What Coffee Is Made Of and Why the Chagee Promotion Sold Out

Chagee ran a five-day buy-one-get-one promotion from March 2 to March 6, 2025, offering free drinks through its Morning Elephant Good section daily from 9:30 to 10:30, plus 100,000 cups of milk tea at 0.01 yuan each day via a password game. By the third day, users in many regions reported sold-out drinks and store menus that did not match the eight advertised.

Store staff said materials were consumed faster than expected and listings were adjusted to match remaining inventory, an explanation many customers did not accept. Some new drinks showed as sold out in the promotion section yet could still be ordered through other channels. For shops, shortages like this come down to what coffee is made of and what tea drinks contain, and how quickly staff can prepare coffee in a coffee maker or tea station during a rush.

Chagee launched a five-day limited-time promotion this Monday, allowing consumers to buy one get one free on exclusive drinks through the "Morning Elephant Good" morning series section of its official mini-program every day from 9:30 to 10:30 between March 2 and March 6. During the promotion period, it also gave away 100,000 cups of milk tea for 0.01 yuan each day through a password-guessing format. The promotion attracted a large number of milk tea lovers from the very beginning, who raced to grab coupons at the designated times and teamed up with others for group orders, while buyer posts on social media also helped drive its spread. However, by the third day, users in many places reported that multiple exclusive drinks in the promotion section showed as sold out and could not be ordered, and that the available categories at some stores did not match the eight drinks officially advertised. Some new products were even marked as sold out in the promotion section but could still be ordered normally through other channels. Store staff explained that materials were being consumed too quickly and that they could only adjust listings based on inventory, but consumers did not fully accept this explanation.

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This Monday, Chagee officially announced the launch of a five-day limited-time promotion, and the news immediately drew a large number of users to watch.

According to the promotion rules, from March 2 to March 6, every day from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., consumers could purchase exclusive drinks through the "Morning Elephant Good" morning series section in the official mini-program and enjoy a buy-one-get-one-free benefit. At the same time, during the promotion period, the brand also released 100,000 cups of milk tea for only 0.01 yuan each day through a password-guessing format.

For "milk tea heads" who have a cup every day, Chagee's nationwide limited-time offer was clearly quite tempting. Many people joined in from the first day of the promotion, either entering the password right on time to grab coupons or inviting colleagues and friends to place group orders for the buy-one-get-one-free milk tea. The first batch of tasters also began posting their orders on social media, which invisibly gave the promotion another round of exposure, and the number of participants rose accordingly.

However, by the third day of the promotion, netizens in many places posted screenshots of the mini-program on social media, saying that when they opened the official mini-program during the designated time period, they saw that multiple exclusive drinks in the buy-one-get-one-free section were already marked as sold out and simply could not be ordered normally.

Not only that, some users who could still place orders also found that while the official promotion said eight drinks were included in the buy-one-get-one-free offer, the number listed in the mini-program's promotion section did not match the advertising—some stores showed five or six, while others had only "Wanli Mulan" left available.

A small number of consumers also mentioned that the products included in the limited-time promotion included several newly launched items such as the recent "Gui Yunnan · Yun Jiao Caramel." These drinks were marked as sold out in the promotion section and could not be ordered, but through another channel—other entrances in the mini-program or third-party platforms—they could still be ordered normally.

Faced with these situations, consumers were generally confused, and some immediately contacted nearby stores to report that they could not participate in the buy-one-get-one-free promotion through the mini-program. In response, some store staff explained that after the promotion began, a large number of users rushed in to place orders, the drink materials were consumed extremely quickly, and at present the stores did not have enough ingredients to continue supporting the limited-time promotion, so they could only make adjustments based on inventory and delist some drinks they were unable to make.

Interestingly, this explanation from store staff could not fully convince users participating in the promotion. They said one after another that when chain tea brands run limited-time buy-one-get-one-free promotions, the company usually informs stores in advance to stock up so they can handle the sudden surge in consumer demand during the promotion and ensure the limited-time campaign proceeds smoothly and in an orderly way.

But perhaps the company did not notify stores in advance to prepare sufficiently, or perhaps management underestimated how popular the promotion would be. As a result, some stores quietly withdrew from the promotion because of a shortage of production ingredients, leaving consumers who had made a special trip unable to place orders and their high expectations dashed.

In the view of netizens, as the planner of the promotional campaign, Chagee should have anticipated how the promotion would develop and prepared sufficient contingency plans for possible situations, rather than having problems such as products selling out and stores withdrawing on their own emerge halfway through the promotion, thereby dragging down the experience of participants.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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