Cha Yan Yue Se

Cha Yan Yue Se (Simplified Chinese: 茶颜悦色; Pinyin: Cháyán yuèsè) is a Chinese new-tea brand associated with Changsha and a strong guochao (国潮) visual identity—classical Chinese packaging, courtyard-tinged shop cues, and “new Chinese-style fresh tea” product talk. On Chinese Food Wiki it is a brand and regional-culture entry under Chinese Drink, not a shop map or coupon page.

History and expansion

Company timelines date the first shop to 28 December 2013 at Simenkou in Changsha, a small storefront of roughly thirty square metres. Founder Lü Liang (吕良) and his spouse are widely named in Chinese business press. For most of its first seven years the brand densified Changsha rather than chasing first-tier coastal cities: press and brand notes cite about forty Changsha shops by August 2017, one hundred by December 2018, and two hundred by January 2020.

Expansion outside Changsha began cautiously. Changde received the first shop outside the home city in November 2020; Wuhan opened in December 2020 as the first store outside Hunan. Combined Changsha–Changde–Wuhan counts passed three hundred by late 2020 and four hundred by mid-2021. Later waves added other Hunan cities and a limited set of non-Hunan markets—notably Chongqing (from 2022), Nanjing, and Wuxi (2023)—while remaining overwhelmingly direct-operated. Official materials around June 2024 described six hundred-plus shops across roughly eighteen cities, still heavily weighted toward Hunan. Media contrasts this regional, company-run pattern with nationwide franchise peers such as Mixue or densifying mid-market chains like Guming and ChaPanda.

Products and brand style

Public product language emphasizes freshly extracted Chinese tea bases finished in a modern milk-tea and fruit-tea shop format (see Tea and Bubble Tea). Signature cups and seasonal launches are often wrapped in classical Chinese illustration rather than purely anime packaging, which feeds the brand’s “Changsha must-try” tourism reputation. Pricing and store density historically aimed at everyday local consumers rather than ultra-premium sit-down teahouses. Encyclopedia comparison usually places Cha Yan Yue Se beside Heytea and Nayuki as modern Chinese tea shops, while stressing its smaller, region-first footprint.

Culture and collaborations

Beyond drinks, the brand is a frequent subject of social-media queue culture in Changsha scenic and commercial districts. An earlier English storefront label Sexy Tea (also written Sexytea) was used for years and drew public controversy in September 2022 over suggestive connotations; China News Service and National Business Daily reported a company apology and a decision to stop using that English name on new shops, with gradual replacement of existing signs. Overseas and later English branding has also appeared as ChaYan. This wiki keeps Cha Yan Yue Se as the primary title; Sexy Tea redirects here as a historical alias. Dated entertainment or IP drops, when notable, should be listed on Drink IP Collab Timeline.

See also

• Chinese Drink
• Bubble Tea
• Heytea
• Nayuki
• Molly Tea
• Drink IP Collab Timeline

References

• Cha Yan Yue Se official site — brand history and city footprint notes (e.g. June 2024 store/city summary)
• 茶颜悦色就英译名致歉：后期新店不再沿用该名称 — China News Service, 2022-09-17
• 茶颜悦色英译名“Sexytea”引争议，公司最新回应 — National Business Daily, 2022-09-17
• Jiemian and other business press features on Changsha densification and selective out-of-Hunan expansion (2022–2024)