「 Have you ever been to a Mixue?」
In South East Asia, there’s this phenomenon called Chinaization. There are many Chinese franchises spreading like a wildfire across these countries in the region. Mixue is one of the many Chinese franchises in the area that first entered the market and spread Chinese ice cream culture into the region. I didn't even know mixue has been around since 1997 because it only entered the market quite recently and almost any empty building here will be the next mixue branch. When it first started, it was booming like that until these days, it died down a little bit.
Somehow, even though Mixue has been around, I’ve never once been into the store. In fact, the first Mixue that I entered was in Laos. I didn’t even buy anything there because it didn’t interest me at all. I guess, it never grown on me because I don't like anything that was a bit too popular 😂
Almost about a week ago, I was craving some ice cream and I decided to actually visited one branch nearby. Mixue’s interior is pretty much the same everywhere in the world. It's like they have template to it and streamlined operations. They are always packed with kids and even adults who enjoy drinking tea and gossiping in the place. It makes their business grown so fast as it's easier to replicate. Basically, There’s hardly anything that separates them from one another. You’ll exactly know it’s mixue and you’ll get something that you need, which is Ice cream and cold beverages.
Their menu is pretty extensive but mostly focusing on sweet beverages and sundae styled ice cream. They have many flavors from simple to complex ones and usually for the ice cream you can add extra toppings like grass jelly or boba. They cost a couple of cents and a lot more cheaper than a sundae from Mcdonalds. They have several holder options such as the cone or the cup that you can choose to hold ice cream of your choice. I have to say that their place is definitely comfortable to even think about working from there.
Apparently, they recently added coffee as their new flavor. I got so excited and decided to try it too despite the fact that I was already having their vanilla strawberry sundae. Their coffee ice cream tastes as if they are adding some nescafe flavored coffee into the mixture. It had that strong coffee flavors and just enough sweetness.
While their first sundae that I tried had bits of grass jelly and some strawberry to it. It was a great mixture of sweet and sour that wasn't so overpowering. For someone that might have a sweet tooth, this could be something less sweet than a typical ice cream sold in most places. It’s just enough sweetness to fix your sugar cravings.
After going from there, I wondered why I didn't try it sooner. It was not that bad and honestly, no wonder people go crazy over this ice cream and some even have this quite regularly. At the same time, for many of us this is reviving and modernizing ice cream culture in the country that died down a bit. In the past, ice cream sellers would go around the neighborhood with a loud megaphone offering their ice cream but these days, a comfortable place is what it takes to revive this culture.
So, do you have mixue in your area?