This New Café Used To Be An Chinese Medicine Shop

Now that coffee is becoming more and more popular IP, even Chinese herbal medicine with a thousand-year history has to lower its profile to be friends with it. A traditional Chinese medicine shop with a history of more than 300 years opened two new stores in Hangzhou, China. There are no "sitting doctors" or "authentic medicinal materials" in the new store, but there are fashionable coffee and various cold drinks. This coffee shop named "HERBS EXPRESSO" (hereinafter referred to as HE) is located on the first floor of Hangzhou Xinyuanhua. It is about 100 square meters in size and the shop is simple and bright. At the bar, several young clerks in green aprons were busy in front of the coffee machine. In the menu above the bar, clearing heat and detoxifying, calming the mind and stomach, nourishing the skin and lightening the body... These words clearly tell you that this is not an ordinary coffee shop.

Cistanche HERBS EXPRESSO Online Shop

Not every "coffee" has a time-honored endorsement

In foreign countries, coffee beans are planted, picked by farmers, screened, roasted, and finally extracted into a cup of high-quality coffee. In HE, all kinds of herbs also go through these processes and are also extracted by coffee machines. All the processes are the same as Starbucks. The difference is that HE is actually "coffee" without coffee beans. It is a herbal drink made by extracting the essence of herbs with a coffee machine.

A HE usually contains a variety of herbal medicines, which have different functions such as preventing colds, calming the nerves, nourishing the stomach, beautifying the face, and slimming. Winter Sonata, Grain in Hand, Rose Macchiato, Cistanche Expresso, Jujube Core Fantasy... just looking at the names of these drinks is very exciting. Since its establishment in early 2016, HE has launched more than 50 types of drinks, and about 30 types are on sale. A total of 54 kinds of herbs with the same source of medicine and food are used in all products, and more than 50 other new herbs will be added later. Many formulas retain the classic formula of Hu Qingyutang. At the peak of sales, a store can sell more than 500 cups a day.

In HE, apart from the bar counter, there are only a few tables, and more areas are placed with herbs. In addition to selling drinks, medicinal desserts, and herbal medicines here. Of course, the herbal medicine sold by HE is different from the traditional Hu Qing Yu Tang, and it focuses on the concept of souvenirs. Cordyceps, sea cucumbers, etc. are packed in beautiful packaging jars, and roses, chrysanthemums, etc. can be freely matched and weighed, and put into kraft paper bags. In the future, it is planned to teach Chinese herbal medicine courses from time to time, and the masters will teach the post-80s and 90s generations to know various Chinese herbal medicines. In May 2016, Hu Qingyutang chose a Chinese name for this young brand—Hu Yanyan, and "yan" is Hu Xueyan's rock.

This traditional Chinese medicine coffee shop conveys a message: let the young people pay more attention to health preservation. The method of extracting herbs with a coffee machine is the first in the country. Although it is called coffee, it is actually a herbal drink. The employees of HE hope to promote the Chinese medicine culture to the world. It takes about 5 minutes to make such a cup of "Hanfang coffee" from ordering to completion. The clerk uses the coffee machine to extract the herbal essence, and then mixes it with fresh fruit, fresh milk, etc., and a cup of Chinese medicine coffee is completed. The HE medium cup is 33 yuan per cup, and the large cup is 36 yuan. The price is similar to that of Starbucks, but the materials are more refined. After all, not every "coffee" has a century-old brand behind it. In the middle of 2016, a venture capitalist fell in love with HE and wanted to come to invest. Although Hu Qingyutang politely rejected the other party, he was happy from the bottom of his heart, because it shows from another level that this model is fun.

Form strong barriers and high recognition

Grafting traditional Chinese medicine into coffee making, HE's idea is somewhat similar to the herbal tea that "drink if you are afraid of getting angry". On the one hand, the herbal medicines with relatively narrow audience and consumption scenarios are pushed to the mass market, creating more room for profit; on the other hand, compared with other beverages, it has formed barriers in terms of formula and production methods, and the front-end recognition is also low. relatively strong. What's more interesting is that HE opened up the market with "Hanfang Coffee", not only behind it is the powerful and time-honored Hu Qingyutang, but also with the genetic support of "Chinese Starbucks". In the thirteenth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, Hu, a red-capped businessman from the wealthy side at that time,

Xueyan opened the first Huqingyutang on Hefang Street, Hangzhou. A hundred years later, this small pharmacy has grown into one of the most influential and time-honored Chinese herbal medicine brands in China. Now, as a traditional time-honored brand, this century-old store has invested millions of yuan to create a Chinese-style cafe. The products in the store

The formulas are all specially developed by the Hu Qing Yu Tang TCM team.

The most important reason why a company that "sells medicines" spends so much energy on HE is to break into the minds of young consumer groups. Due to the gap in modern people's understanding of traditional Chinese medicine culture, time-honored brands like Hu Qingyutang are actually slowly losing control over their core consumer groups. Although Hu Qingyutang has been trying to cater to the consumption habits of the post-80s and 90s, such as opening a direct-operated Tmall store. However, judging from the product itself, it is still mainly medicinal materials, traditional ointments, nut donkey-hide gelatin or daily health care products, and it is difficult for the outside world to form a major change in the brand image of Hu Qingyutang. After the birth of HE, some people always compare it with Starbucks. In this regard, Hu Qingyutang said that his products are fundamentally different from Starbucks.

But there are similarities in concept, that is, both display culture in the form of an experience store. Starbucks represents American culture, while Hu Qingyutang more embodies a kind of Chinese culture. It is a window that can be used to promote the culture of traditional Chinese medicine, and it is responsible for cultivating potential customers and guiding the main brand. In order to make HE more three-dimensional, in addition to coffee, Hu Qingyutang also launched medicinal desserts such as poplar nectar, oatmeal story and souvenirs, in order to cover a wider range of young people. In the minds of the younger generation, Hu Qingyutang has always been synonymous with "tradition". When you think of it, you will think of traditional Chinese medicine. HE is like a window opened by Hu Qingyutang for young people, so that the generation who grew up with KFC and McDonald People naturally approach the field of traditional Chinese medicine.

As a century-old store, Hu Qingyutang is following the route of the big health industry. In addition to curing diseases and saving lives, the growth of health preservation is even greater. With the increasing pressure of people's life, sub-health has troubled many people. HE just wants to use Hu Qingyutang's expertise and resources to help young people improve their health in a more trendy way. Huqingyutang is now spread all over the country, with 158 stores all directly operated, and distributed in urban high-end complexes. Next, in addition to continuing to open stores in Hangzhou, HE will rely on good customer-business relations to open more directly-operated stores across the country. In the future, HE will not only appear in high-end urban complexes, but also HE drinks and herbal souvenirs will be available in small stores near the subway. If the area is large enough, you may also see medicinal kitchens that rarely appear in other places in HE. There are many ways to play, and Hu Qingyutang is still exploring how to play in the future.

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