Can 9-Yuan SOE Coffee Reach Everyday Drinkers?
KFC began selling SOE coffee for the first time on October 1 at the KFC TO GO window of its Shanghai Caobao Road Riyueguang store, priced at 9 yuan. SOE means espresso pulled from coffee beans of a single origin, giving a more focused and recognizable flavor than a blend. The window format lets customers order and leave without entering the store.
The Americano Antigua SOE uses washed coffee beans from the Antigua region of Guatemala, a volcanic area with a stable climate, roasted to a medium level. Specialty shops have long sold SOE coffee for 20 to 40 yuan, so the 9-yuan price lowers the entry point and tests whether a pick-up window can carry single-origin espresso to a wider audience.
SOE coffee has long existed in specialty coffee shops at prices of 20 to 40 yuan, but now KFC has for the first time pulled it into the 9-yuan range at the KFC TO GO window of its Shanghai Caobao Road Riyueguang store. This move not only lowers the threshold for tasting single-origin espresso, but also makes the grab-and-go window model a new direction for the upgrade of the KCoffee business. This article will explore the meaning of 9-yuan SOE for the industry and everyday consumers, starting from the definition of SOE, its flavor characteristics, price barriers, and KFC's coffee layout.
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On October 1, the familiar KFC began selling SOE coffee for the first time at the KFC TO GO window of its Shanghai Caobao Road Riyueguang store, opening for business in a "window-breaking" way.
By bringing SOE into the 9-yuan range and adopting window sales, customers do not need to push the door open and enter the store. They can get SOE coffee just by standing at the window, ordering and leaving immediately, saving a lot of waiting time. More importantly, for just 9 yuan, they can drink the currently popular SOE coffee.
It is understood that this SOE coffee is currently only available at this KFC TO GO window, priced at only 9 yuan. For people who rely on coffee every day to stay alert, drinking coffee here seems to make coffee freedom easily achievable.
Simply put, SOE is espresso made using coffee beans from a single origin. The entire extraction process uses beans from only the same origin, and the flavor tends to be more distinctive, more concentrated, and clearly focused, with higher recognizability. In contrast, blended coffee uses beans from different origins and different batches, each with different characteristics, combining them to balance acidity and sweetness, among other things, so that the final taste is more balanced and stable.
The Americano · Antigua SOE coffee beans exclusive to the KFC TO GO window come from the Antigua region of Guatemala, which is surrounded by volcanoes and has a stable climate. They are washed-processed, and the roast level lands just right at medium roast, bringing out a unique creamy sweetness. The charm of SOE coffee comes precisely from the way single-origin beans can amplify coffee's original flavors.
As coffee culture continues to spread, drinking coffee has become a daily habit for many young people, and competition in the coffee industry has become increasingly fierce. Although SOE coffee is gradually entering people's lives, its price is still concentrated between 20 yuan and 40 yuan, and it is usually higher than ordinary coffee in the same shop.
SOE coffee has not yet fully unleashed its potential in the mass market, mainly because it cannot use blending techniques to adjust flavor, and it also places higher demands on operational skill. To ensure stable output at large volume, the supply chain faces even greater challenges. And the supply chain is one of the important factors affecting price, which ultimately also influences most people's purchasing decisions.
Earlier, SOE coffee was mostly popular in niche specialty coffee shops. Professional baristas shared their carefully selected coffee with customers, slowly explaining the beans' flavors. The atmosphere was rich, and the prices were often equally high, thus keeping it far from the daily consumption of the general public. People wanted to drink it, but often hesitated because of SOE's relatively high price.
So what does a 9-yuan cup of SOE coffee mean for the industry today? This may be exactly the starting point for SOE coffee to truly return to mass consumption.
KFC's freshly ground coffee shops landed in the southern market in early 2022 and have since opened more than 30 coffee stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Fuzhou, and many other places, with locations covering industrial parks, schools, hospitals, and more. At the same time, KCoffee also crossed over with Wuling MINI, appearing in various music festivals, film festivals, and other events in the form of a mobile mini coffee shop. The KFC TO GO grab-and-go window launched this time is also an upgrade of the KCoffee business model.
Abroad, this way of buying coffee is very common - no soft sofa, free WiFi, or elegant environment is needed, just a cup of good coffee. The KFC TO GO window makes the KCoffee model more complete. Through this new attempt, coffee "breaks out of the window" and gets one step closer to daily life.
It is reported that KCoffee will continue to launch more cost-effective SOE coffees as well as seasonal SOE coffee products in the future, sharing coffee flavors from around the world with consumers.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
