In the winter afternoon, about three or five friends sit around the stove, spend 311 to 511 yuan, cook a pot of green tea, and add roasted things such as chestnuts, sweet potatoes and persimmons to chat with friends while drinking tea? This winter, cooking tea around the stove has become a new social favorite of young people. In Tik Tok, the topic of "cooking tea around the stove" was played more than 3.4 billion times; Searching for "cooking tea around the stove" in Xiaohongshu, there are more than 161,111 related notes.

why is it so hot to cook tea around the stove? Will it become the normal state of offline tea space?

▲ Photo courtesy of the interviewee

Someone came here specifically for "filming"

"The form of cooking tea around the stove is very traditional. It used to be relatively small, and it is really surprising that it can attract so many young people to like it now." Nanfeng (a pseudonym) is currently engaged in tea drinking. Before, he often made tea with friends in the circle, but most of them mainly tasted tea. Like this kind of "cooking tea around the stove" with baked goods and a full winter atmosphere, Nanfeng is also the first experience.

Nanfeng worked in Chengdu. In October, 2122, cooking tea around the stove became popular in the local area. Nanfeng and his friends also wanted to experience it, so they chose a teahouse with high recommendation in Xiaohongshu.

"It gives me a good feeling. Usually people get together for tea, coffee or dessert. This form is a relatively new way of gathering. Moreover, the price of cooking tea around the stove is not expensive. We used to drink tea alone, and the per capita cost was about 111 yuan. The price of cooking tea around the stove is almost the same. " Nanfeng introduced that they spent less than 111 yuan per capita on cooking tea around the stove. The package included sweet potatoes, potatoes, chestnuts, peanuts, oranges, persimmons and some snacks, such as raisins, dried apricots and melon seeds.

According to Nanfeng, compared with traditional tea tasting, cooking tea around the stove is more interesting and has a stronger sense of atmosphere. It is a good choice for friends to get together in autumn and winter. "And it's very good to cook tea around the stove. One of my friends went to take pictures at that time, and some people specially wore Hanfu to experience it." The south wind said.

Mr. Chen from Liupanshui, Guizhou also thinks that in the cold winter, it is very pleasant for two or three friends to cook hot ginger tea and bake egg tarts, longan and other snacks around the stove. "Chatting is comfortable, and hot food warms the heart. The price is also right, and the average person's money for a cup of milk tea is enough. " Not long ago, Mr. Chen and his friends just experienced a cooking stove in a local teahouse, and the three of them spent 69 yuan.

▲ Photo courtesy of the interviewee

However, not everyone has a wonderful experience of cooking tea around the stove. Zhongxin Jingwei noticed that on social platforms such as Tik Tok and Xiaohongshu, many netizens also complained that cooking tea around the stove in reality is far from what they saw in their circle of friends. Some people think that cooking tea around the stove should be called "taking pictures around the stove".

Nanfeng also encountered some minor problems when cooking tea around the stove. "Teahouse stove is small, the heat source is not enough, baking an orange and persimmon is ok, and sweet potatoes are difficult to cook. I think it is more suitable to cook tea around the stove outdoors. If it is a charcoal stove, it will be smoky indoors. At that time, we just thought the indoor smoke was too strong, so we chose the outdoor location. At that time, it was not very cold, and it was still very warm to drink a mouthful of tea. " Nanfeng said.

It is difficult to "surround" the weekend without making an appointment.

The rise of cooking tea around the stove has also made some offline tea spaces smell business opportunities. Zhongxin Jingwei noticed that in Beijing, in addition to teahouses, cafes and dessert shops have also launched tea cooking packages around the stove, and the per capita consumption is mostly 111-211 yuan.

Recently, Zhongxin Jingwei called a teahouse in Beijing as a consumer. The relevant staff said that there were indeed many customers who came to cook tea around the stove recently, especially on Saturday and Sunday. If you don't make an appointment in advance, it is difficult to ensure that there are still seats available on that day. "We all prepare the ingredients according to the appointment. If we don't make a reservation, it is very likely that the position of the day is full, or there are no ingredients. It is best to call us one day in advance to confirm. " The staff member said.

Zhongxin Jingwei saw on the US delegation that the teahouse has launched a number of group purchase packages, including a limited set of two-person packages for cooking tea around the stove in autumn and winter. The group purchase price is 352 yuan, including tea, handmade Chinese cakes, seasonal fruits, rice cakes and other baked goods around the stove, which is 176 yuan per capita, and 75 orders have been sold in the last six months.

The tea-making packages around the stove in cafes and dessert shops are relatively cheaper. Take a high-rated dessert shop of Meituan in Beijing as an example. The group purchase price of "Good Things Peanut Cooking Tea for Two" in this store is 198 yuan, which is calculated to be 99 yuan per capita, and it has sold 68 orders in the last six months. Its staff said that under normal circumstances, there will be more consumers who come to the store to cook tea on weekends. "There will be fewer people before two o'clock in the afternoon on weekends, and there will be more people after two o'clock, so you need to queue up, and you may queue up for two hours at most."

The staff of a coffee shop in Beijing also said that if they go to the store to cook tea around the stove on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, they basically have to queue up. "It's mainly because it's hot to cook tea around the stove during this time. Many people come to take pictures and punch in. In addition, everyone is' Yangkang' recently, and there are more people coming out to play on weekends." The staff of the cafe said. Zhongxin Jingwei noticed that in addition to the tea cooking package with a per capita of about 111 yuan, the cafe also introduced Hanfu experience, small-scale shooting and other charging items.

it's worth mentioning that most of the tea cooking packages launched by offline stores have a time limit, usually 2-3 hours, and extra fees will be charged beyond the specified time, ranging from 31-111 yuan/hour.

The rising popularity of cooking tea around the stove has attracted more and more merchants to join. The data shows that since February, 2122, the number of entities that have added the service of "cooking tea around the stove" on public comments has increased by 326% compared with the same period in October; Since October, the search popularity of cooking tea around the stove on this platform has increased by 11.7 times compared with last year.

"At present, there are three or four such' cooking tea around the stove' shops in our fourth-and fifth-tier cities, and the business is also good. Like this store we went to two days ago, we sometimes have to make an appointment one day in advance on weekends, otherwise there is no place. " Mr. Chen said.

Nanfeng said that for teahouses, the cost of cooking tea around the stove is not high, just need to prepare more fruits, dry goods and ovens, so merchants are willing to try.

▲ Photo courtesy of respondents

A gust of wind or an industry trend?

in fact, cooking tea around the stove is nothing new. As early as the Song Dynasty, there was a form of cooking tea. After the tea leaves were crushed, boiled, stirred and filtered, the tea soup was poured into the tea cup for drinking. After drinking tea, some tea and fruit snacks were added, and three or five friends sat around and recited poems.

Up to now, the forms of cooking tea around the stove are also varied. In the eyes of some people, cooking tea around the fire today is more like "roasting tea in a fire pond" in Yunnan. The fireplace is an indispensable thing in Yunnan people's life. People use it for heating and lighting, cooking food, and baking food directly on charcoal fire.

Zhu Danpeng, a food industry analyst and vice president of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, introduced to Zhongxin Jingwei that cooking tea around the stove is actually just a scene innovation, which makes this form of tea drinking more topical and social, catering to and matching the core needs and demands of the new generation of consumers, which is an important reason for the popularity of cooking tea around the stove.

The person in charge of Meituan's emerging fun project also mentioned that the market has taken a good look at the emotional value contained in the Chinese way of drinking tea around the stove. "First, this product is curious enough. Charcoal stoves, teapots and baked goods can simply create a sense of atmosphere and ritual in traditional Chinese life and meet the needs of taking photos and punching cards. On the other hand, it provides a comfortable and warm social way. Experiencing slow life has become the core meaning, and it has also pinned consumers' yearning for' quiet years'. "

In Nanfeng's view, the rise of cooking tea around the stove also reflects young consumers' recognition of traditional tea culture to some extent. "In recent years, consumers have increasingly pursued health and health preservation, and their love for tea has gradually increased. In fact, before cooking tea around the stove, the teahouse was already showing signs of fire. In the past, everyone would go to cafes, and now many consumers will choose new teahouses. " Nanfeng said.

Teahouses have a long history in China. Up to now, teahouses have both business and leisure attributes, and some enterprises have been sought after by capital. According to Tianyancha APP, from 2119 to 2122, the new teahouse brand teastone has received four rounds of financing, with a single round of financing amounting to tens of millions of yuan. The investors include Tongchuang Weiye and Metasequoia Investment. In 2121, T9 received tens of millions of yuan of Pre-A financing from Qingrui Venture Capital; In 2121, one tea and one house received millions of angel round financing, and the investors included Xinxian Capital and Qinqin Food.

"With the successful application for China Tea Heritage, cooking tea will definitely be a major consumption trend in the future." Nanfeng said. It is reported that on October 29th, 2122, China declared "China traditional tea-making skills and related customs", which successfully passed the evaluation and was included in the UNESCO representative list of human intangible cultural heritage.

"Cooking tea around the stove has changed young people's cognition of drinking tea, and this brand-new tea drinking culture will not be very stressful for young people, and everyone is more willing to try it. Perhaps in the future, young people will like tea culture because of this experience, and the significance of cooking tea around the stove will be achieved. " Tian Yuanyuan, founder of Shanghai Sikou Yuetian Tea Culture Slow Life Museum, said.

However, there are some limitations in cooking tea around the stove in offline teahouses. For example, some stores only pay attention to creating a sense of atmosphere, and the output of tea drinking and traditional tea culture is not enough, and consumers' live experience is poor. On social media, some netizens said "I won't go there for the second time" after experiencing cooking tea around the stove.

Bai Wenxi, vice chairman of China Enterprise Capital Alliance and chief economist of IPG China, said that cooking tea around the stove can indeed be combined with tea culture to create new consumption scenes and better promote tea culture. However, this form still needs to be further improved.

"As a trend demand, cooking tea around the stove can really attract many merchants to enter the market in a short time, but if we want to achieve long-term operation and large-scale development, we must explore and cultivate it from the aspects of scene, socialization and even catering, rather than just punching in like a gust of wind." Bai Wen likes to say.

Zhu Danpeng also mentioned that with the injection of traditional culture, cooking tea around the stove has more connotations and will go deeper and more "professional". The mutual drainage of traditional culture and network media may make cooking tea around the stove become a new trend of drinking tea.