5 yuan for one "Chaji Egg", what kind of layout is Bawangchaji making?

CHAGEE has started selling tea eggs.

Yesterday (September 7), CHAGEE launched "White Mist Red Dust Tea Eggs" in 7 stores in Shanghai, which are slowly boiled with the signature Da Hong Pao tea base whole leaves, priced at 5 yuan per piece. Customers can get it for an additional 2.5 yuan when purchasing a full-price drink, and the promotion runs from September 7 to 21.

On social platforms, the topic of "milk tea shops starting to sell tea eggs" quickly went viral. How big of a business can a single egg create?

1

Shanghai-exclusive "Chagee Egg"

5 yuan per piece for individual purchase

"This is the real tea egg!"

"I want a Boya Juexian flavored tea egg."

From the ordering mini-program, this somewhat surprising new product is named "White Mist Red Dust Tea Egg".

According to the brand, it uses the same tea base as CHAGEE's classic whole-leaf fresh milk tea "White Mist Red Dust", Da Hong Pao from the core production area of Wuyi Mountain, which is a finely selected blend of first-grade Qilan and Narcissus. "Slowly boiled with whole tea leaves, the tea aroma infuses into the egg, blending the fragrance of tea and the egg perfectly."

The words "slowly boiled with whole tea leaves" are clearly marked on the promotional materials.

As for the price, a single tea egg costs 5 yuan, which does not seem cost-effective. The official introduction says that customers can redeem it by adding 2.5 yuan when buying a full-price drink; they can also purchase the breakfast set of "tea drink + tea egg", which enjoys a 20% discount if ordered before 10:30 a.m., so you can basically get it for only 2.5 yuan.

Before the official launch of the product, discussions had already sprung up on social platforms, with comments like "It makes perfect sense for a tea drink brand to make tea eggs" and "Shanghai-exclusive 'Chagee Egg'".

After the product was launched, many people even went to the stores to check in immediately. Some netizens from other cities asked to buy it: "Can you deliver it by courier? I want to buy two to taste what it's like."

I learned that before this new product launch, during the Aranya Wave Film Week from September 5 to 7, local stores gave out White Mist Red Dust tea eggs for free to on-site audiences during the sunrise period (5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.), which attracted a lot of attention.

Why did CHAGEE suddenly start selling tea eggs? What is the brand planning for?

2

The "Category Answer" in the Financial Report

Launch New Products Weekly to Broaden the Product Portfolio

CHAGEE's Q2 financial report shows that 17 new tea drink products were launched in the Greater China region in a single quarter, hitting a new all-time high for a single quarter; 29 new products were launched in total in the first half of the year, with an average of new products coming out every week.

At the performance briefing, Aiden, the Chief Operating Officer, clearly pointed out that the brand's product line has expanded from whole-leaf fresh milk tea to series such as specially mixed tea drinks, lemon milk, matcha latte, and Geelato tea gelato.

It also disclosed the operation data of several categories:

Geelato (tea gelato): It was first launched in 9 stores across 5 cities on May 22, 2026, and has entered more than 190 stores as of August. Data from pilot stores shows that the GMV of offline channels has increased by an average of more than 20%, and it demonstrates strong customer acquisition capability. It is expected that its incremental contribution to store sales in the third quarter will "be further enhanced".

Lemon milk series: The new customer acquisition rate increased by 45% during the listing period, highlighting its strong customer attraction capability.

Return of classic signature products: The Hami Melon Oolong milk tea achieved an average daily sales of 110 cups per store in the first week, accounting for nearly 20% of total cup sales, and its penetration rate of first-time consuming members is the highest among new products this year. The return of "Awakening in Spring Mountain" drove the GMV to increase by nearly 25% month-on-month during the Qingming Festival period.

Specially mixed tea drinks: The "Walk Series" of specially mixed tea drinks that precisely matches the weekend leisure scenario achieved an average daily sales of 124 cups per store within three days after launch, driving the weekend GMV to a double-digit growth.

In addition to the horizontal expansion of product categories, there are two vertical extension lines:

The first is to extend the scenario to the whole day. The financial report clearly mentions "actively expanding the group meal scenarios, covering weddings, team building activities, and office afternoon tea", and with the support of the morning series, evening series, and light caffeine series, the consumption period is extended from afternoon tea to the whole day.

The second is region-exclusive new products: In Zhejiang, the brand launched "Lotus Reflecting Moon" and "Tangerine Pomelo and Lotus Longjing" with traceable Longjing tea as the tea base; in Shaanxi, it used Jingyang Fu tea, and in Hunan, it used Anhua Fu tea to launch 4 products including "Golden Fu Embracing Moon" — putting local high-quality tea into the menu not only creates differentiated advantages, but also brings regional emotional value to consumers.

CHAGEE defines 2026 as the "Year of Adjustment and Stabilization". "The more complex the market is, the more important it is to return to the fundamentals. The fiercer the competition is, the more critical it is to improve every consumer touch point", CEO Zhang Junjie frankly stated on the conference call that the industry is undergoing structural changes, the whole-leaf fresh milk tea category is becoming increasingly crowded, and the old marketing methods are no longer effective.

He put forward four key development directions: strengthening core capabilities, broadening the product portfolio, expanding consumer reach, and upgrading value propositions, "continuously reforming supply chain capabilities and operating systems to provide a solid foundation for category expansion".

When it is getting harder and harder to "sell one more cup of milk tea", "making tea appear in more scenarios" has become a new solution for tea drink brands.

3

Industry Insights

Category Expansion Sends 2 Signals

With the opening of the boundary of tea drink categories, multi-category operation has become a common choice for chain brands, and there are 2 signals worthy of the industry's attention:

1. Behind the category expansion is the scenario expansion, which urgently drives consumption frequency

Tracking data from Kamen shows that in the first half of 2026, 41 tea drink brands launched an average of 22.5 new products, which is basically the same as that in 2025. "New product launch has entered a mature stage, and the number of new products is no longer a scarce advantage."

Many brands have begun to focus on coffee to cover the morning breakfast scenario. Mixue, Guming, Cha Baidao, and Hushang Ayi are all increasing their efforts in this area, and even the price of a cup of Americano has been reduced to 1.9 yuan.

Ice cream is also a track that tea drink brands are collectively paying attention to, using desserts to drive consumption in leisure scenarios such as afternoon tea.

In addition to CHAGEE's Geelato (tea gelato) which has entered 190 stores, Guming will soon open the country's first "Fresh Enjoy Store" in Nanjing, launching the new "Gulato" handmade gelato series.

Guming is also testing beer products internally, and some stores in Hangzhou have already served freshly tapped draft beer. Heytea has opened "Cake Lab", "Bakery Lab", "Heygelato Lab", etc., almost all of which are very popular once opened.

From coffee, ice cream to beer, and even a marinated egg — behind the expansion of category boundaries is the urgent demand of milk tea shops to increase consumption frequency and achieve single-store growth.

2. Low-cost snacks are becoming the new "traffic unit"

In January this year, Baozhugong launched "Fragrant Snail Sausage" in all stores across the country, priced at 5 yuan each. The sausage is filled with snail meat, sour bamboo shoots, sour beans and black fungus, with authentic old Liuzhou flavor, and it was quickly sold out in many stores. In July, Baozhugong launched Lipu taro grilled sausage, which also received a large number of positive reviews.

Molihuabai has successively launched the Small Crispy Snack series this year; Hushang Ayi has also launched a number of independent small-packaged snacks such as Dengying shredded beef.

CHAGEE selling tea eggs follows the same logic, providing a "cross-selling hook", using low-cost snacks to increase consumers' reason to place an order and improve the average order value.

At a time when the flavors of toppings and fruits are becoming increasingly homogeneous, adding salty snacks as a supplement, so that consumers can have "both food and drink", which is more cost-effective for them.

Conclusion

Back to the beginning of the article, it may not be that important whether this tea egg can eventually expand from 7 Shanghai stores to the whole country.

What matters is that it verifies one thing: in the stock era of new tea drinks, the boundary of categories is expanded by pressure — and after the boundary is expanded, a milk tea shop has far more possibilities than a single cup of milk tea.

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