Flavor a good match for China's increasingly sophisticated taste

At many of those stores, matcha-flavored ice cream offers three kinds of flavor profiles, the concentration of matcha can be 30 percent, 60 percent and 90 percent. Most of the sweet offerings on the menus retail at 20 yuan ($3) to 40 yuan.

Wang Zhibin, director of the American Chinese Food Federation, said for any cuisine, raw food materials are the most important. If he were to label matcha, he said, he would use the terms "fashionable" and "healthy", and he believes its growth prospect is promising.

"Matcha can be applied to various kinds of food. We have held some events to promote matcha desserts and other Chinese food combined with matcha in the United States, and we have seen great interest locally. This can help international consumers to have a better recognition of Chinese food culture," he said.

Wang Jianjun, deputy general manager of the merchandise department of Benlai, an online shopping platform for fresh food in China, said matcha serves as a great example and result of the ongoing consumption upgrade trend in the country.

"Currently, there are not many matcha-related products sold on Benlai. We would like to introduce more matcha products online, as we believe in its growth potential. Younger Chinese consumers who were born after 1990 and 2000 are more receptive to new products," he said.

Compared with Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, Chinese consumers' spending on snack food and their per capita consumption volume is still relatively low; therefore, the market for leisure food still has considerable growth potential, Frost & Sullivan found.

"The demand for healthy, safe and high-end leisure snacks will continue to expand in China. Fueled by the growing consumption upgrade trend, the scale of snack food in the country will increase steadily," Wang of Frost& Sullivan said.

"Higher-end leisure food will account for a larger market share, which will help to boost the prices and volume of the overall market. Particularly, the growth rate of leisure food through e-commerce platforms and specialty stores will be faster than that of traditional supermarkets," he said.

This year, the market size of street stalls and food service kiosks in China is expected to reach $13.96 billion, followed by the market scale of India, and ahead of the United States, Thailand and Mexico, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.

By 2023, the market size of street stalls and food service kiosks in China is forecast to reach $19.48 billion, adding 40 percent over the level of 2019, Euromonitor International found.