What Is the Luckin Coffee Watermelon Cold Brew Complaint?

Luckin Coffee's new Summer Watermelon Cold Brew has drawn widespread consumer complaints since launching. Early buyers report the drink looks nothing like the official poster and tastes almost entirely of watermelon juice, with little or no detectable coffee flavor. Some have nicknamed it "watermelon bathwater." The controversy centers on how much coffee the recipe actually contains.

The drink follows Luckin's earlier Big Watermelon Coconut Cold Brew, which customers ordered with no coconut milk to get watermelon juice plus coffee. Luckin adopted that request officially this month. In the specialty coffee community, the debate has focused on whether the cold brew ratio leaves any real coffee presence at all.

Luckin Coffee recently launched a summer watermelon cold brew. Originally a refreshing new product that was highly anticipated, it quickly encountered collective complaints from consumers after going on the market. Many early tasters reported that this drink not only differs noticeably in appearance from the official poster, but also tastes completely devoid of coffee, and it has been jokingly called "watermelon bathwater." This article compiles real feedback from netizens and reveals its formula and production process to see where exactly the problems lie with this controversial cold brew.

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After Luckin previously launched the Big Watermelon Coconut Cold Brew, many consumers figured out a new way to order it: when placing an order, specially note "no coconut milk," leaving only watermelon juice and coffee liquid, thereby getting a cup of watermelon cold brew that is both refreshing and energizing. Unexpectedly, Luckin actually adopted this demand this month and officially announced this morning the launch of the new Summer Watermelon Cold Brew.

From the official promotional image, the bright red juice and dark brown coffee liquid blend with each other, and the picture is full of the cooling atmosphere unique to summer. Combined with the huge watermelon in the background, it looks even more tempting. In terms of appearance alone, this drink indeed visually conveys a refreshing and exhilarating feeling, and many netizens also predicted that it would be a good choice for beating the heat.

However, before positive reviews could build up, the first batch of customers who tried it had already posted one after another to express dissatisfaction.

After many people received the drink, they found that the actual product was far from the seller's showcase in Luckin's poster, and the taste was also very different from the official description. The most fatal thing was that there was "not even a trace of coffee flavor."

According to netizens who tested it themselves, this cup of watermelon cold brew first of all looked very "watery" visually, with only the color of watermelon juice overall, as if no coffee liquid had been added at all. When a straw was poked in and a big sip was taken, the first thing tasted was neither the fresh fruity aroma of watermelon nor the mellow sweetness of coffee, but a thoroughly bland, watery taste. Only on the second sip could a faint watermelon flavor and a hint of sweetness barely be detected, while the so-called cold brew was completely absent.

At first, many people suspected that they had ordered incorrectly or that the staff had made the drink wrong, but when they checked the label, they found that the drink name was correct. When they asked Luckin staff, the other party also insisted: "No problem, coffee was definitely added." So where exactly is the problem?

It was not until browsing social platforms that they discovered that what they had thought was just their own bad luck in getting a "coffee-free version of watermelon cold brew" was actually a nationally uniform "bland special drink."

"Luckin watermelon cold brew, number one in blandness, I thought I was drinking watermelon juice mixed with water." "Not watermelon, not coffee, no coffee flavor at all!" "It has nothing to do with cold brew." "Luckin, are you sure this is coffee?" "The whole cup is like watermelon juice diluted a hundred times, the watermelon flavor is extremely weak, and you can't taste even a tiny bit of coffee." "It feels like sweet watermelon-flavored water"...

As for the real taste of this watermelon cold brew, we can also get a rough idea from shares by Luckin employees.

Similar to the previous Big Watermelon Coconut Cold Brew, the formula for this new product is likewise simple: pour in concentrated watermelon juice, add water and stir well, add ice cubes, and finally top it up with cold brew coffee liquid to finish. As one of the core elements, the coffee part is precisely the previously controversial "18-minute cold brew," which was pointed out by many customers as having "too weak a flavor." In the employee's operation video, the color of the coffee liquid is also noticeably light, and mixing it into already diluted watermelon juice is no different from "adding water to water."

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

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