On 30 October, Chinese tea chain HeyTea announced its Halloween special, and it’s not the Dark Cheese Tea available here in the UK. It’s something equally dark, though. The “What the devil?” Dark Slimming Bottle (什么鬼暗黑纤体瓶) was launched on the 30th, a day before Halloween. Of course, the name is a play on words. Although “什么鬼” loosely translates as “what the hell” in English, the “鬼” usually means ghosts, and sometimes demons.
The drink contains celery, coriander and kale, making it part of the “super plant tea” and “slimming bottle” series due to the healthy properties of the veggies. The “dark” not only refers to the dark green colour of the drink but rather “dark cuisine” due to its unusual choice of flavours since coriander is a somewhat divisive herb. HeyTea is also bringing two “botanical” pop-ups to Shanghai and Guangzhou. They will also bring a pop-up to TEAM WANG Design’s UNDER THE CASTLE venue for the clubgoers during this Halloween.
The “Super Plant Tea” series of “slimming bottles” has been a runaway hit for the chain best known for freshly made tea at its branches. Soon after the Winner`s Slimming bottle was released this summer during the Paris Olympics, an internal letter from HeyTea to its partners leaked online, pointing out that the brand is diversifying its product line, starting with the slimming bottles. The bottled drinks have subsequently become bestsellers for the tea chain. This, of course, also has to do with consumers’ need for healthy drinks.
The hashtag “HeyTea Super Plant Tea” (#喜茶超级植物茶#) has accumulated 5.99 million views on Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent. The series of bottled drinks is now rejuvenating HeyTea’s brand image. Combined with the brand’s overseas expansion, HeyTea might really pull off its aimed differentiation from the crowd this Halloween.
