Recently, the milk tea industry has been pushed to the forefront due to the "Ice Brown" incident. A review blogger recorded a video in which he reviewed 12 top milk tea brands, including Gu Ming, Cha Momochi, Heytea, Nayuki's Tea, Overlord Chaji, Grandpa's Bubble Tea, Jasmine Milk White, and Lele Tea. He believed that the "Ice Brown" ingredient in milk tea is similar to non-dairy creamer, so he called Ice Brown "technical milk."
This view quickly triggered discussions and concerns among consumers: What is Ice Brown, and can I still drink milk tea? Is milk tea a "technical job"? As a representative of new tea drinks, Bawang Tea Ji released "The safety and transparency of every cup of tea is our commitment" on its official channel today, answering users' doubts through a question and answer format.
In 2022, Bawang Tea Ji announced the ingredients of its star product "Bo Ya Juexian", and in 2023, the product ingredients were upgraded to a healthier version. In this response, Bawang Tea Ji once again reviewed and sorted out the ingredients of its products and responded to users' concerns: there is no "technological rigor", drink with confidence, and it will continue to be healthy and transparent.
It can be seen from Bawang Cha Ji’s answer that as a base milk that has been widely used in the industry, Ice Brown is safe and Ice Brown is not a non-dairy creamer. As for the milk content of milk tea that users are concerned about, Bawang Cha Ji once again made scientific clarification: it mainly comes from high-quality milk accounting for about 19% of the milk tea content, rather than the milk content in Ice Brown.
Before Bawang Chaji responded, industry experts had already rectified the name of the new milk tea industry. Ou Qiaowen, an attending physician at the Clinical Nutrition Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, pointed out that strictly speaking, even if the types of ingredients are similar, there are differences in the specific ingredients used. The two (Ice Brown and non-dairy creamer) cannot be equated just because the ingredient lists are similar. Zhong Kai, director of the Kexin Food and Health Information Exchange Center and standing committee member of the Health Communication Branch of the Chinese Association of Preventive Medicine, mentioned that no matter what kind of additives are used, they are safe as long as they are used in accordance with the applicable scope and dosage specified in GB2760-2014 "National Food Safety Standards for the Use of Food Additives". Xinhuanet cited expert analysis in the report and pointed out that Ice Brown is not a non-dairy creamer; the milk content of Ice Brown is not the same as that of milk tea; and Ice Brown is not "technology and hard work".
In addition to Bawang Chaji, many practitioners in the milk tea industry have also introduced the past and present life of "base milk" to the media. The product manager of Grandpa Bubu Tea once said that base milk is a general trend in the industry, because it is difficult to achieve a rich taste with only fresh milk and tea, and the emergence of base milk can fill the taste gap. In response to the "Ice Brown" controversy, Ningji founder Wang Jie said in Moments, "Well-intentioned criticism can promote industry progress, while malicious guidance can only create panic. Creating panic for traffic will ultimately harm consumers' right to choose."
Industry insiders believe that the misunderstanding of a food excipient that has been commonly used in the milk tea and baking industries not only reflects the importance of popular science and interaction in the rapid development of the industry, but also reminds industry practitioners that the milk tea 1.0 era, which mainly uses powder brewing and non-dairy creamer ("creamer"), still leaves a very deep impression on users that "milk tea is unhealthy". Many users believe that milk tea can be unhealthy, cheap and delicious. Therefore, when new tea brand companies and industry chain companies invest in research and development and process improvement, and enter a new era of real materials and healthy upgrades, they will inevitably be questioned: It does taste good, but is it really healthy?
In order to dispel users' doubts, many milk tea brands have promoted product transparency in recent years. For example, Bawang Cha Ji announced “What’s in a cup of ‘Bo Ya Juexian’” in October 2022, making the composition of its star product “Bo Ya Juexian” public, and later showed the public the composition of the upgraded “Bo Ya Juexian”. In 2024, Bawang Tea Ji also announced the caloric value and GI value of the product, and under the guidance of the Shanghai Health Commission, promoted the ABCD classification of milk tea, making the "ID card" information of a cup of milk tea more and more transparent. In October 2023, Heytea disclosed the formulas, nutritional ingredients and raw material traceability information of all products on sale. Chabaidao has implemented the QTS quality traceability project, aiming to build the first anti-counterfeiting traceability platform for raw materials in the tea beverage industry and realize digitalization, visualization and intelligence of supply chain management.
The "Ice Brown" crisis in the milk tea industry undoubtedly highlights the key role of science popularization in industrial development. China Food Safety Network also mentioned in the report that from non-dairy creamer to ice cream, it is an advancement of the industry and a common choice for consumers and investors. Scientific evaluation and objective understanding are good ways to promote the healthy development of the food industry and the progress of new consumer industries. The public does not need to panic excessively, but the milk tea industry can continue to upgrade its technology amidst the high public attention and provide consumers with more, better, and healthier products.
As of press time, the review blogger's relevant reviews have been removed from various platforms, but there is still a long way to go to popularize the new milk tea.