Why Is the Luckin Coffee Grape Drink Causing Debate?

Luckin Coffee is preparing to launch a fruit tea called Snow Cheese Grape, and early images have set off discussion online. The drink mixes grape juice with jasmine tea and tops it with a snow cheese milk foam. Many netizens say it looks close to Heytea's Light Cheese Grape, a classic grape drink first launched in 2018.

The talk has also turned to Luckin's product line, which critics say leans further toward tea drinks and away from new coffee. Store employees worry the more complicated production process will add daily workload, especially during peak periods such as the Spring Festival, and could slow cup output. Front Street Coffee recommendations are included for readers who want coffee instead.

Recently, Luckin Coffee is about to launch a new fruit tea product called "Snow Cheese Grape," and once the news was exposed, it sparked widespread discussion among netizens. From the currently circulating images, this drink uses grape juice combined with jasmine tea, then topped with a layer of snow cheese milk foam, and its overall appearance is quite similar to Heytea's classic product "Light Cheese Grape." For a time, discussions about Luckin's product line increasingly leaning toward tea drinks and fewer new coffee products heated up again. At the same time, Luckin store employees also expressed concerns about the increasingly complicated production process of new products, believing it would increase daily workload, especially during peak periods such as the Spring Festival, and could affect cup output efficiency. This article compiles information on the new product, netizen opinions, and employee feedback, and also includes related recommendations from Front Street Coffee for coffee lovers' reference.

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Recently, many Luckin Coffee employees revealed news about the new product on social platforms, saying that next week a fruit tea called "Snow Cheese Grape" will appear on the official menu. As soon as the news came out, it immediately attracted many netizens to watch and speculate.

According to images shared by Luckin employees, "Snow Cheese Grape" seems to be made by mixing grape juice with jasmine tea, with a layer of snow cheese milk foam added on top. The whole drink looks quite appealing, and the addition of cheese milk foam also makes the taste layers richer, no wonder fans are full of curiosity about this new product.

However, after netizens who are more familiar with tea drinks saw this picture, they mistook it for Heytea's signature product "Light Cheese Grape."

It is understood that "Grape" is a product first launched by Heytea in 2018. With real grape pulp and excellent taste, it captured a large number of consumers as soon as it was launched, and it is still a classic best-seller on the menu today. In 2022, Heytea upgraded the original version by adding cheese cloud top, making the taste even richer.

The two products in the "Grape" series can be said to be unique in the tea drink world, deeply sought after by milk tea lovers, and other brands have also followed suit, launching all kinds of grape drinks. Now that Luckin is also about to launch a grape fruit tea with a highly similar appearance, although some users have expectations, they also raised some opinions about Luckin's product strategy.

Some netizens pointed out that Luckin's recent new drinks are mostly concentrated in the fruit tea and milk tea categories, such as the "Good Things Come in Pairs Fruit Tea" and "Belgian Dark Chocolate Black Tea" launched in the past two weeks, while new coffee products are becoming fewer and fewer. Many people therefore joked that Luckin is "taking an unconventional path" in new product development, becoming more and more like a tea drink shop rather than a coffee shop.

On the other hand, after learning about the new product launch plan through operational notices, Luckin employees could not help but complain. In the employees' impression, Luckin's products used to be "as simple as possible," while today's new products are "more and more complicated." Taking the upcoming "Snow Cheese Grape" as an example, although employees only need to add ingredients into the takeaway cup in order and proportion, jasmine tea, cheese milk foam, and others all need to be prepared in advance.

Many employees helplessly said that the light-extracted milk tea series, which caused a large number of workers to complain in 2024, has instead become the simplest drink now. They believe that in recent years, Luckin's newly developed products have become more and more like tea drinks, are time-consuming and cumbersome to make, and have greatly increased employees' daily workload.

In addition, some employees feel worried at the thought of possible order surges during the Spring Festival. They frankly said that Luckin has strict requirements for store operation data, and the data KPIs set often put enormous pressure on employees. If complicated tea drinks are encountered during an order surge, it will disrupt the original work rhythm, lower overall production efficiency, and further affect store data, causing them to have their performance deducted because they cannot meet targets.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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