What Does the Luckin Coffee Watermelon Latte Say About Coffee Trends?

Luckin Coffee launched a watermelon series, with the Watermelon Latte trending on Weibo in mid-May. The lineup includes the Drama Watermelon Latte and a smaller version, mixing watermelon flavor with Hokkaido-style thick milk. The release follows earlier novelty drinks such as garlic latte, pushing coffee specialty drinks further toward milk-tea territory.

The launch lands as Luckin has surpassed Starbucks in store count and keeps expanding flavored, fruit-forward drinks. For the industry, what is coffee blending shifts from origin and terroir toward syrup, fruit, and texture combinations that appeal to younger buyers. Coffee lovers who want new flavors can watch how these milk-tea-style products sell before judging the trend.

After the Start of Summer, the weather gradually heats up, and Luckin Coffee has lost no time in launching a new watermelon series, with the Watermelon Latte quickly trending on Weibo. From garlic latte to watermelon latte, the boundaries of coffee specialty drinks are constantly being pushed. This article sorts out the specific information about Luckin's new watermelon series, netizen reviews, and the background of Luckin surpassing Starbucks in store count and its products increasingly becoming milk-tea-like, and explores how the coffee industry is following in Luckin's footsteps into milk-tea-ification. Coffee lovers who enjoy trying new things may want to pay attention.

Coffee, this magical beverage, has gone from people's early obsession with pursuing the terroir of its origin to now being mixed with all kinds of ingredients with peculiar flavors. First there was garlic latte, then Laoganma coffee. The Start of Summer has passed, and it is now mid-May; the scorching heat has long arrived, so what kind of coffee can be associated with summer? Summer paired with watermelon—this combination is certainly unavoidable—and thus the watermelon latte came into being.

Today, Luckin Coffee launched its watermelon series products, and the topic of Watermelon Latte also surged onto the Weibo trending list.

When the author saw this topic, the first thing that came to mind was actually the garlic latte, cilantro latte, scallion coffee, and other coffee specialty drinks that had also previously trended on Weibo. Those scenes that once appeared: people who love garlic, people who love cilantro, people who love scallions, and people who love coffee all fell silent in the face of these new tricks. This time the watermelon latte has arrived, and the author is very worried that the scene of watermelon lovers and coffee lovers falling silent at the same time will repeat itself.

Luckin's sudden launch of new products this time also attracted many netizens to go buy them and check in and share on social platforms.

According to Luckin Coffee's official Weibo, this new watermelon series has two items: "Drama Watermelon Latte" and "Drama Watermelon Little Latte." They capture both the refreshing elements essential to summer and firmly grasp people's demand for zero-calorie sugar.

Among them, the Drama Watermelon Latte is a blend of watermelon flavor and Hokkaido silky thick milk; the Drama Watermelon Little Latte contains no caffeine and is made by blending refreshing watermelon flavor into pure milk and coconut milk.

After tasting Luckin's new watermelon latte, some netizens said on Weibo that even if they chose the least sweet sweetness level, this watermelon latte was still cloyingly sweet and tasted more like inferior sweet flavoring, leaving them speechless about Luckin's watermelon latte and recent new products.

There were also netizens who expressed their love for Luckin Coffee's watermelon latte.

From the Weibo trending list, it can be seen that Luckin Coffee's performance in social marketing is very impressive. The emergence of a series of phenomenal products such as Coconut Cloud Latte, Coconut Ice Extract Coffee, and Watermelon Latte all shows that Luckin Coffee has long shaken off the shadow of the financial fraud incident. Previously, there were rumors that Luckin Coffee planned to list in Hong Kong stocks, and Luckin Coffee also denied them. Luckin is moving forward on a fast track of vigorous development.

By the end of 2021, Luckin Coffee had 6,024 stores, surpassing Starbucks' 5,557 stores in China, and Luckin jumped to become China's largest coffee brand by store count.

While Luckin Coffee turned things around and became a Chinese coffee giant, Luckin Coffee is also becoming "milk-tea-ified," making Luckin the public enemy of the milk tea industry. Its product R&D focus has shifted toward milk coffee that better suits mass tastes. Its hit Raw Coconut Latte appealed to milk tea users and gradually converted many milk tea users into its coffee users.

At the same time, the coffee industry has also followed in Luckin's footsteps and entered milk-tea-ification. The appearance of various fruit-flavored milk coffees is similar to the fruit-flavored milk teas mixed with various additives in the second wave of the milk tea trend.

Where will Luckin and a host of other coffee brands lead the coffee industry?

Image source: Internet

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