After its ventures into coffee and lemon tea in 2022 and 2023, the Chinese-style tea chain Sexy Tea has entered into the bistro business with its third sub-brand. Always ambitious, Sexy Tea opened 5 locations at the same time on 15 April, all in its native Changsha, Hunan. To clarify, that even though it is called a “小酒馆” (bistro), the same as Haidilao’s The Hill, Sexy Tea’s new chain doesn’t yet offer hot food, so it is technically closer to a bar.
Named “Drinking Poem Day & Night” (昼夜诗酒茶), the bistro offers both cocktails and tea drinks with an art and literature theme. With no live performances, the new chain aims to be a place for guests to drink, read and relax. The furnishings and decoration of the new chain are bold and colourful, reflecting the art and literature theme of the brand. The drinks are also poetically named.
Currently, it has 37 offerings across 3 categories, priced between 13-21 RMB (1.80-2.90 USD) and averaging 17-18 RMB (2.35-. 2.49 USD). These are mostly original cocktails and tea blends. Differentiation is the key factor in the offering of the new bistro sub-brand. Different from previous alcoholic offerings at its coffee sub-brand, the bistro offers drinks at all hours. Sexy Tea plans to open 30 branches of its bistro branches this year, all of them directly operated, like all Sexy Tea branches.
Recently Sexy Tea was rumoured to be planning an IPO in Hong Kong. This came after ChaPanda confirmed its plans for a public listing in Hong Kong. Sexy Tea has been experimenting with its locations, not only with specified sub-brands but also co-branded locations such as the one with Xinhua Bookstore. On 9 April, the brand completed the construction of its R&D and production centre in Changsha to consolidate its supply chain. The expansion and securing of a supply chain would indicate that the brand has the aim of going public in future.
