A JUICY STORY

I know what you’re thinking – here’s another fashion trend set by a celebrity. Far from it. This is about what China’s wannabe celebrities are drinking. For millions of young Chinese， it is no longer cool to be seen with a cola can. They want juice: fresh， bottled， canned， crushed. The growth in the organic health beverage market and the energy drink market has been consistently in the high double digit territory in the last couple of years， while the carbonated drink market has struggled to grow.

China now accounts for 80% of the world’s apple juice exports， and it should only be a matter of time before its own people begin drinking the stuff. But then， apple juice is so tame. Mingxiangreg; makes algae-based beverages， and they supply it by the crateful to the National Sports Training Center， becoming an official beverage provider for national champions. Take that Budweiser!

Intrigued by the popularity of kumquat， grapefruit and sago， I decided to pop into our neighborhood Happy Lemon store down the road with my young colleague Kiki， who has just the type of figure that says， ‘Keep that sachet of sugar an arm’s length away’.

The young shop attendant tells us that his days are pretty busy. “Three years ago， I had lost my job. I was walking down the streets and saw this new shop and thought it might be fun working here.” He hasn’t looked back. They sell between four and six hundred glasses of drinks every day. “Most of our customers are white collar workers，” he says. “When they are hanging out with two or three friends， it is quite common for them to buy some Happy Lemon.”

We pored over the menu. He suggested， “Try the lemon series or the fresh fruit tea. They are really popular. People like the fresh drinks without milk or flavored powders.” There it was， QQ Brilliant Fruit Tea， the drink of the Internet chatterati. I was entirely unsure what the Coffee with Rock Salt Cheese would taste like. Perhaps like the yak butter tea from Tibet， but the temperature was 36° C in the shade.

Two young ladies dropped by to buy drinks. They bought Cocoa with Pudding and Royal Milk Tea， and recommended two other drinks to Kiki – Lemon Honey with Seaweed Jelly， and Lemon Yogurt with Aloe. I could well imagine that drinking those would instantly turn my rough brown skin to silky white like theirs.

The young Chinese are sucking it all up their straws. Happy Lemon has expanded to 100 outlets in five years. Their Taiwanese competitor Coco has also begun expanding. It is a USD 2 billion market already.

Now， Mr. Happy Lemon， can you please hide the Oreo cookies and cream coffee? How dare you serve that here?

by Kunal Sinha

Chief Knowledge Officer at Ogilvy Mather， China， leading projects that uncover Asia’s dynamic cultural landscape.

“For millions of young Chinese， it is no longer cool to be seen with a cola can. They want juice: fresh， bottled， canned， crushed.”