Why Is the Chain of Coffee Shops Adding Bagels to the Menu?

Chagee recently introduced a Zhencui Tea series in its 4.0 stores and entered bakery for the first time with three bagels: Chia Seed Cranberry, Black Truffle Bacon, and Tuna. The pilot covers 16 stores in Shanghai. It follows a broader move by tea and coffee brands into the bagel category.

Chain coffee brands including Starbucks, Tims, Peet's Coffee, and Seesaw already carry bagel lines. Starbucks added four breakfast items such as a Cheese Bagel and a Scallion Bacon Bagel Sandwich. Bagels fit coffee shop customers through low-sugar, low-oil attributes and all-day consumption, so they are becoming a standard bakery item.

Competition in the new tea beverage sector is becoming increasingly intense. While safeguarding their existing advantages, major brands are exploring diversified business paths, among which the "coffee + bakery" combination stands out. Recently, Chagee launched its Zhencui Tea series in its 4.0 stores and ventured into bakery for the first time, rolling out three bagel products at once, marking this new tea beverage brand's official entry into the bagel track. Meanwhile, chain coffee brands such as Starbucks, Tims, Peet's Coffee, and Seesaw have long established bagel product lines. With their low-sugar, low-oil, low-fat healthy attributes, all-day consumption scenarios, and alignment with coffee shop customer profiles, bagels are gradually becoming a standard bakery item in specialty coffee shops. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of Chagee's specific products in this crossover attempt, its pricing strategy, and the deeper logic behind the bagel's rise in popularity.

Competition in the new tea beverage industry has been escalating year by year. To fortify their competitive barriers and attract more consumer attention, major brands have rolled out "coffee+" business models in various styles.

Among the many exploration directions, the number of players entering the "coffee + bagel" combination continues to grow. Recently, this bagel trend has reached the new tea beverage brand Chagee, a tea brand determined to surpass Starbucks, which is now also selling bakery products.

It is reported that Chagee's 4.0 stores recently launched a new Zhencui Tea series, with the core selling point of "freshly extracted whole leaves, freshly extracted per cup." The initial pilot covers 16 stores in Shanghai.

Compared with regular stores, the biggest difference in the 4.0 store product structure is the first introduction of the bakery category. Three bagels are currently available: Chia Seed Cranberry Bagel, Black Truffle Bacon Bagel, and Tuna Bagel.

Coincidentally, two months ago, Starbucks also announced the launch of "new breakfast companions" — a new bagel series including four new items: Cheese Bagel, Taro Bagel, Omelet Veggie Bagel Sandwich, and Scallion Bacon Bagel Sandwich.

In the tea beverage sector where hit products keep emerging, why have so many brands coincidentally set their sights on the bagel bakery category? This is largely attributed to bagels fitting the current consumer trend toward healthier eating, and more critically, for brands, bagels can cover consumption needs across all time slots of the day, making them a rigid-demand product.

Bagels resemble doughnuts in appearance, but are essentially a low-sugar, low-oil, low-fat bread that can be paired with a variety of ingredients and sauces. In recent years, they have gradually replaced sandwiches and croissants to become the new coffee companion.

Because bagels use a semi-fermentation process and require a "boiling" step before baking, the gluten becomes more resilient, creating their unique chewy, dense texture. When eating, people unconsciously slow down their chewing pace, making it easier to feel full, perfectly aligning with the "chew slowly" weight-loss concept, and making them especially popular among weight-conscious consumers.

It is particularly worth mentioning that whether for breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, or a late-night snack, bagels can be paired and combined with the main products promoted during different time slots. In addition to being portable and nutritious, they also highly match the profile and purchasing habits of coffee shop consumer groups.

Currently, bagels are frequently appearing in major coffee shops, showing a strong momentum toward becoming a standard product in specialty coffee shop bakery lines. Besides Starbucks, chain coffee brands such as Tims, Peet's Coffee, and Seesaw Coffee have all launched bagel product lines with their own distinctive features.

It is understood that the bakery products first launched at Chagee's 4.0 stores are mainly bagels in different flavors. This bakery series includes 3 bagels and 1 cheese item, with prices ranging from 15 to 26 yuan.

In addition, tea-plus-bagel combo sets have been introduced: after purchasing any whole-leaf fresh-extracted tea at the original price, adding 3.9 yuan gets you a bagel priced at 15 yuan, and adding 13.9 yuan gets you the other two bagels priced at 26 yuan. By this calculation, a tea beverage plus bagel set can be had for as low as 18.9 yuan. During the new product promotion phase, this pricing is quite affordable.

A wave of discussions has already appeared on social media. Some netizens joked that Chagee has finally launched a "corporate drone set" — one cup of tea with one bagel is enough to keep you energized all day. Others lamented that business formats are becoming increasingly mixed — bakeries selling coffee, milk tea shops selling pastries, coffee shops selling milk tea — truly a chaotic universe.

It is worth noting that some netizens speculate, based on the current 4.0 store layout and display cases, that these bagels are not made on-site. If you don't mind that they are cold-chain delivered bakery products, eating them while still warm after purchase, the taste is still fairly good.

For consumers who enjoy pairing bagels with coffee, Front Street Coffee suggests paying attention to the flavor differences among various brands' bagels and choosing products that harmonize with the flavor of your own coffee beans, to achieve a more complete taste experience.

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