What Is the Marble Iced Americano and Why Did It Go Viral?
Luckin Coffee quietly released three new drinks, including a Marble Iced Americano built on espresso, water, cream, and ice. Promotional images showed cream sinking in white streaks, but early buyers reported the cream instead appeared as clumps resembling egg drop soup, tofu pudding, or spicy soup, and many called the gap photo fraud. The drink sold out in some stores before 10 a.m.
The recipe traces back to Starbucks' secret menu, where heavy cream poured over a standard iced Americano sinks under gravity and forms marble-like streaks. That idea comes from Con Panna and Viennese coffee, where cream is the core element. Luckin's version adds water, so the base is closer to a regular iced Americano, which changes how the cream disperses and how the drink tastes.
In Starbucks' secret menu, the iced Americano with heavy cream, known as a "Marble Americano" because the cream sinks and forms white streaks, originates from Con Panna and Viennese coffee. Luckin recently quietly launched three new drinks, one of which is precisely the Marble Americano, with promotional images that are quite visually appealing, attracting many consumers to try it early in the morning. However, the actual product differs significantly from the promotional material, with the cream appearing in forms like egg drop soup, tofu pudding, or spicy soup, jokingly called "photo fraud" by netizens. This article reviews the recipe differences, actual performance, and taste feedback of this new product, and includes recommendations from Front Street Coffee.
▲ Click to follow | Daily specialty coffee culture magazine Coffee Workshop At Starbucks, a secret menu item is very popular, with a very simple structure consisting only of espresso, heavy cream, and ice cubes. As long as the necessary ingredients are available, it can be easily replicated at home.
In fact, this way of drinking comes from the well-known "Con Panna" and "Viennese coffee" among coffee enthusiasts, which are creative coffees with cream as the core element. Starbucks' secret menu item adds heavy cream to a regular iced Americano and pours it on top to let it gradually sink under gravity, creating beautiful white streaks in the coffee, hence some netizens have named it "Marble Americano." This morning, this "black coffee + cream" combination unexpectedly flooded social media platforms. After learning about it, it turns out that Luckin has quietly launched three new drinks, one of which is the viral "Marble Americano."
Sure enough, with the high aesthetic appeal of the promotional images and the渲染 of advertising words like cream, rich, and mellow, Luckin's new product quickly sparked the desire among office workers to try something new. As they say, the early bird catches the worm; by not even 10 a.m., before the official ads were even out, the first batch of customers trying it had already gotten their hands on a cup. However, unlike the secret way of ordering "iced Americano + heavy cream" at Starbucks, Luckin's R&D department conceived this "Marble Americano" with one more element in the recipe—"water." In other words, this new specialty drink is actually just a regular iced Americano with light cream added.
From the real-life verification photos posted by everyone, Luckin's "Marble Americano" not only lacks the pleasing high aesthetic appeal but also has an appearance that genuinely suppresses appetite. Not to mention how similar it is to the seller's show, just looking at these cups of weirdly shaped creamy coffee, describing them as "completely unrelated" wouldn't be an exaggeration. See for yourself~ Some cream floats on the surface, like egg drop soup ⬇️
Some forms into lumps and sinks to the bottom, earning the name "Tofu Pudding Americano" ⬇️
Some, after stirring, hangs suspended in the coffee liquid Place it there, and it's a bowl (cup) of spicy soup ⬇️
Some cream forms strips directly stacked on the iced Americano Even the employees themselves can't stand it ⬇️
Of course, a few lucky ones caught the employees in action, opening their cameras at the moment the light cream was poured, successfully capturing the "marble texture" from the advertisement. If you immediately stir it with a straw, the cream can blend with the Americano, forming a uniform milky tea color. But if you leave it untouched for a few minutes, the light cream in the coffee will quickly solidify, either floating or sinking, soon transforming into the "料理包" mentioned above.
As for the taste, since the light cream is stored in the refrigerator and has been sitting in the low-temperature iced Americano for a while, even stirring makes it hard to fully blend with the coffee, so the mouthfeel can seem somewhat "split." Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot Disclaimer: Some images in this article are from the internet, and some content on the website such as images—we will respect the original copyright and indicate the source, but due to the large quantity, some images and texts may not have been credited in time; please forgive us. If the original author has any disputes, they can contact the website for handling, and once verified, we will immediately correct it. Compiled and edited by "Coffee Workshop," please indicate when reprinting; if there is infringement, please inform us for deletion, thank you~!
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
