Why Does the New CHAGEE Drink Taste Bitter to Some Specialty Coffee Fans?

CHAGEE launched a passion fruit Biluochun milk tea called Wanxiang Chunhe, marketed as blending Guangxi passion fruit juice with a Biluochun tea base for a refreshing, sweet, smooth taste. Many buyers say the first sips are sweet, then a sharp bitterness appears, with some calling it more bitter than life itself and blaming an over-steeped tea base, while other fans report no problem at the recommended sweetness level.

The split over the new release has fed a wider conversation in specialty coffee and tea culture about consistency and brewing standards in chain drinks. The launch followed CHAGEE's Nasdaq listing, and the brand paired it with limited-edition packaging and merchandise. The company has not published a single explanation covering why the bitterness appears for some drinkers but not others.

Chagee recently launched a passion fruit Biluochun milk tea called "Wanxiang Chunhe," officially claiming it blends Guangxi passion fruit juice with a Biluochun tea base, offering a refreshing, sweet, and smooth taste. However, many consumers report that while the drink tastes sweet at first, a distinct bitterness soon emerges, with some describing it as "more bitter than life itself," and even speculating that the tea base was steeped too long. Meanwhile, some fans insist there's no problem when drinking it at the recommended sweetness level. Whether this new release is sweet and tangy or bitterly undrinkable has sparked widespread discussion.

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Recently, after Chagee rang the bell for its listing in Nasdaq, USA, it quietly launched a distinctive fruit-flavored milk tea — "Wanxiang Chunhe."

According to the official introduction, this new product uses passion fruit juice produced in Guangxi, combined with Biluochun milk tea, allowing drinkers to feel both the refreshing sweetness of passion fruit and the subtle tea aroma and milky flavor. At the same time, the brand also launched limited-edition themed packaging and fridge magnets and other merchandise, attracting many fans to rush to buy and taste.

From the feedback shared by netizens, this cup of passion fruit milk tea indeed matches the official description of "refreshing, sweet, and smooth" at first sip. Some reviews point out that the overall flavor of the new product is somewhat similar to the childhood memory of yogurt drinks, making people recall their youthful years with every sip.

However, after a few more sips, some consumers frowned. They said that at first they could indeed taste the fresh fragrance of passion fruit, but whether because the drink sat too long or for some other reason, this cup of fruit milk tea that should have been sweet became more and more bitter on the tongue, making it hard to swallow.

Some admitted that when they first tasted the bitterness, they were quite shocked and even suspected something was wrong with their sense of taste. But after opening social media to check other people's "post-drink reviews," they discovered that quite a few people had also tasted bitterness in the new product, just like them.

"Why is it so bitter? More bitter than my life," "It's really bitter from the first sip," "It's still a bit bitter after swallowing," "A very bitter, very bitter, very astringent tea flavor, like taking cold medicine for days," "The tea flavor of the new product has a mouth-puckering astringency like tea dregs that can't be rinsed clean," "Holding it in the mouth feels like a mouthful of bitter medicine water." Some customers said that after reading reviews, they tried the new product at standard sweetness, but still tasted an unmistakable bitterness in the milk tea from the first sip.

Amid the complaints, some people were also puzzled by the bitterness in Chagee's new product. In most people's impressions, passion fruit juice is sweet and tangy; if mixed with milk tea, perhaps no extra syrup would be needed to produce a cup of sweet milk tea full of fruity aroma. But the bitterness brought by the actual experience was completely inconsistent with expectations, which sparked confusion and bewilderment among many.

In response, some netizens believe that the bitterness in the new product may come from the Biluochun tea base chosen by the brand. They said that if Biluochun tea is steeped too long, the tongue turns bitter after drinking it, and since Chagee's tea bases are mostly fairly strong, they suspect that the store may have steeped the tea leaves for too long, causing the tea base to carry an astringency that even the passion fruit juice cannot suppress.

However, some fans who find the new product tasty said that if customers order according to the officially recommended sweetness, temperature, and other options, the drink they receive will not actually be as bitter as others say, and will be easier to accept.

In addition, some people pointed out that the same product brings different feelings and experiences to different people. Some can taste the bitterness of the tea base, while others can taste the sweet-and-sourness of the juice. So in their view, whether Chagee's new product is bitter and astringent or sweet and tangy can only be known after customers who are curious about the taste try it themselves.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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