Can Alcohol and Coffee Be Mixed at Convenience Stores?

7-Eleven recently piloted a self-service cocktail mixing area at a store in Beijing, offering four base spirits along with popular online recipes. Consumers can combine coffee with Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlua Coffee Liqueur, Havana Rum, or Malibu Rum Liqueur. The move lowers the threshold for DIY coffee cocktails and reflects fading emphasis on consumption settings for coffee and alcohol.

Convenience store cocktail mixing grew out of social media, where users pour soft drinks, coffee, and mini liquor bottles together and share the results. The trend has drawn over 400 million views since it appeared, and the simple, low-cost, photogenic format keeps spreading. The pilot formalizes a habit that previously required buying coffee and liquor separately at full price.

In the past two years, convenience store cocktail mixing has unexpectedly gone viral, with netizens using soft drinks, coffee, and mini liquor bottles to create all kinds of DIY variations. 7-Eleven recently piloted a self-service cocktail mixing area at a store in Beijing, offering four popular base spirits along with popular online recipes, allowing consumers to experience coffee cocktails at a lower cost and in a more elegant way. This move not only lowers the threshold for DIY but also reflects young people's fading emphasis on consumption scenarios for coffee and alcohol. This article takes you through the past and present of convenience store cocktail mixing and explores whether alcohol and coffee can be consumed together.

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Nowadays, hit products in the beverage market are no longer limited to holiday exclusives or brand collaborations, but rather personalized concoctions derived from convenience stores—convenience store cocktail mixing xxx.

A carton of soft drink, a cup of coffee, a mini bottle of liquor—netizens use simple and direct methods to launch "brute-force" cocktail creations.

Buy a carton of soft drink, take two sips first, poke a relatively large round hole next to the straw, then forcefully stuff the entire mini bottle of liquor in—and a cocktail is complete; or buy a cup of Americano or latte, take two sips, and push the mini bottle of liquor through the straw hole—and a coffee cocktail is successfully made.

Simple to make, low in cost, and photogenic—with netizens on social platforms imitating each other and continuously innovating, convenience store cocktail mixing has attracted over 400 million views since it appeared.

With demand growing, 7-Eleven recently couldn't sit still either. In response to netizens' "brute-force" methods, 7-Eleven began piloting a self-service cocktail mixing area at a store in Beijing. This area offers four base spirits: Jameson Irish Whiskey, Kahlua Coffee Liqueur, Havana Rum, and Malibu Rum Liqueur, all of which are the most commonly chosen by netizens for DIY.

Previously, netizens had to first buy coffee or other soft drinks at full price (3-20 yuan), then buy a mini bottle of liquor at full price (20-40 yuan/50ml). But the self-service cocktail mixing area launched by 7-Eleven this time lowers the DIY cost, allowing several popular convenience store cocktail mixes to be replicated for just over ten yuan on average. At the same time, 7-Eleven has thoughtfully listed popular online coffee cocktail and cocktail recipes in the self-service mixing area. Consumers only need to buy a cup of 7-Eleven Americano or latte, add 3 yuan, and they can add one pump (about 30ml) of base spirit (choose one of four).

Customers who don't drink coffee can also buy a cup of ice, add 7 yuan for one pump of base spirit, and then choose soft drinks according to their preference. Of course, drinking it directly with ice and liquor is also fine. If one pump isn't enough, add another 7 yuan for one more pump. After buying the coffee or cup of ice, push the cup opening upward, and the holder will dispense a measured amount of base spirit. Compared with brute-force bottle stuffing, this design is obviously much more elegant.

Once the news came out, netizens in other regions expressed envy and called on 7-Eleven to launch self-service cocktail mixing areas in more stores as soon as possible. Some netizens also believed that the reason convenience store cocktail mixing is popular is precisely because everyone enjoys the process of "brute-force" stuffing the bottle. Although the mixing area is much cheaper, the operation is too gentle.

Convenience store cocktail mixing may seem like young people's prank, but in fact it reflects that current coffee and alcohol consumption is no longer confined to scenarios, and this will also be the development trend of both industries in the future.

Today, the main consumers in both the coffee and alcohol industries are post-90s. Convenience, high cost-effectiveness, and DIY are what this generation of young people values. In the past, drinking alcohol and coffee was mostly for work and socializing; now more people focus on the product itself. Drinking alcohol is no longer about getting dead drunk, but about seeking a slight buzz, relaxation, and self-healing; drinking coffee is no longer for showing off, but as a daily beverage for alertness, pairing with breakfast, and aiding digestion after lunch. Compared with the offerings and prices of many coffee shops and bars, convenience store cocktail mixing clearly fits the preferences of young consumers better. When doing it yourself, whether it tastes good or not isn't important—what matters is the happiness brought by the making process.

Finally, as always: Minors must not drink alcohol! If you drink, don't drive! Alcohol harms the liver, so know your limits! Image source: Internet

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