What the Chayan Yuese Hangzhou Stall Says About Local Coffee Culture

Chayan Yuese opened its first Hangzhou presence as a pop-up stall at Wulin Square, selling only snacks, tea bags, and branded merchandise with no freshly made milk tea. The stall also refused member recharge balances, accepting on-site payment only, and some snacks sold out on opening day. Crowds who lined up expecting signature drinks left disappointed, calling the promotion a backfire.

The gap matters because Hangzhou has a dense specialty coffee scene, and the brand had expanded into Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi without entering this nearby market. Partnering with a local event, where organizers take a cut of revenue, explains the payment limits. For specialty coffee readers, the episode shows how drink-led identity can be lost when a debut becomes a merchandise stall.

Chayan Yuese recently opened a pop-up stall at Wulin Square in Hangzhou, marking the brand's first appearance in the city. However, milk tea enthusiasts who rushed to the scene with high expectations found that the stall only sold snacks, tea bags, and other merchandise, with no freshly made drinks. What made fans even more unhappy was that the stall did not accept member recharge balances and only allowed on-site payment. On opening day, some snacks were already sold out and would not be restocked. Many netizens expressed disappointment, saying that a pop-up stall without milk tea lost the brand's characteristic appeal, and the promotional effect backfired.

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Recently, many Hangzhou residents noticed that Chayan Yuese had quietly set up a temporary stall at Wulin Square.

Although Chayan Yuese has been opening new stores in cities such as Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi in recent years, it has never stepped into Hangzhou, which is not far from these places. Therefore, even though this time it only opened a pop-up stall, the prominently hung promotional posters still successfully stirred the hearts of local milk tea lovers.

While staff were still setting up the stall, some citizens could not contain their excitement and ran to the unfinished stall to inquire for information. Many were eager to try and planned to line up on opening day to buy a cup of the signature milk tea or snap up city-limited merchandise.

However, after this Chayan Yuese officially opened yesterday, milk tea fans who rushed over excitedly to line up found that the stall had none of the drinks they most wanted to drink. The table was filled entirely with products such as snacks and tea bags under the Chayan Yuese brand.

Judging from the price list shared by customers on site, these Chayan Yuese specialty products were not priced high, but for fans who had gotten up early specifically to drink milk tea, the situation was truly unexpected. Everyone complained that they had not expected Chayan Yuese to come to Hangzhou only to open a snack shop.

However, some fans who could not buy milk tea probably thought, "since I'm already here," and planned to casually buy some small snacks to take away, just to count it as having checked in. But according to customers on site, because the stall was set up to support a local event, and the event organizer would take a cut from sales revenue, members could not use their recharge balances and could only pay on-site according to the listed prices.

In addition, some consumers mentioned that on the first day of the stall's opening, Chayan Yuese's somewhat well-known bread crumb snacks had already sold out, and many other products had also sold well. Stall operating staff said that inventory was currently limited and that once sold out, there would be no restocking.

Regarding Chayan Yuese's first appearance in Hangzhou without the brand's signature freshly made milk tea, many netizens who like the brand exclaimed in disappointment, "No milk tea? All that excitement for nothing." Even more people spoke bluntly: "If you're not selling drinks, then you might as well go back," "Don't come," "What's the point of opening if you're not selling freshly made milk tea?"

In the minds of many netizens, what truly makes Chayan Yuese talked about is its freshly made milk tea, not derivative products such as small snacks and tea bags that can be bought through official e-commerce channels. Yet at its first pop-up stall in Hangzhou, the brand did not bring its most distinctive tea drinks, the very ones consumers most wanted to taste, which inevitably left customers who came in high spirits returning disappointed.

In addition, many local residents felt that if Chayan Yuese plans to open stores in Hangzhou later, this first pop-up stall should have shouldered the important task of brand promotion, letting more local consumers learn about its specialty drinks and using this wave of traffic to build goodwill among passersby.

But based on the current situation, some people believe that the promotional effect of Chayan Yuese's pop-up stall this time has backfired. Not only did it leave milk tea lovers empty-handed, but it may also lower local customers' favorability, so much so that some people lamented with regret: "The enthusiasm of Hangzhou people—Chayan Yuese didn't catch it."

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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