Jidong fell below 1,000 stores as herbal tea commoditised

悸动烧仙草 built a chain on a single ingredient: 烧仙草 (herbal jelly), a traditional Fujian/Taiwanese dessert. The brand grew rapidly during China's tea boom, reaching more than 1,000 stores by positioning itself as a specialist in a niche that consumers associated with authenticity and health. Its herbal-jelly drinks and desserts carved out a distinct space in a market otherwise dominated by milk tea and fruit tea chains.

By 2025, the chain's store count had fallen below 1,000 for the first time in years. The decline reflected a brutal dynamic: brands built on a single product are the first casualties when that product becomes commoditised. Every tea chain in China now offered a herbal-jelly option, turning 悸动's core differentiator into a menu item that any competitor could copy and undercut.

The drop below 1,000 stores signalled that the company had passed an inflection point. The specialist model that had worked when the brand was a pioneer no longer protected it in a saturated market where consumers had dozens of choices within a 500-metre radius. Without a second act or a broader product moat, 悸动烧仙草 joined the long list of single-concept tea chains that peaked and declined within a decade.