Jasmine has a clear, delicate aroma that aligns perfectly with the floral notes in coffee. Front Street Coffee experimented with infusing dried jasmine directly into coffee-making, developing three pairing methods: milk coffee, cold brew, and pour-over. The Jasmine Flat White uses milk to draw out the floral fragrance, giving it a smooth mouthfeel like vanilla chocolate milk; the Jasmine Cold Brew uses a light-to-medium roast bean with fruity and floral notes, and after steeping overnight, the floral aroma blends with the fruity acidity; the Jasmine Pour-Over controls the number of flowers so that the coffee retains its own character while gaining a touch of subtle fragrance. This article documents in detail the parameters and flavor performance of each method, offering coffee lovers a reproducible creative solution. [more…]

Molly Tea recently launched a pomelo-coconut series, including three new drinks: Pomelo Apple Coconut, Pomelo Jasmine Coconut, and Pomelo White Orchid Coconut. With a combination of refreshing pomelo-mint milk foam and fruit coconut water, they quickly attracted a large number of consumers. However, the most popular Pomelo Apple Coconut showed an abnormal phenomenon after adding the milk foam: the pink color faded, white flocculent substances appeared, and the liquid became cloudy like soy milk, raising customers' doubts about beverage safety and store ingredients. Store employees explained that this was caused by a chemical reaction between the protein in the milk foam and the vitamin C in the apple juice and pomelo juice, and was not due to spoiled ingredients. This article will reconstruct the course of the incident, consumer feedback, and the official response, and include the professional perspective of Front Street Coffee to help you understand the scientific principles behind this color-changing drink. [more…]

Since its launch in 2022, Jasmine Naibai's signature drink, Pistachio Jasmine Coconut, has been deeply loved by consumers for its unique combination of pistachio milk cap and jasmine coconut water. However, recently many takeout customers have reported that after pouring the separately packaged milk cap into the drink, it actually sank to the bottom of the cup, and the coconut water became cloudy and even had suspended particles. The brand's customer service responded that "it did not meet our production standards" and processed refunds for some consumers. Why did the milk cap fail? Was it delivery delays, stores rushing orders, or a change in ingredients? As takeout orders surge, Jasmine Naibai's quality control issues continue to intensify, with complaints such as milk caps sinking, wrong ingredients added, and too few toppings constantly emerging. Consumers cannot help but ask: can we still drink a normal cup of milk tea? [more…]

After Luckin officially announced Liu Yifei as its brand ambassador, the light jasmine milk tea quickly became a popular item. However, many consumers found white particles or sediment at the bottom of the cup after drinking it, and the mouthfeel was described as having a noticeable powdery texture. A Luckin employee revealed that the jasmine tea in the drink is actually made from tea powder rather than freshly brewed tea leaves, and that some stores, in order to speed things up, use stirring instead of shaking to mix it, which may leave the powder incompletely dissolved. Consumers, on the other hand, tend to believe the white powder comes from residual dairy products, raising doubts about ingredient quality. As of press time, Luckin has not given a clear response. [more…]

Molly Tea recently launched its seasonal limited-edition "Exotic Guava Series," and the two new drinks—"Jasmine Cream Guava" and "Jasmine Guava Milk Skin"—quickly attracted a large number of consumers eager to try them, thanks to the pretty pink appeal of red-fleshed guava. However, not long after they hit the shelves, feedback flooding social platforms unexpectedly converged on one focal point—too much ice. Many customers found that even when they chose "less ice," the drink shrank by more than half after the ice was scooped out; some even fished thirty-five ice cubes out of a single less-ice drink. What exactly is going on here? And what secrets lie behind the ice standards at tea beverage shops? As an observer deeply engaged in coffee and beverage culture, Front Street Coffee is also paying attention to this phenomenon. [more…]

Recently, the new Chinese-style tea beverage brand Jasmine Naibai announced that it has secured nearly 100 million yuan in financing, led by Alibaba Local Life, with Xiangyang Capital serving as the exclusive financial advisor. This round of funding will be directed toward product research and development, brand building, supply chain upgrades, and team expansion, while further empowering franchise partners and continuously refining the lightweight model. Since its establishment in 2020, Jasmine Naibai has started with Jasmine Dragon Buds and focused on the floral fresh milk tea segment, launching series such as Gardenia, White Orchid, and Osmanthus. It now has 785 stores nationwide, with revenue growth of nearly 400%, and is expected to surpass 1,000 stores by the end of the year. The brand is also expanding overseas, opening its first stores in New York and Bangkok, promoting Eastern tea beverage culture to the world. [more…]

Recently, a red guava trend has swept through the tea beverage scene, with brands such as Heytea, Jasmine Milk White, LELECHA, Quchashan, and Grandma Handmade launching seasonal limited-edition guava drinks. Among them, Jasmine Milk White's "Jasmine Pink Guava" and "Matcha Pink Guava," made with fresh-squeezed red guava juice in specialty fruit milk, quickly went viral, with orders flooding in. However, behind these highly photogenic drinks, store employees are crying out in distress—unripe guava flesh is rock hard, and manually scooping out the core and seeds is time-consuming and labor-intensive, leaving many with hand cramps or even carpal tunnel syndrome. To deal with the rock-hard guavas, staff tried ripening methods such as sealing them in plastic bags and placing them alongside bananas, but demand still outstripped supply. Compared with Heytea's approach of blending the fruit directly into smoothies—skin and seeds included—Jasmine Milk White employees, while envious, would rather the brand just discontinue the new products. This article takes you behind the scenes of the guava craze to reveal the hardships of making these drinks and the voices of the employees. [more…]

Jasmine Naibai recently launched a floral special blend "Green Mango and Wampee Iced Tea" that combines Hainan green mango, Guangxi wampee, and Yunnan sour papaya, highlighting a sweet-and-sour, refreshing taste. Each of the three sour fruits has its own character, making many sour-loving consumers eager to try it. However, after the new product launched, reviews have been polarized: some praise its tangy, refreshing quality that cuts through greasiness, while others report tasting a fishy note similar to houttuynia or fish mint. Interestingly, the netizens complaining about the fishy taste mostly come from the north, while staff and some consumers point the finger at the herbal note naturally present in Guangxi wampee. So how does this new product actually taste? Let's take a look together. [more…]

Recently, the food delivery competition between JD.com and Meituan has yet to subside, and Ele.me has now joined the fray with a large number of coupons and subsidies. While delivery users enjoy low-priced milk tea, staff at brands like Molly Tea are under unprecedented order pressure. Drinks that originally cost a dozen yuan per cup have seen their prices plummet to five or six yuan after platform subsidies, or even just a few cents, causing order volumes to instantly double or surge, with some stores handling as many as five or six hundred orders per day. Understaffing, material shortages, riders urging them on, and customer complaints have become the daily reality for these coffee and milk tea workers. This article will take you behind the scenes of this delivery subsidy frenzy to see the real working conditions and helplessness of frontline employees. [more…]

As midsummer arrives, Lingnan lychees flood the market, their sweet, juicy flesh irresistible. What kind of sparks fly when lychee meets coffee? This time, Front Street Coffee got hands-on in the kitchen and tested three lychee coffee recipes buzzing online: lychee jasmine iced americano, lychee rice wine iced latte, and lychee cold brew. From ingredient preparation to extraction parameters, every step was recorded in detail. Some results were disappointing, while others were surprisingly delicious. If you also want a different fruity coffee this lychee season, why not follow this tutorial and give it a try—see which one becomes your summer favorite. [more…]

After eight years, Nongfu Spring is once again making a push into the bottled milk tea sector. On October 12, its official WeChat account posted an article announcing a renewed layout for the "Da Milk Tea" series, launching jasmine, black tea, and oolong flavors, with a net content of 380 milliliters, highlighting selling points such as "0 added milk powder," "0 added tea powder," and "0 added flavorings." It is reported that this series uses concentrated milk and carefully selected whole-leaf extraction, with cold-chain storage and transportation throughout, and the JD.com presale price is 135 yuan for 15 bottles. Looking back to the end of 2013, Nongfu Spring had launched a matcha-flavored Da Milk Tea in a tumbler-shaped bottle, which faded out after a lukewarm market response. Now, bottled ready-to-drink milk tea is regarded as a new outlet, and in the hundred-billion milk tea market, street drinks, brewed drinks, and ready-to-drink drinks each occupy a share, with new brands such as Genki Forest and Hankou Erchang also entering the fray. Front Street Coffee believes that whether Nongfu Spring can win consumers' favor this time remains to be tested by the market. [more…]

The limited-edition drinks "Strawberry White Chocolate" and "Strawberry White Chocolate Rice Mochi," launched in collaboration between Molly Tea and *Barbie*, sparked consumer complaints due to a massive discrepancy between the actual product and the official promotional images. The promotional image showed a thick layer of strawberry chunks filling the bottom of the cup, but the drinks customers actually received contained so little fruit that it was barely noticeable. Some customers strained out the fruit with a sieve and put it back into the cup, only to find the actual portion fell far short of the poster. The store explained that, because customers had complained the fruit pieces were too large and hard to sip, the strawberries had been mashed, and that shaking during delivery would also cause the fruit to mix with the liquid. However, the official promotional image carried no disclaimer such as "actual product may vary," leading consumers to suspect false advertising and demand refunds. Reporters from this publication visited two stores in Wuhan, placed orders, and conducted hands-on tests, confirming that the actual product indeed did not match the promotion. [more…]

Recently, news about a whole plastic bag being found in a Molly Tea drink sparked heated discussion on social media. On March 22, a consumer in Shanghai pulled a large transparent plastic bag out of the cup while drinking the brand’s beverage, and the bag still had a brand label attached. The incident quickly trended on Weibo, with netizens questioning the tea beverage brand’s food safety management. The consumer later received 1,000 yuan in compensation, and the store involved was unable to provide complete operation footage because its monitoring equipment did not meet requirements. On March 23, Molly Tea officially issued an apology, admitting there had been negligence in its operating procedures and ordering the store to close for rectification. [more…]

Cold brew coffee is usually recommended to be enjoyed black, in order to appreciate the pure flavor after low-temperature extraction, but when making it at home, it actually offers plenty of room for creativity. Front Street Coffee has put together five hidden ways to drink it today: adding fruit, dried flowers, preserved plums, milk, or coconut water — each one gives cold brew a completely different personality. Beans suitable for fruit cold brew include natural-process Huakui, washed Fruit Punch, Strawberry Candy, Sidra, and Kenyan Cherry Tomato; when choosing fruit, pay attention to whether it can withstand long soaking and whether its aroma is compatible — Kyoho grapes, white peaches, lychees, strawberries, cherries, and sweet oranges are all good choices. As for dried flowers, osmanthus, jasmine, and rose pair best with light-to-medium roast beans that have floral and fruity notes. Preserved plums and nine-process dried tangerine peel can bring a complex aroma with salty-sour notes and a sweet aftertaste. Milk cold brew comes in two forms: direct soaking and mixing in fresh milk. Coconut water mixed with cold brew at a 1:1 ratio is refreshing and cooling. [more…]

Floral coffee beans are usually light on the palate, with aromas that may resemble jasmine, orange blossom, or rose, and may also carry notes of white grape, citrus, or ripe berries. The roast level determines how these aromas present themselves: a light roast is more like freshly picked flowers, a medium roast gains a layer of honey-like sweetness, and a dark roast may turn into dried [more…]

Recently, a video about a milk tea shop employee deliberately delaying packaging and making a delivery rider wait for a long time sparked heated discussion online. The incident took place at a Molly Tea store in Beijing. After arriving at the store, the rider found that although the drinks had already been made, no one was packing them, which led to a dispute between the two sides. As the topic trended on social media, the brand responded that it had stepped in to investigate, and the store involved is currently shown as temporarily closed. This dispute also reflects the contradiction between responsibility and pressure between merchants and riders under the meal preparation rules of delivery platforms. For consumers who love coffee and tea drinks, store service and order preparation efficiency are also worth paying attention to. Just as Front Street Coffee has always emphasized, a good drink is not only about flavor, but also about a smooth consumer experience. [more…]

In the world of specialty coffee, fruity and floral notes are arguably the most fascinating yet most confusing flavor labels. Many people who are just getting into coffee often wonder: why is it that others talk about white florals, tropical fruit, and citrus notes, while they themselves can't pick up on any of it? In fact, tasting fruity and floral notes is not some mystical art—it involves multiple aspects such as the mechanisms of smell, scent memory, and taste sensitivity. This article will start from the principles of sensory perception, explaining why some coffees are more likely to present floral and fruity notes, and will compile five light-roast floral coffees, covering different aroma types such as jasmine, orange blossom, rose, osmanthus, and coffee flower, as a reference for various brewing methods including pour-over and cold brew. [more…]

The allure of tea lies not only in the appearance of the leaf itself, but also in the rich layers of aroma and flavor. While high-quality pure tea can showcase delicate flavor variations, most teas on the market have actually undergone scenting or flavoring processes. Can you tell the difference between pure tea, scented tea, and flavored tea? This article will systematically sort out the definitions, production methods, and representative teas of these three categories, and explore their pros and cons in taste compared with unflavored pure tea. Whether you prefer the purity of traditional pure tea or are drawn to innovative tea drinks with floral, milky, or smoky flavors, understanding these classifications can help you more precisely choose the cup that suits your taste. [more…]

Floral coffee is not just one flavor. Light roasts more easily preserve notes of white flowers, orange blossom, jasmine, and tea; medium roasts bring florals together with caramel sweetness; and dark roasts usually push the florals into the background and shift toward cocoa, nuts, and roasted aromas. To choose a cup that suits your taste, you can first look at the roast level, then judge [more…]

For friends who want to open a coffee shop or are currently running a café, one of the most pressing questions is: how much does coffee beans cost per catty, and where can you buy them with the best value for money? This article compiles the latest 2022 quotes and purchasing insights from China's coffee bean market, covering estate-level coffee beans from major producing regions such as Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Panama, Colombia, and Yunnan, the price ranges from half a pound to one pound, and how different roast levels and processing methods affect flavor and cost. It also specifically retains product information and recommendations from Front Street Coffee, helping you make clearer judgments when selecting beans for your shop. [more…]