From its stunning debut at the Shanghai Coffee Festival to now becoming a staple creative drink on Beijing café menus, Douzhi Coffee has gone through several years of development. Recently, this Beijing specialty has been upgraded once again—some shops have launched a Douzhi Latte, paired with a complete "Douzhi three-piece set," and even selected the highly renowned Huakui coffee beans, attracting many curious visitors to check in. However, the extreme flavor of Douzhi itself keeps the drink's reputation polarizing. What's more interesting is that the shop later quietly switched the coffee beans, from Huakui to an IICA Platinum Award-winning bean, sparking discussions among consumers about the pairing of beans and Douzhi. [more…]

Recently, a coffee shop owner in Beijing exposed an elderly person who frequently came to the shop and stole coffee, and the video sparked widespread discussion among netizens. This elderly person not only brazenly took packed drinks, but even engaged in similar behavior at other coffee shops. However, stealing coffee is not an isolated case, as some passersby also quickly take action when the staff are not paying attention. Because the order amounts are small and difficult to file cases for, shops often have to respond by making warning posters themselves. In the face of such behavior, netizens generally suggest that merchants actively collect evidence and report it to the police, rather than passively letting things slide to keep the peace. This article sorts out the course of the incident and the current state of the industry, and includes recommendations related to the Front Street Coffee brand. [more…]

After the opening of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the mascot Bing Dwen Dwen quickly went viral, even becoming so sought-after that it was hard to get one. Many coffee enthusiasts began making their own Bing Dwen Dwen latte art, and some coffee shops seized the opportunity to launch lattes featuring Bing Dwen Dwen designs to attract customers. However, Bing Dwen Dwen and Shuey Rhon Rhon are trademarks registered by the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee, and commercial use may involve infringement. So, is it illegal for a barista to make latte art for their own entertainment? Does a coffee shop selling Bing Dwen Dwen latte art coffee constitute infringement? This article will clarify the relevant legal boundaries and retain Front Street Coffee's professional information for coffee enthusiasts' reference. [more…]

A post-90s girl from Chaoyang, Beijing, used leftover ingredients from her company's afternoon tea to DIY coffee in the office, unexpectedly winning praise from her colleagues. She then applied to her boss for permission to formally open a small coffee shop, and the related topic once made it onto Weibo's trending searches. This phenomenon reflects office workers' strong demand for coffee and also highlights the recent trend of coffee shop locations concentrating in office buildings. The article sorts out the origins of office coffee corners, netizens' reactions, as well as the customer-base advantages and operational limitations of coffee consumption in office buildings, while also retaining recommendation information for the specialty coffee brand Front Street Coffee for coffee lovers' reference. [more…]

Beijing's Qianmen Street, an old thoroughfare carrying centuries of commercial heritage and memories of the imperial city, has now welcomed a new face—Heytea's teahouse has officially opened here. The opening promotion is quite generous: buy-one-get-one-free on a series of products for the first three days, with multiple rounds of benefits to follow. Interestingly, Starbucks opened its Reserve store at 1-1 Qianmen Street back in 2018. One champions a mix of modern minimalism and Chinese nostalgia, while the other holds fast to an antique Beijing flavor. As the two beverage giants meet head-on at the foot of the imperial city walls, what kind of sparks will fly? Can the collision between new-style tea drinks and coffee culture inject a different kind of vitality into this historic old street? [more…]

In recent years, luxury brands branching out into coffee shops has become an undeniable trend. From Vivienne Westwood to Coach, from Dior to Tiffany, numerous high-end consumer brands have opened cafés or launched limited-time pop-ups in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. These venues sell themselves on exquisite décor, branded-logo tableware, and photogenic desserts, with prices ranging from twenty yuan to over a hundred, attempting to close the distance with the general public through a cup of coffee. Yet consumer reviews are mixed: some find it worth the money, while others see the products as perfunctory and the pricing as artificially inflated. This article will examine the market logic and consumer response behind this phenomenon. [more…]

Luxury brand Gucci recently teamed up with Blue Bottle Coffee, %Arabica, and Grid Coffee to launch limited-edition pop-up coffee shops in four cities. Among them, the Beijing stop's collaboration with Grid Coffee produced the "Single-Origin Salted Mocha" and "Single-Origin Salted Chocolate," which sparked widespread discussion both inside and outside the industry. An independent coffee shop owner in Beijing publicly stated that the salted mocha among Gucci's limited-edition drinks is suspected of copying her signature product, which she developed in 2020 and officially launched in 2022 with Bingboke as its base. The incident quickly escalated, with voices supporting originality and those believing it was purely a creative coincidence rising and falling in turn. This article will sort out the sequence of events, present multiple perspectives, and explore the copyright dilemmas and market implications of creative coffee drinks. [more…]

Luxury brand Gucci has recently been making frequent moves in the coffee space. First, it attracted attention by handing out free coffee from an Ancora red coffee truck in Beijing, Shanghai, and other cities, but drew complaints over long queues, limited supply, and controversial flavors. Gucci then adjusted its strategy, partnering at once with three well-known domestic coffee brands—Grid Coffee, Blue Bottle Coffee, and %Arabica—to open week-long pop-up coffee shops in four cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu. This collaboration model—limited in "stores, duration, and products"—has drawn consumers to queue up and check in, and has also led people to speculate whether Gucci is "casting a wide net" to screen for long-term partners, or merely driving traffic to its Ancora series exhibition. This article takes you through this cross-industry experiment between luxury and coffee. [more…]

International fast-fashion giant ZARA has announced that its new Asia-Pacific flagship store will open next year on Nanjing Xinjiekou, covering an area of over 2,500 square meters, and will for the first time incorporate a coffee business into the store. This move is not an isolated case. In recent years, luxury brands such as Tiffany, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton have all dipped their toes into coffee marketing, attempting to close the distance with consumers through immersive experiences. Is coffee a powerful tool for enhancing brand loyalty, or has it merely become a gimmick for photo opportunities? Consumers have mixed opinions on this. This article will outline ZARA's coffee layout, review cases of major brands venturing into coffee, and explore the business logic and market feedback behind this trend. [more…]

When milk tea cup sleeves at Fudan University Medical School are printed with drug instructions, when Beijing University of Chinese Medicine adds ginger, cinnamon, dried tangerine peel, red dates, and goji berries to milk tea, and when Shanghai's time-honored Chinese medicine brand Tong Han Chun Tang uses "medicine and food homology" as a selling point to launch ginseng and peach gum milk tea, the milk tea category is undergoing a transformation attempt from "junk food" to "health drink." University cafeterias, Chinese medicine shops, and time-honored brands are all crossing over into the market, trying to reshape the image of milk tea with the concept of health. At the same time, milk tea brands are also making changes on the ingredient side, with fresh fruit and fresh milk replacing non-dairy creamer as selling points. However, news about milk tea on trending searches is repeatedly linked to food safety issues, and the road to transformation is not smooth. [more…]

China Post recently made a high-profile announcement declaring the Xiamen Guomao Building Post Office Coffee the "first in the country," but this has sparked questions from post office coffee shops that have already opened in multiple locations. From negotiations for authorization at the Beijing headquarters in 2021, to the establishment and operation of Shanghai Zhongyu Jiaye, and then to the Zhongshan Postal Branch claiming that authorized stores already existed last December, a dispute over "first" and "authentic" has surfaced. Contradictions between the official WeChat account's statements and local declarations, along with rumors of franchising, have made the situation even more confusing. This article will sort out the timeline of Post Office Coffee, the claims of all parties, and the focal points of the controversy, and include professional coffee news to help you clarify the truth behind this mix-up. [more…]

In 2023, China's coffee market size reached 180.6 billion yuan, with chain brands accelerating their expansion—MANNER surpassing 10,000 stores and Luckin and Cotti going overseas—making it seem like a landscape of prosperity. However, in the saved folders on social media platforms, many coffee enthusiasts have discovered that nearly half of the independent coffee shops they once bookmarked now show "closed for business," including many high-quality small shops with thousands of positive reviews. From Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to other cities, this phenomenon is spreading. The price wars of chain brands have squeezed the survival space of independent shops, while poor business strategies and a lack of differentiation have also made it difficult for many stores to stay afloat. What kind of preparation and reflection does running a coffee shop actually require? This article takes you deep into the real dilemmas facing independent coffee shops and the ways to break through. [more…]

Tianyancha information shows that EasyJoy Coffee (Beijing) Co., Ltd. was included in the list of businesses with abnormal operations by the Changping District Market Supervision Bureau of Beijing for failing to publicly disclose its annual report on time. This company, wholly owned by Sinopec EasyJoy with a registered capital of 60 million yuan, was once an important vehicle for Sinopec's exploration of the coffee business in gas station scenarios. From launching the brand in 2019 in cooperation with Lian Coffee, to Lianxiang Business withdrawing in 2024 and Sinopec fully taking over, and then to reaching a strategic cooperation with Tims China, the development trajectory of EasyJoy Coffee reflects the opportunities and challenges in the gas station coffee track. At present, Sinopec has not yet responded to this matter. [more…]

Today's young people have a great passion for running coffee shops, and this trend has also spread to the entertainment industry. JJ Lin previously opened several Miracle Coffee stores in China, and subsequently many celebrities followed suit, launching their own coffee brands. Recently, the trendy brand GOODBAI founded by actor Bai Jingting officially opened a coffee shop. On the opening day, a long queue formed before the store even opened, becoming a noticeable scene on Yanqing Road. Most of the people in the queue were fans of Bai Jingting, and some waited up to three hours just to buy a cup of coffee. Similar scenes occurred when Wang Hedi's D.DESIRABLE coffee shop opened, and the coffee shop that Jay Chou is preparing in Beijing has also kept fans eagerly anticipating. Are celebrities leveraging their fame to enter the highly competitive coffee market seriously doing coffee, or do they have other motives? This article will take you to find out. [more…]

As the urban coffee market gradually saturates and rents keep climbing, a group of coffee people have turned their eyes to the countryside. Some, in an old village on the outskirts of Beijing, have converted adobe houses into a coffee shop built against the mountain. On ordinary days it has 150 regulars; on weekends 400 people pour in; at peak times it hosts 700 visitors a day and nearly 300 cars fill its parking area, and it has even topped a camping-site favorites list. Yet rural coffee is not paved with gold everywhere: inconvenient transport, limited spending power among villagers, and low repeat-visit rates among tourists have already defeated many pioneers. Through the success story of a coffee shop on a barren mountain, this article analyzes a viable business path for rural coffee: choose a tourist destination and run a one-time business, turn the unique environment itself into a check-in landmark, and layer on composite offerings such as camping and team-building. [more…]

Blue Bottle Coffee is accelerating its expansion in mainland China. Following its first store in Shanghai, the second location has been confirmed for Nanjing West Road and is now under renovation. Meanwhile, Blue Bottle Coffee registered a company in Beijing in January of this year, suggesting that plans to open stores in the capital may already be on the agenda. Facing a fiercely competitive coffee market in mainland China, Blue Bottle Coffee is entering through a high-end specialty route, and whether its pricing strategy and brand effect can support subsequent expansion has become a focal point of industry attention. This article reviews the known store information, market analysis perspectives, and explores the prospects and challenges for Blue Bottle Coffee in the mainland Chinese market. [more…]

Recently, social media has been buzzing with rumors that Jay Chou opened a coffee shop called "Love Before the Common Era" in Sanlitun, Beijing, attracting a large number of fans to visit. However, upon verification, the shop was not opened by Jay Chou himself, but is part of a star IP incubation base created by the company Juxing Chuanqi. Jay Chou only made an appearance in the form of a check-in to support his wife Hannah Quinlivan's clothing pop-up store. Despite the truth, fans' enthusiasm remains high, and during the Dragon Boat Festival holiday, they flocked to check in at the same photo spots. This coffee shop has friendly pricing, with Americano at only 18 yuan, which is quite conscientious in Beijing's coffee scene. Whether this small shop leveraging Jay Chou's traffic can establish a foothold in Sanlitun remains to be seen. [more…]

Tims China recently announced the launch of its "Partner Program," initially opening single-store franchising in Shanghai and Beijing, marking a shift in its franchising strategy from city-level franchising to a single-store model. However, the startup capital of over 600,000 yuan, its persistently loss-making financial performance, and the fiercely competitive market environment have sparked widespread discussion about this move. This article sorts through Tims' franchising details, cost structure, market background, and consumer feedback, exploring whether, amid intensifying competition in the coffee sector, opening single-store franchising is its "big move" to accelerate expansion or a reluctant response to difficult circumstances. [more…]

The allure of coffee lies not only in the flavors in the cup, but also in the craftsmanship and artistry embedded in the brewing process. From the lively variations of pour-over, to the rich fullness of siphon, to the refreshing mellow depth of cold drip, each extraction method interprets a different facet of coffee. This article takes you into several coffee shops in Beijing, offering an in-depth analysis of four brewing methods—pour-over, siphon, cold drip, and semi-automatic espresso machines—covering equipment selection, coffee bean recommendations, water temperature control, coffee-to-water ratios, stirring techniques, and other practical details. It also specifically presents the flavor expressions of Front Street Coffee's Yirgacheffe, Costa Rica, Mandheling, and other bean varieties under different brewing methods, helping you find the cup that suits you best. [more…]

The coffee consumption boom is spreading from commercial districts to university campuses, and college students have become an important group of high-frequency coffee consumers. Luckin Coffee has seized a first-mover advantage with more than a thousand campus stores, while brands such as Starbucks, Tims, Manner, M Stand, and NOWWA have also entered universities one after another, and Mixue Ice Cream & Tea's Lucky Cup is closely pursuing with about 260 campus stores. This article sorts out each brand's layout strategy, store data, and competitive situation on university campuses, and includes Front Street Coffee's specialty bean information, to help you understand the real landscape of the campus coffee track. [more…]