Why Is It Called Cappuccino in This Pickled Fish Crossover?

Tai Er, the restaurant known for pickled fish, turned an April Fools' joke into a real product line, launching an Original Pickled Vegetable Latte, Pickled Fish Drip Coffee, and a Sichuan Pepper Passion Fruit Americano. The drip coffee packaging is designed to resemble a plate of pickled fish, and consumer feedback says the pickled vegetable latte has no pickled vegetable flavor.

The menu concept borrowed pickled fish cooking methods and ingredients, naming items like Ice Blog Pickled Vegetable Latte, Opening Sour Ice Americano, Wasabi Shrimp Cappuccino, and Boneless Chicken Claw Cappuccino. The campaign shows how crossover collaborations use absurd appeal and a slow pre-launch roll-out to hold consumer attention, a form of what is coffee blending applied to drinks rather than beans.

From an April Fools' joke to an actual product launch, Tai Er Pickled Fish has taken the mashup of pickled vegetables and coffee to a whole new level. Products like Original Pickled Vegetable Latte, Pickled Fish Drip Coffee, and Sichuan Pepper Passion Fruit Americano have appeared one after another, sparking heated discussion in the coffee community. How do these wildly imaginative crossover drinks actually taste? Consumer feedback says the pickled vegetable latte surprisingly has no pickled vegetable flavor, while the drip coffee packaging is wholeheartedly designed to look like a plate of pickled fish. This article takes you through this marketing event that went from joke to reality, and analyzes how crossover collaborations use their absurd appeal and pre-launch pacing to precisely capture consumer psychology. Front Street Coffee continues to bring you professional coffee news and specialty bean recommendations.

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Yesterday, the topic of pickled vegetable latte once again flooded coffee chat groups.

At first everyone thought it was just another round of copycat trend-following, but unexpectedly, Tai Er — yes, that restaurant that makes pickled fish — actually went and made pickled vegetable latte for real, and it was no joke.

This year on April Fools' Day, Tai Er announced the establishment of a coffee company and launched what they called the world's first pickled fish-flavored coffee. Borrowing the cooking methods and ingredients of pickled fish, they conceived products like Ice Blog Pickled Vegetable Latte, Opening Sour Ice Americano, Wasabi Shrimp Cappuccino, and Boneless Chicken Claw Cappuccino. The names alone seemed a bit odd, but after a few more glances, people couldn't help wanting to take a sip.

However, at the time it was just an April Fools' prank — Tai Er neither opened a coffee shop nor actually sold these products. Many netizens even joked that since they'd already added pickled vegetables, they might as well throw in the fish too.

Because people couldn't drink it yet couldn't stop thinking about it, over the following month, group members often bought pickled vegetables at home to mix with coffee themselves. The writer also followed suit and gave it a try, grinding coffee beans into coarse particles to pair with them. The process was indeed fun, and cleaning up was indeed a hassle.

No one expected that a few months later, Tai Er would actually launch the Original Pickled Vegetable Latte, along with Pickled Fish Drip Coffee. This move was simply outrageous to the extreme.

Also unveiled at the same time were Just Spend Chrysanthemum Lemon Coffee, You're So Cheeky Chenpi Cold Brew, Happy God of Flowers Ice Americano, and Sichuan Pepper Passion Fruit Americano. Although this round of naming and creativity wasn't as exaggerated as the April Fools' batch, the level of absurdity was still fully intact.

So what does the Original Pickled Vegetable Latte actually taste like? Friends who have tried it feedback: no pickled vegetable flavor, unexpectedly good, just a slightly sour latte.

Reading this, some of you in front of the screen might feel a bit disappointed. But don't lose heart just yet — if they really used extremely sour, pungent pickled vegetables, not only would the flavor be off, but the milk would also curdle due to the acidity.

- xiao白兔

But the Pickled Fish Drip Coffee really is very pickled-fish-like — at least in terms of packaging. Tai Er anticipated that fans would be disappointed by the pickled vegetable latte having no pickled vegetable flavor, so they designed the drip coffee packaging to look like plates of pickled fish. The coffee inside is also not a traditional flavor, but carries a hint of chenpi (dried tangerine peel).

- 又晒又辛苦

First there was Guo Degang's crosstalk line "drinking coffee with garlic, autumn waters merge with the vast sky," and now there's a pickled fish brand "picking up a latte and pouring it over pickled vegetables." Tai Er's imagination is indeed wild enough. On reflection, this crossover marketing is quite interesting.

Crossover coffee ventures are nothing new. In recent years, many industries and brands that seem completely unrelated to coffee have attempted collaborations, hoping to use coffee to attract new customer groups, but most results have been mediocre. The fundamental problem is that the collaborations are too forced, lacking advance hype and leaving no room for consumer discussion.

If pickled fish paired with coffee had suddenly hit the market without any warning, it would likely have drawn a flood of negative reviews — after all, this combination looks "unreliable" at first glance. But Tai Er cleverly leveraged its absurd appeal by first dropping hints on April Fools' Day — a very shrewd move.

This approach not only allows a more direct understanding of consumer attitudes toward creative coffee, but also firmly captures everyone's psychology of "not being able to drink it right away, so I keep thinking about it." Then, when the discussion heat slightly fades but people are still imitating it, they suddenly make a real move, thereby stimulating consumers to visit the store and try it.

Looking at the collaboration products themselves, you can see that both brands put in effort. After all, getting these strong-flavored ingredients to blend with coffee is no easy task.

Crossover collaborations are about mutual traffic referral — you have the customer group I want, I have the customer group you need, expanding and blending with each other, ultimately achieving conversion. At the same time, both sides tell the same story, creating resonance among consumers, thereby amplifying brand voice in a short period.

This collaboration can be said to be quite well executed, to some extent.

Image source: Internet

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