Luckin's First Pour-Over: Machine Brewing Sparks Discussion on Specialty Coffee
Luckin Coffee has opened its 10,000th store as a flagship location, featuring the brand's only pour-over coffee. A video of the brewing process shows that instead of a barista manually pouring water, a machine simulates a champion's technique. The machine injected 88°C water in ten pours over 23 grams of coffee, but clogging occurred without staff intervention. The result was a 330-milliliter cup that some customers found weak in flavor, especially at a 20-yuan price point.
Consumer reviews are divided. Some appreciate the convenience and consistency of machine brewing, while others argue that true pour-over requires manual control and a barista's judgment. The debate touches on broader questions about what defines specialty coffee and whether automated methods can meet that standard. Luckin's move reflects its effort to upgrade its brand image beyond affordable chain coffee, but it also raises questions about the role of technology in traditional brewing methods.
Luckin Coffee's 10,000th store, as its first flagship location, introduced the brand's only pour-over coffee to date, sparking widespread attention online. However, judging from the brewing process that was exposed, this cup of pour-over was made by a machine simulating a champion's brewing method, not by a barista manually pouring water, and there was even a case where clogged grounds were not dealt with in time. The 20-yuan price, the relatively weak flavor, and the "machine pour-over" positioning have left consumer reviews sharply divided. This article will present the full sequence of events, netizens' opinions, and the discussion about the essence of pour-over coffee.
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Luckin Coffee has long left consumers with two distinct labels: frequent co-branded collaborations and a 9.9-yuan-per-cup affordable strategy. This impression has led the public to place it in the low-price chain coffee camp, with less refinement and more approachability compared with Starbucks.
Therefore, when its store count surpassed ten thousand, Luckin began seeking brand upgrading and positioned its 10,000th store as its first flagship store. In addition to regular drinks, this store specially introduced pour-over coffee, and it is also the only store under Luckin that offers pour-over products, naturally attracting quite a few netizens to visit and try it.
Not long ago, a netizen filmed the complete production process of Luckin's pour-over coffee and posted it on social media. From the video content, Luckin's pour-over is clearly different from what the public generally understands pour-over to be. Usually, pour-over coffee in people's impression is made by a barista holding a brewing kettle and calmly pouring water into the dripper; but this cup of pour-over from Luckin was not made by a barista, but by a machine simulating a champion barista's brewing technique.
The store employee first weighed 23 grams of coffee beans for grinding, then poured the coffee grounds into the pour-over kettle, and then placed the kettle under the machine's water outlet. The machine injected 88°C hot water in ten pours, during which clogging of the coffee bed occurred, but the staff seemed not to notice, and the machine continued brewing according to the program. The entire extraction process lasted about three minutes, ultimately yielding 330 milliliters of coffee liquid.
After receiving the coffee and flavor card from the staff, the netizen felt that Luckin's pour-over coffee liquid was relatively light in color, and after tasting it, the flavor was not prominent enough and tasted somewhat weak. When asking the staff, the reply was that "the hot one will be a bit lighter."
After watching this production process, many netizens said bluntly: this is obviously machine-brewed, so how can it be called pour-over coffee!
"Fancy but pointless, better to just use a Clever Cup," "《Machine-Made Pour-Over Coffee》," "flooded pour-over," and some netizens even directly suggested that Luckin "stop playing with pour-over" and "just do your commercial coffee well, isn't that fine?"
However, some netizens also pointed out that coffee liquid extracted from light-roast beans is naturally lighter in color, and besides, "for a 20-yuan pour-over, what more can you ask for?" Some netizens who had personally visited the store and tasted Luckin's pour-over also thought this cup of coffee was "pretty good" and "at least can meet my basic need."
As for the flavor performance of pour-over coffee, opinions vary from person to person, and it is hard to judge whether Luckin's pour-over actually tastes good based on netizens' respective descriptions. But from the entire brewing process, some netizens said that "the essence of pour-over is the person," and coffee made by a machine should not be called "pour-over coffee."
In addition, some netizens believed that Luckin employees were not professional enough when making pour-over, did not handle the clogged grounds in time, and seemed rather perfunctory when answering customers' questions.
As for Luckin's attempt to take the specialty coffee route, netizens are not unable to understand it, but they also hope the brand can improve its output so that consumers truly feel they are getting value for money when buying pour-over coffee.
Image source: Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
