Chicecream facts for kids
A Chicecream bar
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| Founded | 14 March 2018 in Shanghai, China |
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| Founder | Lin Sheng (林盛) |
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Area served
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China |
| Products | Ice cream and other food products |
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| Simplified Chinese | 钟薛高 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 鍾薛高 | ||||||
| Literal meaning | Zhong Xue Gao | ||||||
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Chicecream is a popular ice cream company from China. It's known for making fancy, high-quality ice cream. The company started in Shanghai in 2018. Unlike many other luxury brands, Chicecream is a Chinese company. It became very popular by selling online and working with Internet celebrities (also called influencers). Chicecream is now one of China's best-selling ice cream brands.
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What Makes Chicecream Special?
Chicecream is famous for its higher prices compared to other ice creams. People sometimes call it the "Hermes of ice cream" because it's seen as a luxury brand. In 2021, a Chicecream bar usually cost about 13–18 Chinese Yuan (RMB). One special flavor, "Ecuador Pink," made with cocoa powder, sold for 66 RMB. Most other ice cream brands in China cost much less, around 2–8 RMB.
The company's founder, Lin Sheng, says the higher prices are because they use expensive ingredients. Many of these ingredients, like yuzu, are imported from other countries.
A Chinese Luxury Brand
Chicecream wants to be known as a top-tier Chinese ice cream company. This is different from well-known Western brands like Häagen-Dazs and Magnum.
The Chinese name for the brand is Chinese: 钟薛高 (Zhōng Xuē Gāo). This name is a clever play on words. It combines three common Chinese surnames: Zhong, Xue, and Gao. It also sounds very similar to Chinese: 中雪糕; pinyin: Zhōng xuěgāo; literally "Chinese ice cream", which means "Chinese ice cream."
Healthy Claims and Who Buys It
Chicecream advertises its products as healthy. They say their ice creams are all-natural and have less sugar and fat.
Most people who buy Chicecream are young adults, especially women, aged 26 to 37. Younger people, aged 18 to 25, also enjoy the brand.
How Chicecream Started and Grew
Chicecream was founded in Shanghai on March 14, 2018. The founder and CEO, Lin Sheng, had worked in advertising before starting the company. Chicecream launched its first six ice cream flavors on May 20, 2018.
Before Chicecream, fancy ice cream in China usually came from foreign brands. Chinese brands were often seen as less expensive. Chicecream was one of the first Chinese companies to make luxury ice cream.
Online Sales and Influencers
Chicecream focused on selling its products online instead of just in regular stores. They also worked with internet celebrities to promote their ice cream. For example, a popular blogger named Li Jiaqi recommended Chicecream in 2020. This helped the brand become very popular quickly. At one point, it was the most-searched product on the social media app Xiaohongshu.
Challenges and Growth
In 2019, regulators in Shanghai found that some of Chicecream's advertisements were not completely accurate. The company had claimed its ice cream had no water and used special Japanese tea leaves, which was not entirely true.
The company faced challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It was hard to import some ingredients, like the cheese for their aged Irish cheese ice cream. However, the pandemic also led to more people shopping online, which helped Chicecream's sales.
In May 2021, Chicecream received 200 million RMB in funding to help it grow even more.
The "Doesn't Melt" Discussion
In the summer of 2022, there was a lot of talk online about Chicecream's products not melting easily. People noticed that if a Chicecream bar was left out, it would become sticky but not turn into a watery puddle. This made some people wonder if the ice cream had too many additives.
Chicecream explained that their ice cream has a lot of solid ingredients and not much water. This makes it behave differently when it gets warm. The company stated that its products meet all safety standards. They also said that simply heating ice cream is not a scientific way to test its quality.
Chicecream Products
Chicecream offers more than ten different ice cream flavors. Some of these include:
- Ecuador pink (厄瓜多尔粉钻)
- Ghana black gold (加纳黑金)
- Hand-crafted jasmine (手煮茉莉)
- Aged Irish cheese (爱尔兰陈年干酪)
- Salted coconut (海盐椰椰)
- Semi-opportunism (半巧主义)
- Velvet cocoa (丝绒可可)
The ice cream bars have a unique shape, like a Chinese roof tile. The top of each bar is shaped like the Chinese character 回, which means "return."
Chicecream has also teamed up with other companies. For example, they worked with a skincare company called Xiaoxiandun to create an ice cream with birds' nests. Birds' nests are traditionally believed to be good for the skin.
Besides ice cream, Chicecream also sells other fancy food items, like high-end dumplings and cakes.
Where to Find Chicecream
Even though Chicecream mostly sells online, they also have physical stores. You can find their stores in cities like Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
See also
- Conspicuous consumption
- Food safety in China
- Hey Tea
- Luxury goods of China
