Is Americano Coffee Bitter, and Why Did the Nayuki Drink Spark Complaints?

Nayuki's Halloween-limited Unsweetened Blood Orange Grapefruit, part of a second Harry Potter collaboration tied to Voldemort's dark magic theme, drew complaints because staff left the grapefruit peel in the cup. The peel releases bitterness as it steeps, and some consumers said the drink grew more bitter with every sip.

Staff explained the peel was kept to show genuine ingredients and suggested drinking quickly or removing it. The bitterness drew comparisons to Americano. Coffee is made of roasted ground beans and water, so Americano carries its own natural bitterness, but the grapefruit peel added a sharper, lingering edge that built up over time.

During Halloween, major tea beverage brands rolled out holiday-limited drinks to compete for young consumers. Nayuki teamed up with "Harry Potter" for a second collaboration, launching "Unsweetened Blood Orange Grapefruit" themed around Voldemort's "Dark Magic." However, this drink, which uses blood orange and grapefruit to create a "blood-colored" atmosphere, drew complaints from consumers because the grapefruit peel was not removed, and the bitterness intensified after prolonged steeping. Fans reported that the drink became more bitter with every sip, with some describing it as "more bitter than Americano." Nayuki staff explained that the grapefruit peel was kept to show genuine ingredients and suggested drinking it quickly or picking out the peel. Nevertheless, some book fans made the best of it, saying the bitterness fit the dark magic theme.

This Halloween, major brands pulled out all the stops, successively launching all kinds of holiday-limited drinks to grab market share. Some drew attention with bizarre appearances, while others jolted taste buds with unexpected formulas, each trying every trick to spark young consumers' curiosity and prompt them to place orders.

Among the many tea beverage brands, Nayuki made its grand finale appearance, officially announcing yesterday a second collaboration with "Harry Potter," launching the new product "Unsweetened Blood Orange Grapefruit" around the series villain Voldemort's "Dark Magic" concept, joining this Halloween melee.

For many fans, Nayuki's choice to launch a magic-themed collaboration on the eve of Halloween matched the timing and holiday atmosphere quite well, but this limited drink, which uses blood orange and grapefruit to create a "blood-colored" visual, failed to meet their expectations, with its overall performance considered mediocre.

Nevertheless, attracted by the limited-edition merchandise, many fans still placed orders to try it. They said the drinks they received contained plenty of fresh grapefruit, and they could chew juicy pulp with each sip. But halfway through, many reported that the drink's original light sweetness was gradually overtaken by bitterness, becoming more bitter with every sip.

Judging from feedback on social platforms, Nayuki store staff did not remove the grapefruit peel, which easily releases bitterness, when making this new product, but instead let the peel steep in the drink the whole time. Many consumers believe it was precisely this step that caused this new product, which should have been mainly light and sweet, to taste more and more bitter once left sitting too long.

"Apart from bitterness, you can't taste anything else, and after drinking, a bitter taste lingers on the tongue for a long time without fading," "Which brand is still using pomelo peel in drinks? It's more bitter than Americano," "It's so bitter it's unbearable, and by the end you simply can't swallow it," "Happily sipping a little drink, then one bite of pomelo peel instantly twists your face into a mask of pain from the bitterness."

In response, Nayuki frontline staff were also quite helpless. They said that according to the recipe, each cup of the new product includes a certain amount of fresh grapefruit slices with the peel left on, which are then pounded to release more juice from the pulp, thereby preserving the fruit's natural light sweetness without adding extra syrup.

But to let consumers intuitively feel the "genuine ingredients," the pounded grapefruit peel is left in the drink as is, and once it steeps too long, the entire cup becomes more bitter and astringent with every sip. Employees, who have no authority to adjust the recipe, can only suggest that customers drink it as soon as they receive it, or pick all the grapefruit peel out of the cup themselves, in order to reduce bad reviews.

Although Nayuki's holiday-limited drink was hard for consumers to swallow because of its bitterness, some book fans made the best of it, joking that "by the last sip you can truly feel how difficult it was to overthrow the Dark Lord" and "it was so bitter I thought I'd been locked up in Azkaban."

Many people joked that this seemingly ordinary "blood-colored drink," with the bitterness of the grapefruit peel, not only happened to align with the "Dark Magic" collaboration theme this time, but also had strong potential as a dark cuisine, making people unwilling to buy it a second time after trying it once.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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