What caught my eyes recently is the buy one, get one free promotion for Huiyuan’s Bing Tang Hu Lu 冰糖葫芦 or hawflakes fruit juice at Aeon Big, Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This drink is an adaptation of the popular Chinese snack sugarcoated haws but in the drinkable format. Huiyuan, China’s biggest pure juice and nectar juice maker, launched the drink during 2013 Chinese New Year amidst mixed reception. Some find the drink tastes bad and prefer to eat the actual sugarcoated haws but there are consumers who love it. Yours truly has tasted it in China but agree it is better to eat the real thing.
In Malaysia, the Huiyuan’s Bing Tang Hu Lu drink seems to have met its Waterloo moment. The importer HPG Marketing (M) Sdn Bhd is selling it cheap now. The gift pack, which is likely meant for the 2014 Chinese New Year, is selling for RM19.88 for a pack of 15x250ml. By paying RM19.88, you will take home 2 boxes totaling 30 drinks. Malaysians have no tradition of eating sugarcoated haws. Even if they eat it, they tend to taste it when traveling in China for the photo moment. Moreover, you do need to love the strong hawthorn taste to finish the whole bottle.
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Even if Malaysians, mainly referring to ethnic Chinese, do travel to China, high chances they wouldn’t know about this drink. Therefore, this sort of drink should be sold through China food store. There is one outside UCSI University catering to mainland China students wanting to taste something back home. Also, instead of selling it in gift pack, the importer should sell the 250ml drink individually. People will not want to pay for RM20 for a drink they haven’t tasted before. For those who really like liquid hawflakes juice, yes, they are available at Aeon Big at a deep discount. So grab them now.
