Well-known tea brands have been exposed to the closure of many stores?!

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Recently, netizens reported that a Yeye Bu Pao Cha ("Grandpa Doesn't Brew Tea") store in Wangfujing Square in Zibo, Shandong Province, quietly closed last week. The post also noted that another Yeye Bu Pao Cha store at Zibo's Jingkai Wuyue plaza had closed earlier.

According to posts on social media, the brand's Suzhou Center store in Jiangsu, the Shouguang Wanda store in Shandong, and the only two stores in Poyang, Jiangxi, have all shut down in recent months as well.

Responding to the reports, a media reporter tried calling the Yeye Bu Pao Cha store in Zibo's Wangfujing Square: one contact number was switched off, and the other went unanswered. Wangfujing Square staff confirmed the store had completed its closure procedures last week, saying they did not know the specific reasons.

Jingkai Wuyue Square said the Yeye Bu Pao Cha store there had closed about a month ago. Regarding the withdrawal, Wuyue Plaza staff said the store's operating performance was poor and its lease with the mall had expired, so it packed up and left. Reporters found that two Yeye Bu Pao Cha stores remain open in Zibo.

Worth mentioning: on second-hand trading platforms, reporters found numerous accounts selling second-hand milk tea equipment from closed Yeye Bu Pao Cha stores. One seller stated that their store opened in November 2024 and operated for only 3 months before closing — the entire set of equipment is now up for transfer.

Yeye Bu Pao Cha is a new-style tea brand originating in Wuhan. It opened its first store in 2018 in Baigang City, Nanhu, Wuhan. Reports show that early this year, the brand's co-founder set a goal of "guaranteeing 4500 stores in 2025 and sprinting toward 5000." Yet according to store-data platform Zhaimen Canyan, as of October 18 the brand had 2274 stores in operation — far short of the co-founder's target.

According to one industry report, Yeye Bu Pao Cha closed 22 stores and exited 1 city this month alone. While the brand is still expanding rapidly, to reach 4500 stores within the year it would need to open at least 2000 new stores in the remaining two months — a huge challenge.

Over the past year, many well-known tea brands have been hit by waves of closures. Xiamen's once-viral tea brand Sevenbus had more than 400 stores nationwide at its peak, but after large-scale closures that began in May this year, fewer than 20 remain. Shenzhen's "Hermes of the milk tea industry," 813 Bayishan — a first-generation internet-celebrity tea brand — has also been caught in a storm of store closures, with its Ten Mu (Shimudi) flagship store permanently shut, prompting locals to lament that "a generation of Shenzhen memories has disappeared."

All this news made many consumers worry about Yeye Bu Pao Cha's future — fearful that the brand, too, might quietly slide into a wave of closures like the others.

In response, Yeye Bu Pao Cha told the media that it has signed roughly 110 stores in Shandong and that overall business remains healthy. Individual stores have relocated or closed due to market-environment changes, business-district adjustments, and mismatches between rent and foot traffic — normal optimization by franchisees at different stages, the company said, not systematic shrinkage or a business crisis. Consumers, it added, need not worry about the closure rumors circulating online.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation: When the Tea Shop Closes, Brew at Home

If your favorite tea shop has closed its doors, FrontStreet Coffee suggests an easy upgrade: brewing specialty coffee at home with entry-level beans. For lovers of fragrant, fruity drinks, the Natural Huakui from Ethiopia is a natural first step — berries, florals, jackfruit, melon, and honey with almost no bitterness, often described as "the coffee least like coffee." The Washed Guodingding Cooperative lot brings jasmine, lemon, and berry notes in a clean cup. For a milky treat in the spirit of a brown-sugar milk tea, the Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon offers cream, peanut, and cocoa. All of them brew beautifully with a simple pour-over setup — 15g of coffee, a 1:15 ratio, and hot water are all you need to start a new ritual at home.