Can you get drunk off coffee drinks like this fruit and veggie americano?

Guming launched a Light Body Fruit & Veggie Americano that blends espresso into freshly squeezed kale, apple, lemon, and pineapple juice. Consumer feedback described the taste as grassy, medicinal, or like cold sour vegetable soup, and the color shifted from leafy green to dark yellow.

The official description says the juice is squeezed in-store the same day, with coffee liquid poured in last for layering, and one cup supplies dietary fiber, vitamin C, and carotene. No alcohol is involved, so the drink cannot make anyone drunk; the debate centers on flavor and appearance rather than alcohol content.

Following the Light Body Fruit & Veggie Bottle and the Vitamin A Fruit & Veggie Bottle, Gu Ming has now blended espresso into freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice, launching the new Light Body Fruit & Veggie Americano, in an attempt to attract more consumer groups with a healthy-plus-coffee combination. According to the official description, the product is led by kale, paired with apples, yellow lemons, pineapple and other ingredients freshly squeezed the same day, then infused with coffee liquid to add layers. However, after the new product launched, actual consumer feedback presented a completely different picture: the appearance gradually shifted from a refreshing leafy green to a dark yellow tone, and the taste was described as grassy, medicinal, or even like cold sour vegetable soup. This article compiles the recipe information, visual changes, and genuine netizen reviews of this fruit-and-veggie Americano for coffee lovers' reference.

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Since March, Gu Ming has successively launched multiple fruit and vegetable tea drinks, which quickly topped the sales rankings in many stores nationwide. Following the Light Body* Fruit & Veggie Bottle and the Vitamin A* Fruit & Veggie Bottle, the R&D team continued to delve deeper into the health direction, and recently brought another popular element—espresso—into the fruit and vegetable juice product line, introducing the new Light Body* Fruit & Veggie Americano, aiming to win over a portion of coffee consumers.

According to the official description, this new product is made by blending freshly squeezed fruit and vegetable juice with espresso. The juice portion uses kale, hailed as a superfood, along with apples, yellow lemons, pineapple and other ingredients. The combination of multiple fruits and vegetables brings a refreshing, palate-cleansing natural flavor, and all are freshly squeezed in-store the same day, with the coffee liquid poured in last adding a sense of layering to the entire drink.

To further reinforce the green and healthy product positioning, Gu Ming stated that one Fruit & Veggie Americano is rich in dietary fiber, vitamin C, carotene and multiple other nutrients, while also proposing the slogan "refreshing and lighter," making this launch tightly focused on the word "fresh" from every angle, attracting both fruit and vegetable drink enthusiasts and, in turn, drawing considerable attention from coffee lovers.

When the new product hit the market, many netizens initially held an optimistic attitude. After all, the fruit and vegetable juice itself tasted good, and the public's acceptance of coffee was also relatively high, so the combined flavor should not be too bad in theory. They rushed to order and experience it, then headed straight to social platforms to share their drinking impressions. However, as the saying goes, seeking novelty fails nine times out of ten. What surprised many was that Gu Ming's Fruit & Veggie Americano not only looked unsuitable for photos, but the taste upon drinking was also hard for many consumers to accept.

Because this Fruit & Veggie Americano uses kale as the main ingredient, it presents a bright, clear leafy green before the coffee liquid is added, and right after pouring the espresso, you can still see the beautiful layers of coffee on top and juice below. But as long as you stir it evenly, the originally natural and healthy-looking drink quickly turns into another darker tone.

Moreover, as it sits longer, the fruit and vegetable juice undergoes oxidation and precipitation, producing a dark yellow overlay that makes the entire cup of coffee look even more disastrous. From the real photos shared by netizens, Gu Ming's Fruit & Veggie Americano is indeed visually hard to make one feel appetized.

As for the taste, many consumers directly described it as bizarre after drinking. The fruit and vegetable juice itself has both the sweet-and-sour of fruit and the raw astringency of vegetables, while the coffee is bitter with a hint of sourness; the combination of these forms an entirely new complex flavor. Perhaps those who haven't tried it can't immediately imagine exactly what it tastes like, but those abstract yet vivid descriptions on social platforms may give a sense of being there:

A bitter and astringent grassy taste, a feeling of having drunk a mouthful of grass plus medicine, is this Gu Ming's homemade Chinese herbal medicine, a new type of cold sour vegetable soup, exactly like pigweed juice, the feeling of pounding vegetables and lemon in a stone mortar, adding some aged coffee liquid and pouring it straight into your mouth, comparable to Huoxiang Zhengqi...

The health-focused rat race in the tea beverage industry has lasted for nearly two years. R&D departments of various brands have gone from unearthing obscure regional fruits to hauling in exotic vegetables, to pairing various cross-boundary ingredients, but few products truly remain on the permanent menu. Judging from industry trends learned by Front Street and combined with everyone's feedback on Gu Ming's Fruit & Veggie Americano, although the R&D team has selected two equally hot elements for innovation, achieving a good fusion effect still requires continued effort.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

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