Nearly a million cups of "yogurt fried ice" have been sold, and this brand has created another hit "new species"

Eating frozen treats in summer has spawned a new category.

On social platforms, the "smooth and ice-crystal-free", "low-calorie and guilt-free" Molato yogurt stir-fried ice has gone viral, selling nearly a million cups within three months of launch.

From the viral yogurt smoothie to yogurt stir-fried ice, More Yogurt has once again expanded its scenario boundaries with the "Yogurt +" concept.

What new opportunities are there in the fresh-made yogurt track?

Nearly a million cups sold in three months, yogurt welcomes another viral hit

This year's ice cream market is far more crowded than previous years.

Bawangchaji launched Gelato tea treats with flavors like Boya Jue String and Cloud Caramel, rapidly expanding across the country; Heytea successively rolled out the Hey Gelato Lab+ line, with flavors like Cheese Grape and Red Guava gaining huge consumer attention; Nayuki launched its Gelato tea series, replacing traditional milk foam with ice cream; Ningji directly acquired Häagen-Dazs' China store business to enter the ice cream track...

Amid the fierce competition, a brand-new form of yogurt frozen treat has emerged as a dark horse.

"Silky on the palate, no icy texture at all", "Low-calorie and guilt-free, I have to grab a cup even after working out", "Refreshing and not cloying, the ultimate summer heat reliever" — positive reviews keep spreading across social platforms.

After investigation, I found that this is not an imported product from overseas, but a brand-new category created by More Yogurt based on its brand DNA: Molato Yogurt Stir-Fried Ice, whose name combines the brand's English name "More Yogurt" with "Gelato".

Most common yogurt stir-fried ice products on the market are made from yogurt powder or compound ice bases, which are low-cost and easy to prepare, but compromise on taste and health attributes.

Molato introduces the low-temperature stir-frying process of yogurt into fresh-made beverages, recreating the airy texture of Gelato while retaining the natural milky aroma and tangy flavor of yogurt. It feels lighter on the palate than ice cream and more delicate than a slushie.

The most popular Pistachio Avocado Yogurt Molato is priced at only 19.9 yuan for a trial on the brand's mini-program.

The base is made only by blending and stir-frying yogurt, milk, and lemon juice at low temperature, with no extra additives. It is topped with fresh avocado chunks and crushed almonds, combining milky, fruity, and nutty flavors for a rich, layered taste, with its health benefits and high-quality ingredients clearly apparent.

In February this year, More Yogurt launched a small-scale test in cities including Shanghai, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, introducing the Pistachio Avocado Yogurt Molato and Berry Thumb Lime Yogurt Molato with very little fanfare.

After gaining market recognition, the brand did not rush into a large-scale rollout. Instead, from March to May, it continued to refine and expand its product line, successively launching Peach and Pink Guava flavors to build a positive reputation. At the same time, Molato yogurt stir-fried ice was also turned into a viral topping, placed on top of beverages like Lemon Jasmine Icy Milk and D24 Sultan Durian Icy Milk to enhance flavor layers and texture, opening up new innovative ideas for fresh-made yogurt.

In just a few months, Molato's sales have continued to rise, with nearly a million cups sold in total, becoming a new growth driver for the brand and further boosting its product reputation.

Recently, More Yogurt also obtained market status certification as the "Pioneer of Fresh-Made Yogurt Molato"; the Pistachio Avocado Yogurt Molato won the "Breakout Hit of the Year" award in the "2026 Super Product List" jointly launched by Kamen and Meituan Waimai. The Peach Yogurt Molato became the top-selling product in its category within a week of launch.

The emergence of Molato has further unlocked the creative potential of the fresh-made yogurt industry.

From smoothies to stir-fried ice, how More Yogurt builds its "Yogurt Universe"

When people talk about More Yogurt, many still associate it with its classic signature product, the Avocado Yogurt Smoothie. But over the past two years, the brand has rarely made public announcements, instead focusing on solid internal development and maintaining steady growth.

Molato's rise to fame is the result of the brand's persistent dedication to the fresh-made yogurt track and its accumulated systematic capabilities.

1. Expand category segmentation to broaden yogurt consumption scenarios

First, in terms of products, the brand focuses on deepening, perfecting, and innovating around a single core category.

All of More Yogurt's product innovations and scenario extensions revolve around yogurt, forming a highly focused, easily recognizable product matrix that gradually builds a "Yogurt Universe".

Whether it's the classic yogurt smoothie, the innovative yogurt parfait, the crispy yogurt treat, or the newly added icy milk category, all are deeply connected to the core properties of yogurt.

To further break the limits of consumption scenarios, starting from last year, the brand launched a dual upgrade of store models and consumption scenarios, successively opening Ranch Milk Warehouse stores in first-tier and new first-tier cities, launching the 21Days Light Yogurt series, and introducing light meal replacement products such as cold-brewed yogurt bowls, cold-brewed yogurt basque cakes, and iced cheese croissant sandwiches.

This extends yogurt consumption hours, covering diverse scenarios such as breakfast, afternoon tea, and healthy meal replacements, making yogurt an all-day healthy consumption choice.

2. Upgrade organic formulas to strengthen quality advantages

Healthiness is the mainstream trend in the current beverage industry. Against this backdrop, how to stand out in terms of quality has become a new challenge for brand development.

In response, More Yogurt's efforts span the entire chain from milk sources to bases and production processes:

In 2024, all its mainland China stores upgraded to organic yogurt, ensuring milk source quality from the origin. In early 2025, the brand completed a new round of iteration, focusing its upgrade on bacterial strains, unified adoption of organic yogurt base with added B420 probiotics.

In addition to upgrading the general base, the brand also addressed the special production requirements of the Molato category by customizing high-activity organic fermented milk adapted to the low-temperature stir-frying process, solving the pain points of ordinary yogurt bases that easily separate and cannot hold shape.

From ranch raw materials to finished yogurt bases, the brand makes high quality tangible and traceable.

3. Lead standard formulation to promote the standardized development of the industry

Over the past few years, the fresh-made yogurt industry has experienced extensive growth.

The popularity of signature products like avocado yogurt smoothies attracted a large number of entrepreneurs to enter the market, leading to chaos such as uneven product quality and marketing hype. With the industry expanding rapidly, the market lacked unified product standards.

More Yogurt, in collaboration with institutions such as the China National Institute of Standardization, drafted China's first "Group Standard for Fresh-Made Yogurt Smoothies", which was officially released in February 2025. Based on national food safety standards, the standard refines the definition, technical requirements, and finished product supply requirements for fresh-made yogurt smoothies, especially core technical indicators such as raw material control and production processes. It explicitly prohibits the use of yogurt powder substitutes and genetically modified raw materials, and strictly regulates sugar addition standards.

This set of industry specifications has pulled the fresh-made yogurt industry out of the chaotic phase of unregulated growth, establishing rules for the industry and giving consumers peace of mind.

From niche trend to industry hotspot, seizing the "right to speak" for the future growth of fresh-made yogurt

In today's beverage market, incremental opportunities are scarce and homogenization is intensifying, making the value of segmented categories increasingly clear.

According to Kamen's *2026 China Beverage Industry Product Report*, the yogurt sector is developing rapidly. Among the "tea-free" products launched by mainstream beverage brands in 2025, there were 165 yogurt products.

From January to June this year, among the 924 new products launched by 41 mainstream tea beverage brands counted by Kamen, yogurt products accounted for nearly 9%. The yogurt category, once seen as a niche specialty, is now becoming a key innovation focus for comprehensive tea beverage brands.

Compared with traditional milk tea, fresh-made yogurt inherently has health attributes, large innovation space, and a broad consumer base. As consumers increasingly pursue low-burden lifestyles, it has naturally become one of the few incremental hotspots in the beverage industry.

However, the barriers to entry for the fresh-made yogurt business are not low — from the yogurt fermentation process, to cold chain transportation and shelf life of raw materials, to stable product output in stores, it places extremely high demands on a brand's full-chain management capabilities from upstream milk sources to end-point stores.

There is a widespread consensus in the industry that the fresh-made yogurt sector is now entering a high-quality development stage of refinement, standardization, and differentiation.

On the product side, the "Yogurt +" concept extends to multiple scenarios such as frozen treats, light meals, and meal replacements, extending business hours and enhancing consumer loyalty.

On the industry side, the implementation of standardized regulations will eliminate players with extensive operations, forcing the entire industry to improve quality and upgrade.

On the brand side, resources and market share continue to concentrate on professional yogurt brands, and brands that are highly focused on the vertical field and deeply explore the value of yogurt are still growing steadily.

At the same time, the "healthy lifestyle" centered on yogurt products is gradually becoming a well-recognized consumer perception in the market, laying the foundation for the long-term growth of the category.

Today, More Yogurt, with a scale of more than 1,000 stores, firmly occupies a leading position in China's fresh-made yogurt sector. Its core competitiveness comes from long-accumulated product strength, a stable supply chain system, and systematic standardization capabilities.

Facing the highly competitive market, only by becoming a "hexagon warrior" that deeply cultivates the industry can one truly seize the right to speak for growth in the fresh-made yogurt track.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Kamen" (ID: KamenClub), written by Zhang Jin, and republished by 36Kr with authorization.