea and double skin milk not only has a familiar flavor, but also reflects the brand's characteristics.

Relevant person in charge of Honeymoon Dessert revealed that the Hong Kong milk tea series drove the month-on-month sales growth of the drink category by nearly 400% within one month after its launch, making it one of the product lines with rapid growth in the cycle.

In July, Heytea's Guangdong limited French Toast Boba Hong Kong Milk Tea was called "liquid version of French Toast Condensed Milk Toast" by netizens, with milk aroma, tea aroma and caramel aroma intertwined. Consumers commented that it "reproduces the rich taste of old-fashioned Hong Kong milk tea" and "it's hard to imagine how happy it would be to take a sip in winter".

At the end of July, Chalees launched 5 Hong Kong milk tea products including Grilled Brown Sugar Boba Hong Kong Cheese, 400 Times Lava Black Pearl Yuanyang, Hong Kong Orchid, Brown Sugar Boba Salted Cheese Hong Kong Milk Tea, and Churro Hong Kong Lemon Tea; OT Tea launched Tiger Spot Hand-crushed Lemon Tea, defined as "the innovative version of traditional Hong Kong-style iced lemon tea", with a stimulating citrus sour and refreshing taste, and unique sweet floral aroma, which "makes people want to drink more and more".

Some entrepreneurs also told Kamen that their Hong Kong milk tea projects are under preparation and will be launched as soon as before the Spring Festival. At the Start of Autumn this year, there was even a topic discussion on social platforms that "the first cup of drink in autumn should be Hong Kong milk tea".

The popularity of Hong Kong-style milk tea seems to be growing stronger and stronger.

The undervalued black tea is bringing Hong Kong-style milk tea back to the table

1. "Rich flavor" drives the return of black tea value

In the past few years, the usage rate of black tea in tea drinks has not been very high, but there have been obvious changes since last year.

According to Kamen's *2026 China Beverage Industry Product Report*, the proportion of black tea in tea-containing products rose from 9.8% in 2024 to 13% in 2025, which is related to the popularity of "salted cheese" and "rich milk tea".

The prevalence of rich flavor is bringing black tea back to consumers' vision.

"Black tea is the most adaptable category among all tea types, but its value has been seriously underestimated." Zhou You analyzed.

"It can accommodate the richness of Taiwanese milk tea, the strong taste of Hong Kong-style milk tea, and the spiced flavor of Thai milk tea, and it can also be made into pure tea, special mixed drinks, and cross-over tea and coffee. Originating from Lapsang Souchong in Wuyi Mountain, to British afternoon tea, and then to Hong Kong tea restaurants, black tea itself is a category with global narrative capability."

As a classic application form of black tea, Hong Kong-style milk tea naturally receives more attention.

2. With built-in city IP, it awakens emotional resonance

"The recent popularity of Hong Kong-style milk tea is essentially the collective traceability of consumers for classic flavors and classic cultural scenarios." Zhou You said, "Behind Hong Kong-style milk tea is the cultural symbol of Hong Kong, including tea restaurants, ice rooms, and Hong Kong-style lifestyles, all of which have strong emotional connections."

The relevant person in charge of Honeymoon Dessert also mentioned that Hong Kong-style milk tea is highly compatible with the brand's inherent Hong Kong-style dessert genes, and hopes to integrate Hong Kong-style milk tea into the classic Hong Kong-style dessert scenarios through product portfolios to create unique product characteristics.

Zhou You further predicted: "There will definitely be more city-specific and regionally labeled products in the future, such as Chaoshan IP and Altay IP in Xinjiang, which all have the potential to be made into tea drinks."

3. High product inclusiveness is the real opportunity for Hong Kong-style milk tea

"Hong Kong-style milk tea is not a new category that needs to be re-educated to the market, it has high flavor inclusiveness and is itself a great 'flavor base'", said the relevant person in charge of Honeymoon Dessert.

"The tea taste and milk taste can form a stable main body, and at the same time it can be extended to caramel, coconut, legumes and other flavors, so it is easy for brands to make innovations on the premise of retaining the category recognition."

At the Kamen 2026 New Tea Drinks Competition in July, Hong Kong-style milk tea showed extremely strong innovation.

Huang Qicheng, consultant of many well-known tea drink brands, brought 5 creative works including Hong Kong-Thai style, transparent Hong Kong milk tea, Hong Kong milk tea souffle, new Hong Kong-style yuanyang, and Hong Kong-style kombucha lemon tea during the Master Show session, covering different dimensions such as flavor restructuring, process upgrading, and category crossover, helping to expand the imagination space of Hong Kong-style milk tea.

From left to right: Hong Kong-Thai style, transparent Hong Kong milk tea, Hong Kong milk tea souffle

Huang Qicheng believes that Hong Kong-style milk tea still has great opportunities, and comprehensive upgrades of flavor, form and experience can be realized through micro-innovation.

Hong Kong-style milk tea is being "remade"

There are no truly outdated categories in the tea drink market, only outdated product forms and narratives.

Full cup fruit tea has evolved into tomato egg drop soup, and overloaded fruit iced tea; some light milk tea has evolved into ice milk; Thai milk tea and Taiwanese milk tea have returned to consumers' vision with new looks. Hong Kong-style milk tea is taking the same path.

Zhou You believes that for the long-term development of Hong Kong-style milk tea, continuous innovation is needed from three dimensions:

First, tea technology, using better black tea raw materials and blending methods to improve quality;

Second, product structure, developing a complete matrix of Hong Kong milk tea special drinks, Hong Kong milk tea hot drinks, Hong Kong milk tea desserts, etc. in addition to iced lemon tea and silk stocking milk tea;

Third, cultural narrative, making Hong Kong-style milk tea change from "nostalgic" to "trendy", and become a lifestyle that young people are willing to share actively.

The relevant person in charge of Honeymoon Dessert is optimistic about the development of Hong Kong-style milk tea. "In the next step, it will develop towards the direction of 'classic Hong Kong flavor + youthful flavor'. This autumn and winter, we will pay attention to Southeast Asian flavor elements such as coconut and pandan, and try to integrate them with the tea and milk taste of Hong Kong milk tea."

The reason why classics become classics is that they can stand the test of time. Letting the classics return to consumers in a better way is the brand opportunity at this stage.

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