What Does the First McCafe-Style Tea Move by KFC Mean?

KFC has opened its first standalone tea beverage brand, Grandpa's Free Tea, in Suzhou, separating its new-style tea business from the main chain. The store debuted around June 30 and serves a rice milk tea series built on the award-winning Nangeng 9108 rice variety, paired with jasmine tea and Biluochun bases and local touches like orange cake and foxnut.

The move follows KFC's earlier expansion into congee, rice and coffee categories, and comes as Heytea, Nayuki and Lelecha cut prices in a crowded tea market. The store's decor uses Suzhou lotus pink and Canglang green, and its menu runs through a WeChat mini-program, marking a regional Jiangnan identity rather than a national rollout.

KFC is no longer just selling fried chicken. This fast-food giant has quietly launched its first independent tea beverage brand, "Grandpa's Free Tea," in Suzhou, officially entering the fiercely competitive new-style tea beverage market. The brand focuses on a "rice milk tea" series, using award-winning rice variety Nangeng 9108 as the ingredient, paired with Jiangnan specialty tea bases such as jasmine tea and Biluochun, and incorporating local small ingredients like orange cake and foxnut, giving it a strong regional identity. The store decor uses Suzhou lotus pink and Canglang green as the main tones, creating a spatial atmosphere reminiscent of Suzhou gardens. Against the backdrop of brands like Heytea and Nayuki cutting prices and engaging in cutthroat competition, whether KFC's move can break through is worth watching.

For many office workers, KFC holds unforgettable childhood memories, and the chain's most well-known signature is undoubtedly fried chicken. Since then, KFC has successively launched categories such as congee, rice, and coffee. However, surprisingly, KFC has quietly opened a tea beverage store in Suzhou, with an unexpected brand name—"Grandpa's Free Tea."

On May 28, a netizen revealed on Xiaohongshu that Suzhou Lübao Plaza would soon welcome the first national store of KFC's "Grandpa's Free Tea." It was not until around June 30 that images of KFC's first tea beverage store, "Grandpa's Free Tea," officially opening its doors began to appear on Xiaohongshu.

"Grandpa's Free Tea" marks KFC's first move to separate its new-style tea beverage business from the main brand for independent operation. In fact, many new-style tea beverage products had already appeared on the menus of KFC's existing stores and dessert stations.

The new-style tea beverage sector has currently fallen into irrational cutthroat competition, with almost every recognizable new tea brand selling largely similar products. Previously, players positioned in the high-end market, such as Heytea, Nayuki, and Lelecha, have lowered their product prices to reach a broader consumer base.

This time, KFC has chosen to "set up its own shop" and formally plunge into the melee of new-style tea beverages. Notably, KFC's entry into the tea beverage market this time is clearly well-prepared.

Through the "Grandpa's Free Tea" WeChat mini-program, one can browse its menu, where the "rice milk tea" series is positioned as the flagship innovative product line. From the product introduction page, it can be seen that the "rice milk tea" series uses award-winning rice variety Nangeng 9108 as the ingredient, with the slogan "a sip of Suzhou flavor," featuring distinctive regional characteristics and full Jiangnan charm.

Each product under the "rice milk tea" series is paired with jasmine tea and Biluochun green tea, which also bear Suzhou imprints, as tea bases, and incorporates Jiangnan specialty small ingredients such as orange cake, foxnut, and sugarcane water chestnut. In the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, these traditional snacks are also seasonal delicacies in summer.

The product ingredients largely echo the positioning of the first store's location in the land of fish and rice. The store's decor style also showcases the Jiangsu scenery of spring and summer, with the color combination of Suzhou lotus pink and Canglang green making one feel as if置身于春日江南, and the hollow patterns of the indoor green screens create a visual experience reminiscent of Suzhou gardens.

The rapid development of the beverage industry has attracted attention from all sides and even cross-industry entrants, especially in the new-style tea beverage and coffee sectors. However, most such events are all thunder and little rain. Tongrentang selling coffee, Wahaha selling milk tea—when they first appeared, the public often viewed them with curiosity and even made special trips to check in and consume. Some Xiaohongshu users said they saw long queues at the store entrance when passing by.

But as time goes on, people gradually become accustomed to such cross-industry moves. Even though the Wahaha brand is a household name, when it comes to milk tea, what comes to consumers' minds are still names like Heytea, Nayuki, Yidiandian, and Mixue Bingcheng. Even though everyone has tried traditional flavored snacks like Goubuli baozi, more consumers still flock to stores of Starbucks, Luckin, and Manner.

At a time when competition in new-style tea beverages is becoming white-hot, KFC has chosen to create an independent tea beverage brand and plunge into this seemingly endless battle of cutthroat competition. Can "Grandpa's Free Tea" successfully establish a foothold and expand its territory?

Image source: Grandpa's Free Tea WeChat mini-program, internet

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.