Popular Internet-Famous Milk Tea Chain Deer Village Spends 100 Million to Crack Down on 7,000 Counterfeit Stores!

There was a time when a single street could be lined with bubble tea shops from one end to the other. A stylish urbanite holds a CoCo in one hand — and just a few steps away, another fashionable passerby is holding a CoCo too. But look closely at the packaging and you'll notice the two drinks aren't quite the same: impostors have slipped in. Brands with barely 100 legitimate stores have found themselves facing more than 7,000 counterfeits, catching countless office workers looking for their afternoon fix completely off guard.

Many people have had this experience: a drink that looks like a familiar brand tastes nothing like it. Some office workers, charmed by a genuinely delicious milk tea, even go online to look up franchise opportunities for that brand. When the taste doesn't match the real thing, customers simply never come back — and the franchisee, unwilling to quit halfway, limps along until they've lost hundreds of thousands of yuan, and in some cases over a million.

Many of these deceived franchisees were undone by their own search results. Type "brand name + franchise" into a search engine and you'll get pages of hits; without careful scrutiny, it's remarkably easy to fall for a scam.

Take "Heytea franchise" as an example: one result on the first page of results even carried the words "Heytea HEYTEA Official Website" and a URL containing "hey-tea."

Click through and the URL changes, but the site looks strikingly similar to Heytea's real one, with "Heytea HEYTEA" mentioned in the text. Most people never notice the subtle details. Look closely at the photos, though, and the cup clearly reads "HEEKCAA" — obviously not the genuine Heytea name.

Trademark Infringement Cases

CCTV's economics channel recently reported on related trademark infringement cases. In one story, a woman wanted to franchise a milk tea brand but failed to realize her "franchisor" was a fake. After opening, her store lost customers because the drinks tasted wrong, and she could only keep struggling along. The equipment the fake franchisor supplied was atrocious — leaking, breaking down, the works.

More than a year after opening her bubble tea shop, a phone call from the real brand revealed that she had been running a counterfeit franchise the whole time. By then she had already lost over a million yuan. After contacting the legitimate brand and replacing the raw materials and equipment, her store finally went from losing money to turning a profit.

The Deer Alley Case

The milk tea brand "Deer Alley" featured in the report opened its first mainland China store in early 2017 but didn't file for trademark registration until September of that year. In that window, counterfeit stores multiplied far faster than the real ones — at one point, 114 direct-operated stores were facing off against more than 7,000 fakes. Once the trademark came through, the brand began fighting back, but with so many counterfeits, the cost of enforcement eventually reached roughly 100 million yuan.

Public Reaction

Some netizens were stunned by the reports — they couldn't believe the milk tea they drank every day was fake. Others smugly claimed they'd spotted the fakes ages ago.

Incidents like these happen all the time. Even Heytea was originally called "Royal Tea" and only became "Heytea" after rampant counterfeiting forced the rebrand.

Consumers just want a good cup of milk tea — famous brand or not. But counterfeits taste off, and the damage lands squarely on the real brand's reputation. Spending 100 million yuan on anti-counterfeiting has now grabbed everyone's attention; perhaps in the future, the office worker's favorite afternoon beverage will be a little better protected.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Counterfeits plague coffee too, which is why FrontStreet Coffee recommends buying from a roaster that controls its own quality end to end. If you're stocking beans for the office or a small shop, FrontStreet Coffee's Classic Blend — a traditional Mandheling-Brazil recipe designed for espresso and moka pots — produces thick, glossy crema even on entry-level home machines, making it a dependable everyday choice.

Watching costs? FrontStreet Coffee's Black Cocoa Blend is made from 100% Arabica beans with a mellow, full-bodied cup and plenty of crema at a wallet-friendly price — ideal for offices and budget-conscious cafés alike. And for something fun to break up the routine, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Sugar blend recreates bright strawberry-gummy sweetness from naturally fruity Arabicas, a crowd-pleaser in both black coffee and milk drinks.