"Today is cruel, tomorrow will be even crueler. The day after tomorrow is beautiful, but most people will die tomorrow night," once said Jack Ma, Chinese internet legend and founder of Alibaba.

While Ma may have been talking about Alibaba’s core e-commerce business, his words could also apply to China’s overheated premium tea market these days. And his words may not even be strong enough for a turbulent sector that has produced at least four Hong Kong IPO candidates since the start of the year alone.

Instead, a more apt modification of Ma’s words for this frothy sector might be: "Today is very cruel, tomorrow will be even crueler. The day after tomorrow may not be beautiful either, but that doesn’t matter because most premium tea chains will be dead by then."