Mixue and Guming are the two volume stories of new-style tea — both scaled to enormous footprints by being accessible rather than premium. But "accessible" means two different things here. Mixue runs the lowest price across a short, simple menu. Guming runs a wide fresh-fruit-tea board at mid prices, strong outside the biggest cities.
For an AU shop, this is the matchup to study if your goal is throughput: how do you give price-sensitive customers a reason to choose you without racing to the bottom on everything? Each brand answers it differently, and you can borrow whichever fits your menu.
The Two Playbooks Side by Side
| Mixue | Guming | |
|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Lowest price, short menu | Wide fruit tea at mid price |
| The move to borrow | One budget hero drink | A broad-but-affordable fruit board |
| Range | Narrow | Wide |
| Ingredient signature | Cheap syrups + tapioca | Broad fruit-syrup range + fruit toppings |
| Risk to manage | Margin per cup | Shelf turnover across many lines |
The Mixue Side: One Budget Hero
Mixue keeps the menu short and the prices very low, letting volume carry thin per-cup margins. For an independent shop, the transferable idea isn't the whole low-price model — it's a single genuinely affordable hero drink.
A brown sugar boba on brown sugar syrup and tapioca pearls, or a simple fruit tea on a fruit syrup and a neutral cane sugar syrup, gives price-sensitive customers an entry point without dropping the price of your whole board. Keep it to one or two drinks: the budget hero is there to pull traffic, and the rest of the menu earns the margin.
The Guming Side: A Wide, Affordable Fruit Board
Guming scaled by doing fresh fruit tea broadly and at accessible prices — proving fruit tea doesn't have to be premium-only. The lesson is range without over-stocking: enough fruit options that customers find something they want, priced so the board moves.
The way to do this without waste is a working fruit syrup set covering the flavours people actually order — mango, peach, strawberry, lychee, pineapple — topped with popping boba or coconut jelly for visual variety. Syrups give you a wide board from shelf-stable stock, which keeps the over-stocking risk low even when you list a lot of flavours. It's the Mixue volume idea applied specifically to fruit tea.
Which Volume Play Fits You?
- If you want a clear price magnet, borrow Mixue's single budget hero. One unbeatable-value drink is easier to market than a vaguely-cheap menu.
- If your customers come for variety, borrow Guming's wide fruit board. A broad fruit-tea range on shelf-stable syrups moves volume without the spoilage risk of fresh produce.
Both are volume plays, and both depend on ingredients that hold up to high throughput. The two ideas also combine well: a budget hero to pull people in, a wide fruit board to keep them ordering. For the wider map of how these and four other brands build their menus, see our new-style tea brands field guide, or browse the full wholesale range at bubbletea-supply.com.au.
