How did PH Coffee manufacturers build a Korean origin story?
An instant black coffee called POSITIVE HOTEL, known as PH Coffee, went viral after celebrities were seen holding it on camera, with fans told it was a Korean weight-management brand popular in Korean entertainment circles. A media investigation found the product has never been launched in South Korea and is made in China by a China-Korea joint venture.
The brand's official WeChat account and Chinese trademark are registered to Beijing Positive Energy Meineng Biotechnology Co., Ltd., with a small Nanchang trading company holding 70 percent of the shares. The gap between the Korean packaging story and the actual coffee manufacturers behind the product has raised questions about how it is classified as a health food in the china coffee market.
Recently, a type of instant black coffee called POSITIVE HOTEL has quickly gone viral thanks to celebrities holding it on camera and it flooding social media, and fans call it "PH Coffee." Officially, it is promoted as a Korean weight-management brand that is popular in the Korean entertainment circle. However, a media investigation found that this coffee, which advertises itself as Korean in origin, has never been launched in South Korea. It is actually operated by a China-Korea joint venture, and its production site is also in China. The path to PH Coffee's explosive popularity, its true identity, and why it is classified under the "health food" category have attracted widespread attention.
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Recently, an instant black coffee packaged in a transparent bag and with a straw has frequently appeared in the hands of popular celebrities, and its popularity has continued to rise. The product is called "POSITIVE HOTEL," commonly known as "PH Coffee."
Its official Douyin account claims that POSITIVE HOTEL is a Korean brand and a hot weight-management brand in the Korean entertainment circle, "serving top stars" and "widely popular on Korean social media." Combined with endorsements and recommendations from Chinese celebrities, it naturally attracted a large number of fans to place orders enthusiastically.
Not only that, PH Coffee's promotion has already covered multiple social platforms, with more than 20,000 related topic posts. Some users posted their drinking experiences and before-and-after comparison photos, indirectly confirming its healthy fat-loss effects. This precisely hit the pain point of consumers who want to lose weight, making them unable to resist following the trend and buying it.
(Image taken from the official product introduction)
But according to a report by Jiemian News, this instant black coffee held by celebrities and claimed to come from South Korea has actually never been sold in the South Korean market.
The report pointed out that the operating entity of the brand's official WeChat public account and the registrant of its trademark in the Chinese market are both "Beijing Positive Energy Meineng Biotechnology Co., Ltd." Among them, a small and micro trading company from Nanchang holds 70% of the shares, while the PH brand's Korean company "POSITIVE HOTEL CO., LTD" holds 30%, making it a China-Korea joint venture.
Before the end of 2023, PH was basically just a brand mainly dealing in meal-replacement products. After its first coffee product, "Ceylon Cinnamon Black Coffee," was launched in December 2023, it quickly became popular on multiple platforms. Since then, with the support of multiple labels such as foreign brand, celebrity same style, and effective fat loss, PH Coffee's sales have experienced explosive growth over the past year.
It is understood that the black coffee series of PH Coffee is priced at about 49 to 69 yuan per box, with 7 packets per box, which works out to about 7 to 9.9 yuan per packet, not a low price among similar products. But according to Chanmofang data, as of April 2024, the product's sales growth rate year-on-year reached 1000%. Multiple products on e-commerce platforms have exceeded 10,000 sales, among which the top-ranked "Mediterranean Black Coffee" series ranked first in the store with 29.2 thousand sales.
(Image from the Lijin WeChat public account)
Surprisingly, in the product list on POSITIVE HOTEL's official Korean website, although categories such as meal-replacement shakes and health medicines can be seen, this instant black coffee, which is extremely popular in China, cannot be found.
Jiemian News contacted Beijing Positive Energy Meineng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. regarding this matter, and the other party responded that the coffee product is produced in China and is currently sold only in China. In addition, according to the production information of PH's current coffee products, its manufacturers are "Xinghua Dong'ao Food Co., Ltd." and "Tianyi Food (Xuzhou) Co., Ltd."
In addition, Jiemian News also noticed that the PH Coffee livestream shows that its products are classified under "health food" in the rankings, rather than the usual "instant drink" category for coffee. In response, the company explained that because its main products were originally meal replacements and the coffee products were launched relatively late, the platform still classifies them under the "health food" category.
Image from: Internet
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
