What is caffe when a Chinese medicine hospital sells coffee-style drinks?

Guoyitang, run by Harbin Jiren Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, now sells drinks labeled coffee that contain no caffeine and are made only from traditional Chinese medicine ingredients. Some can be paid for with a medical insurance card, prompting debate over what is caffe and where the line between coffee and medicine falls.

Staff reportedly take a customer's pulse, then customize herbal teas and coffee-style drinks by body constitution, with some products made using pour-over extraction. The case follows other crossovers such as Tongrentang's goji berry latte, part of a push to draw younger consumers. Even latte coffee beans made from plant ingredients share the naming problem, since the drinks contain no coffee at all.

When the intense competition in the coffee industry has become something people are used to, the field of traditional Chinese medicine has unexpectedly joined the fray. Guoyitang, under Harbin Jiren Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, recently launched drinks called "coffee," but they contain no caffeine at all and are made entirely from traditional Chinese medicine ingredients. Even more surprising is that some of these drinks can be paid for with a medical insurance card. This phenomenon has sparked widespread discussion: where exactly is the boundary between coffee and traditional Chinese medicine? From Tongrentang's goji berry latte to the hand-brewed herbal drinks of traditional Chinese medicine hospitals, the "TCM + coffee" combination is becoming a new traffic magnet for attracting young consumers. This article will take you through the story behind this crossover trend and explore whether coffee can really be classified as traditional Chinese medicine.

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In the past, I always thought competition in the coffee world was already fierce enough!

However, traditional Chinese medicine, unable to compete head-on but eager to "attract" young people's attention, has quietly entered the game as well...

Not long ago, a post about whether coffee or traditional Chinese medicine is more "cutthroat" caught my attention... When I clicked on it, I discovered that Guoyitang, under Harbin Jiren Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, had actually started selling coffee! But this "coffee" is not coffee in the traditional sense—its ingredients consist only of traditional Chinese medicine and it contains no caffeine at all...

According to netizens' shares, the "barista" in the shop first takes your pulse, then customizes herbal teas and "coffee" based on each person's physical constitution, truly achieving individualized treatment and targeted remedies! Some products are even made using the pour-over coffee extraction method...

After seeing the picture of the hand-brewed "coffee," I immediately opened my photo album... Oh! What a coincidence! Isn't this exactly what I do when I brew Xia Sang Ju granules?

I have to say, this "if you can't beat them, join them" strategy really works! Many Harbin netizens, upon seeing the shares, immediately set off to experience the health regimen. Whether the final results are good or not doesn't matter much, but at least it has helped more young people understand traditional Chinese medicine from a different perspective—this hospital has already succeeded.

The question netizens care about most regarding this matter is: can you use a medical insurance card? The answer is: yes, you can! However, not all products support medical insurance payment.

In recent years, as the younger generation places increasing importance on health and wellness, more and more industries have rushed into the "wellness" track, and the "TCM + xxx" combination has become a veritable traffic magnet.

Interestingly, traditional Chinese medicine or TCM alone cannot attract enough attention, but when paired with coffee—which is diametrically opposed to the image of TCM—this striking contrast immediately becomes a new consumption trend that young consumers eagerly pursue.

A few years ago, in order to get more young people to pay attention to and understand traditional Chinese medicine, Tongrentang used coffee as an entry point and took the lead in launching products such as goji berry lattes and hawthorn-dried tangerine peel Americanos, opening up a path of coffee-based wellness: never relax on wellness, and reach the pinnacle of life.

As a result, more and more young people, adhering to the health principle of "stay up late if you must, but never skip wellness," have entered a new realm of "punk wellness." Faced with this phenomenon, some coffee shop owners are very sharp and have simply opened their shops inside traditional Chinese medicine stores, visually giving consumers a strong sense of wellness.

Now, traditional Chinese medicine hospitals are not to be outdone either, setting up traditional Chinese medicine shops within coffee atmospheres. Coffee and traditional Chinese medicine are like Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse—seemingly opposed, but actually friendly.

Many netizens joke that if the coffee tree were native to China, it would surely be recorded in the Compendium of Materia Medica. Although coffee does not appear in the Compendium of Materia Medica, it can indeed be found in the "Chinese Herbal Medicine." However, since different people have different interpretations, whether coffee belongs to traditional Chinese medicine currently has no definitive conclusion.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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