Gumeng Brings Draft Beer to Hangzhou Store in New Tie-Up With Huiji Shan
Gumeng launches draft beer at its Hangzhou Hubin in77 store with partner Huiji Shan, priced from 12 yuan, extending a collaboration begun in 2021.
Chinese tea chain Gumeng (古茗) has launched a draft beer service at its Hangzhou Hubin in77 outlet, partnering with Shaoxing rice wine brand Huiji Shan (会稽山). The menu offers two options: a classic draft at 12 yuan per cup and a Triple Yuzu Lager at 15 yuan per cup. The beer is poured fresh on-site, making this an in-store-only offering confined to that single Hangzhou location.
The pairing of Gumeng and Huiji Shan is not new. In 2021, the two brands collaborated on a Hangzhou-exclusive "Jiuxiang Qin Oolong" (酒香沁乌龙), a yellow-rice-wine milk tea. The September 8, 2026 draft beer launch extends that relationship into a different alcohol category. Separately, in July 2026, Gumeng began internal testing of a canned "Fresh Yuzu Draft Beer" (鲜柚生啤), incorporating Japanese yuzu and carrying an alcohol content of no less than 3.0%, though that product has not been confirmed for wide release.
The move reflects a pattern in China's tea beverage sector of blurring the line between soft drinks and low-alcohol products, using regional and seasonal flavors — here, yuzu — as a differentiator. Anchoring the launch to a single flagship store in a high-footfall tourist and shopping district allows the brand to test consumer appetite for alcoholic formats without committing to chain-wide rollout.
