A bottle of Kweichow Moutai Photo: VCG

China's liquor giant Kweichow Moutai joined Mars Wrigley's Dove brand by launching a baijiu-infused chocolate on Saturday. The product was an instant hit and was sold out within minutes after it was put on sale at the online store. 

As of Monday morning, the chocolate remains unavailable on Kweichow Moutai's official online store.

On Chinese e-commerce platform Pinduoduo.com, dealers added markup for the trending chocolate. For example, the official pricing of the sugar-reduced chocolate was set at 39 yuan per box of 2 pcs (20g), but it was selling at 98 yuan per box on a Pinduoduo.com store, an increase of 151 percent in prices.

To date, more than 10,000 consumers have applied to purchase the co-branded chocolate at the official Moutai online store on JD.com, with the 12-piece chocolate box being the most popular, while more than 4,200 people have made reservations for tomorrow's rush.

Chocolate is more of a gift attribute than a daily food choice. And, considering the price of Moutai chocolate, most consumers might use them as gifts for special days, Zhu Danpeng, a veteran food industry analyst said on Thursday before the chocolate hit online store.

Given Moutai's strong presence in the Chinese liquor market and Dove's long standing prestige among Chinese consumers, the co-branded baijiu-infused chocolate attracted consumers' attention before it hit the market. A hashtag linked to the collaboration of the two brands reached top of the trending topics list on Weibo with over 150 million views and 120 million discussions after it was released on Thursday.

The co-branded chocolate product is another attempt by Moutai to get closer to young consumers, and taking into account of Dove's brand reputation overseas, Moutai could leverage this collaboration to promote Chinese baijiu to the international market, said Zhu.

In early 2023, another Chinese liquor maker Fenjiu Group made a co-branded baijiu chocolate product with Danish chocolate company Anthon Berg. The Danish chocolate maker also had cooperated with another Chinese liquor company YangHe Group to produce alcohol-infused chocolates during the 4th CIIE in Shanghai.

The hot-selling co-branded chocolate marks Moutai's success in its attempt to win over young consumers after launching baijiu-infused latte and ice cream. Luckin Coffee, Moutai's cobranding partner announced on September 5 that the brand's Jiangxiang Latte had sold 5.42 million cups on its first day of release.