BEIJING, September 18 (AsianFin)— Kweichow Moutai, China’s most valuable distilled spirit brand well-known as the national liquor, created another blockbuster right after its offering co-branded with Luckin Coffee.

Credit：Visual China

Maoxiaoling Liquor-filled chocolate, a product co-developed by Moutai and Dove, a U.S. chocolate brand owned by Mars, started to go on sale in China on 03:30, p.m., September 16, Beijing Time. Moutai’s new offering was so hot that it soon sold out right after the launch. The chocolate run out of stock within just one minute at various online marketplace, and it was unavailable at offline stores such as the Moutai Ice Cream shop in ten minutes, National Business Daily and other Chinese news media outlets said. Many customers were reported to wait for the chocolate long before the official launch, even some people ordered more than a dozen boxes at a time.

The chocolate lineup includes the original flavor liquor-filled chocolate box with two pieces, six pieces and 12 pieces, which are priced at RMB35.00 (US$4.80), RMB99.00 and RMB169.00, respectively. Moutai also offers chocolate boxes with less sugar, and such boxes for 2 pieces, six pieces and 12 pieces cost RMB39.00, RMB109.00 and RMB179.00 per unit, respectively.  The ingredient list at the box package showed the chocolate contains Feitian Moutai, the flagship Moutai offering which has 53% alcohol. The product, made in Beijing, will expire in nine months, compared with the shelf life of 12 months for the ordinary Dove product, according to the package. It specially cautioned that minors, pregnant women, people with alcohol allergies and drivers do not eat because alcohol accounts for less than 1% of the chocolate.

The chocolate marks Moutai’s completion of a cross-sector loop. At an event for the first anniversary of the ice cream launch in May, Moutai Chairman Ding Xiongjun said his company will ramp up research and development (R&D) of products like chocolates, alcoholic beverages, popsicles to create product matrix with different types, prices and distinctive features.

At a recent event for the chocolate, Ding declared the development of "+Moutai" derivative products came to an end as the new chocolate debuted. As a critical part of Moutai Group’s operation in the wine, culture, tourism and wellness industry, Moutai International Hotel has worked with the most influential state-owned enterprises, private companies and foreign enterprises in these industries to complete the product matrix, namely, to drink Moutai, taste foods made with Moutai and Moutai icecream, drink Moutai-flavored coffee and eat Moutai-filled chocoloate, Ding said. In face of an era with new consumption trends, Moutai, as one of China’s most historic brands, has to embrace young generation and so-called Generation Z, which means, people born between 1996 and 2010, Ding stressed.

The chocolate came less than two weeks after Moutai and its partner Luckin Coffee launched their co-branded drink. The so-called sauce-flavored latte was priced at RMB38.00 (US$5.20) apiece, and customers can get a 50% discount for a limited time if they order it online with a coupon. In China’s traditional distilled liquor Baijiu, sauce, also known as sauce aroma, refers to a flavor that smells similarity to fermented bean pastes and soy sauces. According to Luckin, each cup of the new latte is made with coffee and thick milk that contains alcohol coming from Feitian Moutai less than 0.5% of overall content.

Luckin Coffee announced it sold more than 54.2 million cups of the sauce-flavored latte with the sales topping RMB100 million on September 4, the first day of its launch. The new drink broke daily sales record of a single offering for the coffee company founded in 2017. That is such an outstanding result compared with previous hits, such as the cheese latte that sold 1.31 million cups on its launch day. Luckin said on September 7 that many stores had sold out the sauce-flavored latte this week due to shortage of Moutai, therefore, it had placed an urgent order of Feitian Moutai and organized suppliers for emergency production. The company expected the latte should be first available in some of cities from September 10 and stores across China will gradually resume supply of the drink from September 19.