Why the Luckin Lemon Tea Grape Coffee Pulled From Menus

Luckin removed its Light Coffee Lemon Tea and Grape Lemon Tea from stores nationwide without notice, an across-the-board discontinuation tied to a recipe overhaul rather than a supply problem. Staff say the reformulated lemon tea adds lemon pulp, and the Light Coffee version will include a halved quick-frozen yellow lemon. The relaunch is expected within days, and customer reaction has been sharply divided.

The timing looks deliberate: chains push fruit drinks as temperatures rise, yet Luckin fans reported lemon tea getting harder to buy since March, with some checking three or more stores and finding none taking orders. That gap between seasonal demand and empty menus is what turned a routine coffee formulation change into an online complaint wave from regular buyers.

As temperatures climb, major coffee and tea chains are rolling out refreshing fruit drinks to capture the market. Yet Luckin's Light Coffee Lemon Tea and Grape Lemon Tea have quietly been discontinued at this very moment, catching many fans off guard. According to internal staff, this across-the-board removal stems from a major reformulation by the brand: the new version of the lemon tea will add lemon pulp, and the Light Coffee Lemon Tea will also include a halved quick-frozen yellow lemon. The new recipe is set to relaunch within the next couple of days, but this adjustment has sparked sharply different reactions among employees and consumers. This article will sort through the sequence of events, the details of the recipe changes, and the genuine feedback from all sides, to help you understand the ins and outs of Luckin's lemon tea shake-up.

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The weather has been getting warmer lately, and chain tea and coffee brands seem to have coordinated their efforts, successively launching all kinds of refreshing fruit teas, fruit coffees, and other drinks to replace winter warmers that no longer suit the season.

However, some Luckin customers noticed that although Luckin launched its cold brew series and rolled out new fruit coffees as soon as April arrived, their beloved Light Coffee Lemon Tea and Grape Lemon Tea were both taken off the menu without warning.

From the public's perspective, with summer approaching, sales of refreshing lemon tea should gradually pick up. But lemon tea fans have found that, seemingly since March of this year, Luckin's lemon tea has become increasingly hard to buy. Some customers said they tried several stores without success, while others helplessly noted that no store in their city still sells lemon tea.

This sudden turn of events has left fans heartbroken. "I checked three stores today and none had it. It's the only thing I want to drink. I'm so sad I could cry." "Ours has just been sold out forever, I give up, I can't get it at all." "I suddenly wanted some recently and checked so many stores, but it's all gone." "Same here, I wanted to buy it and found several stores couldn't take orders anymore. The sky is falling."

They have been posting on social media to express their love for the lemon tea series, hoping to draw Luckin's attention to genuine customer feedback and bring the popular cold drinks back as soon as possible.

In response, a number of Luckin workers showed up in the comments to comfort fans and tell them not to be too upset. They said the reason the lemon tea series was pulled all at once is that the brand reformulated the products, and they will be back online within the next couple of days.

According to the employees, the fully revamped lemon tea series will not only change some of the ingredients but will also add lemon pulp to the drinks for extra texture. In addition, the Light Coffee Lemon Tea will include a halved quick-frozen yellow lemon, making it look no different from similar products on the market.

Interestingly, this internal news is hardly welcome in the eyes of some Luckin workers and consumers. Luckin employees admitted that as early as a week ago, after learning from operational notices that the lemon tea recipe had been significantly changed, they began worrying about whether they would forget, in the rush of a订单 surge, to add the lemon pulp or lemon slice to the drinks.

After all, Luckin's products are now all over the place, and just brewing tea base for 8 minutes or extracting cold brew coffee liquid for 18 minutes is already enough to give workers a headache. Add one more "lemon tea topping," and some are already picturing a chaotic bar during peak order hours, joking that the R&D department's reformulation plan this time somewhat "doesn't care whether the workers live or die."

Lemon tea lovers, meanwhile, are not very optimistic about the brand suddenly changing the recipe. "I think the current one tastes great. Why change the recipe for no reason?"

They say that with the addition of fruit pulp and a lemon half, the taste and texture of the lemon tea will probably be very different from before, making people worry that this major recipe change might be a "reverse upgrade" that turns a once tasty and pleasant drink into something unrecognizable. But some optimists think it may be worth waiting to see.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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