Sweet, milky and colourful -- bubble tea is wildly popular in China, where people sipping through straws from large plastic cups is a common sight in high streets and shopping malls across the country. But there's fresh competition brewing in the vast market, characterised by ultra-cheap products that are striking a chord with China's increasingly frugal young consumers. "The existing market is saturated," Stacy Chen, a bubble tea vlogger based in the eastern city of Hangzhou, tells AFP. "Reducing prices is the only feasible way (for companies) to highlight their market competitiveness." IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES