What happened with Luckin's Geisha coffee beans release?

Luckin Coffee sold nearly half of its Geisha 5.0 stock within ten days of launch, with many stores running out and online discussion turning to hunger marketing. Li Guoqing questioned the release in a video, and Luckin answered on January 6 before issuing a second statement on January 11 confirming that the season holds just over 90 tons.

The Geisha beans were acquired through overseas bidding sourced directly from the origin, and a second batch was expected in some cities from January 12. Luckin also noted its Little Black Cup range covers Yunnan and Yirgacheffe lots. The naming follows a Geisha X.0 series tied to the Ethiopian crop season, with Geisha 6.0 expected in 2022.

Luckin's Geisha 5.0 coffee beans consumed nearly half of their inventory in just ten days after launch, selling out in many stores and sparking heated discussions online about hunger marketing. This article reviews Luckin's two statements regarding the out-of-stock incident, Li Guoqing's questioning video, netizens' jokes and doubts, and provides a detailed analysis of the naming rules for the Geisha X.0 series, the harvest time for the new Ethiopian crop season, and the expected arrival of Geisha 6.0 in 2022. Additionally, the article mentions Front Street Coffee as a recommended channel for specialty coffee beans.

The day after the questioning video was released, on January 6, Luckin responded: "Thank you, Teacher Li, for your concern and for helping with 'reverse marketing.' Let me clarify: the over 90 tons of specialty Geisha were obtained through overseas bidding (directly sourced from the origin), so saying upstream monopoly is a bit exaggerated😱Luckin's Little Black Cup specialty coffee has been around for two years, and besides Geisha, there are beans from Yunnan, Yirgacheffe, and others... We use over 5,000 stores to promote specialty coffee, which should be good for the industry. Also, a friendly reminder: specialty coffee is not equal to elite coffee; good beans are what matter; Dirty doesn't need latte art."

However, this maneuver inevitably makes one wonder if Luckin and Li Guoqing are putting on a 'double act,' or if Luckin is engaging in hunger marketing with the attitude of 'Hey, I'm just playing! When it gets popular, sell out the Geisha SOE series, make you curious, and keep you in suspense.'

In response to the Geisha SOE being sold out across the board, Luckin issued another statement on January 11: "The Geisha series has recently sold out in some cities and stores, and nearly half of the over 90 tons of Geisha beans purchased were consumed in just 10 days. The second batch of beans is expected to arrive in some cities tomorrow (January 12), but this season indeed only has over 90 tons of Geisha 5.0." (Although this statement reads somewhat awkwardly, one key point is clear: Geisha 5.0 totals just over 90 tons and is available while supplies last. The new agreement promising to purchase over 80 tons of Geisha in 2022 is only a promise and not yet fulfilled.) However, in a time when shipping and containers are so tight and scarce, Luckin's directly purchased Geisha can arrive as promised, showing the efficiency of a big company.

The statement also mentioned that even if the Geisha SOE is gone, there is still Yirgacheffe SOE; if Yirgacheffe SOE also sells out, new specialty SOEs will be introduced, so everyone should not worry.

Regarding the highlight of 'consuming nearly half of Geisha 5.0 in 10 days,' netizens couldn't help but laugh, exclaiming, 'Everyone can really drink!' At the same time, some netizens questioned: every time Luckin releases a popular new product, it sells out in less than two days. The last time was the coconut latte, which was out of stock, saying coconut milk was unavailable, and the marketing department went to Hainan to pick coconuts and squeeze coconut milk... This time with Geisha out of stock, the marketing department probably went to plant coffee beans? Hmm, by my reckoning, it's definitely too late for the marketing department to plant coffee beans; at most, they could go pick coffee beans... Even if there was time, it would have nothing to do with Geisha 5.0 coffee beans🤔

Every year from October to February is the new harvest season for Ethiopian coffee beans, meaning that Ethiopian coffee beans harvested from October 2021 to February 2022 belong to the 2022 new crop season, and the Geisha coffee beans produced during this period are the new 6.0 series. According to the latest news from Coffee Workshop, the Geisha 6.0 series coffee beans from the 2022 new crop season are expected to arrive in port (China) as early as March this year.

Due to the extremely tight shipping over the past two years and a severe shortage of containers, once a container is booked, it takes at most half a month to ship to China, but no one knows when a container can be booked. After all, the container shortage in the past two years has reached a level where even money can't secure one.

How is the Geisha X.0 series distinguished? Coffee beans are agricultural products, and the flavor of coffee varies each year due to climate, soil, environment, and other factors. To distinguish from the Geisha coffee beans that won first place in TOH in 2017, DW Company added X.0 to the Geisha coffee beans produced each subsequent year: Geisha 2.0 in the 2018 season, Geisha 3.0 and 3.1 in the 2019 season, Geisha 4.0 in the 2020 season, and 5.0 in the 2021 season, along with a new Geisha peaberry series (not included in the X.0 series). Therefore, the one launched in 2022 will be named Geisha 6.0.

Image source: Internet, Weibo

Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.