Recently, Chayan Yuese has once again become the center of public attention due to its ordering and pickup rules. Some customers at the Changsha airport store waited nearly fifty minutes before getting their drinks, questioning its cumbersome ordering process and unreasonable marketing methods, which struck a chord with many. In fact, Chayan Yuese has adjusted its ordering rules multiple times, and consumers have kept complaining. Although the company responded officially that the new rules are meant to ensure the texture of the milk foam, netizens were not convinced. This article reviews the course of the incident, the views of various parties, and the brand's response, and explores the logic and controversy behind the queuing phenomenon in the milk tea industry. [more…]

As the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, mooncakes are traditionally a festive treat for family reunions. However, this year, many consumers holding Starbucks mooncake redemption vouchers are far from happy. According to the voucher rules, customers were supposed to scan a code to make a reservation and pick up two gift boxes at a store. But in reality, nearby stores generally show no stock, customer service calls are stuck in long queues or even disconnected by the system, and store employees admit that the whole city is out of stock. From Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to Chengdu and Wuhan, complaints about being unable to redeem the vouchers are pouring in, and Starbucks has yet to offer a unified explanation. This article will outline the sequence of events, the consumers' experiences, and industry commentary, and include the latest alternative solutions in some regions. [more…]

Canadian coffee brand Tims opened its first store in Harbin over the weekend. The brand had attracted a large number of consumers in advance through buy-one-get-one-free coupons and queue gifts, with the first 200 people to arrive able to receive different tiers of gifts such as coffee monthly cards and city mugs. However, on opening day the scene was chaotic, with some customers waiting several hours before getting their food and drinks, and the efficiency of order fulfillment and store management drew widespread complaints. Although the queue turnout reflected the brand's appeal, the lack of organizational capability also left many fans disappointed, affecting the impression of the brand's first store. [more…]

Amid the wave of price cuts in new-style tea drinks, a cup of milk tea priced at 50 yuan is no longer common. However, on the opening day of Chayan Yuese's first store in Nanjing, scalpers were reselling cups for as much as 200 yuan, with people lining up as early as 4:30 a.m., and related topics quickly trended on Weibo. Due to excessive crowds and chaotic order, the Xinjiekou store posted a sold-out notice and closed its entrance just five minutes before its official opening, while the Jiangning Jingfeng store continued operating. Police dispatched officers to maintain order and persuade citizens to leave. On some trading platforms, proxy purchasing and queuing services appeared, priced between 10 and 200 yuan. The Nanjing Market Supervision Bureau made it clear that scalping is illegal. People's Daily Online called on consumers to treat internet-famous brands rationally and not be led by merchants and scalpers. [more…]

On the first day of the May Day holiday, a rare queue of people appeared at Exit B of Liede Station in Guangzhou, and the reason was precisely the official opening of Lin Junjie's Miracle Coffee at IGC Mall in Guangzhou. The space was formerly occupied by the Guangdong chain brand store by.jpg, and after it closed in March this year, Miracle took over, with fans' anticipation far outweighing any regret. The official confirmation is that the Guangzhou store is a long-term operating location rather than a pop-up, and on opening day people arrived to check in before eight o'clock, with the line once extending into the subway station. The drink selection at the store is richer than that of the Shenzhen pop-up coffee truck, including the return of limited-edition specials as well as desserts, merchandise, coffee beans, and more, but no stamp service is offered. Due to astonishing purchasing power, ingredients ran out early, and a sold-out notice was posted just after six in the evening. There is still no definite news on whether Lin Junjie will personally visit the store, and considering that the shop is small and right next to the subway entrance, the station appearance segment fans are hoping for is highly unlikely to happen. [more…]

On April 2, the internet-famous tea brand Chayan Yuese opened a pop-up store at Shenzhen Wenheyou. The queue on opening day was unprecedented, with rumors online claiming that the number of waiting tickets exceeded 30,000, and a cup of milk tea was being resold for over 200 yuan. However, Chayan Yuese officially clarified shortly afterward that the so-called 30,000 number was actually the table number at Shenzhen Wenheyou, not the queue number for milk tea. From Changsha to Wuhan and then to Shenzhen, why does Chayan Yuese always trigger such frenzy? This article will reconstruct the whole incident, sort out the brand's development trajectory, and discuss whether a cup of milk tea is worth such a long queue. [more…]

Blue Bottle Coffee, hailed as the "Apple of the coffee world," opened its second store in mainland China on August 5 at Shanghai's Jing'an Kerry Centre. Unlike its first store by the Suzhou Creek, this new location is rooted in the Nanjing West Road commercial area, with a two-story space of over 500 square meters and about 160 seats, mainly targeting white-collar workers. The design incorporates traditional Chinese roof tile elements, using more than 13,000 handmade terracotta bricks. On opening day, queues were still necessary, but the wait time had shrunk from seven hours at the first store half a year ago to about 25 minutes. Blue Bottle Coffee has not joined the domestic price war, maintaining its niche specialty pricing of 28 to 50 yuan. [more…]

Recently, Miracle Coffee, the coffee brand founded by JJ Lin, opened a flagship store at Shanghai Lakeside Plaza, drawing long queues of fans. This marks the brand's return to Shanghai after two years, following its 2019 pop-up store. The store has imposed purchase limits, but order processing speed is limited, and consumers still have to wait several hours. In recent years, Miracle Coffee has accelerated the rollout of permanent stores in multiple Chinese cities and is rumored to be entering more cities. Front Street Coffee will continue to follow developments in the specialty coffee market and bring coffee lovers more brand news. [more…]

On the day its first Nanjing store opened, Cha Yan Yue Se shot to the top of trending searches because of the sheer number of people queuing and scalpers driving the price up to 200 yuan a cup. The Xinjiekou store was forced to close, while the Jiangning Jingfeng store remained open. The brand revealed that it plans to open five stores in Nanjing in the future, while market regulators made clear that scalping on behalf of buyers is illegal. This article reviews Cha Yan Yue Se's expansion trajectory in cities such as Changsha and Shenzhen, compares it with the development paths of similar brands such as Nayuki, and explores the balancing challenge facing internet-famous tea drinks among quality control, supply chains, and consumer rationality. [more…]

Recently, some Starbucks locations have turned their employee-only order-taking devices toward customers, attempting to let customers order self-service or have staff step out from behind the counter to assist with ordering. However, this move has sparked quite a bit of awkwardness and controversy: customers are at a loss facing the complex ordering system, internal sales scripts have been accidentally leaked, and staff are run off their feet even more during peak hours. Some baristas say the new rules not only fail to improve efficiency, but actually make the work more burdensome. This article will walk you through the ins and outs of this incident, as well as the real thoughts of Starbucks workers. [more…]

The StayReal Cafe at Guangzhou's Parc Central has recently seen long queues at its entrance, with the store packed and orders streaming in continuously. This is not a promotion for a new store, but a farewell—due to the lease expiring and the brand not renewing it, this trendy coffee shop co-founded by Mayday's Ashin and artist No2Good is about to withdraw from Guangzhou. The StayReal clothing store in the same mall closed the night before, while the coffee shop will remain open until October 27. From the opening of its first South China store in 2016, which invited world-class coffee master Lin Dongyuan to show support and saw hundreds of fans queue overnight, to now closing stores one after another due to lease expirations, StayReal Cafe's situation reflects the dilemma celebrity catering brands face between fan economy and the mass market. Some netizens say that if the Guangzhou Parc Central store ends operations, the brand's coffee shops will have only one left in Shanghai. [more…]

When a barista becomes a robotic arm, a latte can be completed in just a few seconds—this is not a sci-fi movie, but the real scene at Cafe X in San Francisco. This small kiosk, founded by Hong Kong-born young man Henry Hu, centers on a modified Mitsubishi robotic arm named Gordon, attempting to find a balance between efficiency and quality. Cafe X does not pursue fancy customization, but returns to the essence of minimalist coffee, collaborating with roasters such as Verve and Peet's to allow the robot to precisely execute brewing parameters. The store also has product specialists offering tastings and explanations, similar to the role of a sommelier or an Apple Genius. Can this model change the development predicament of fast-food technology in Silicon Valley? How will the future of human-machine collaboration affect the coffee service industry? [more…]

Recently, Changsha tea beverage brand Chayan Yuese has attracted widespread attention due to the establishment of a branch company in Shanghai and the release of recruitment information in Shenzhen. There has been much speculation from the outside about whether it will enter the Shanghai and Shenzhen markets, but the brand responded that the new Shanghai company is only a creative studio and there are currently no plans to open stores. However, the focus of netizens' discussion has fallen on Chayan Yuese's signature queuing and verification mechanism—many people believe that this model is difficult to adapt to the fast-paced consumption habits of Shanghai and Shenzhen, and that if it insists on its original rules, it may be difficult to gain a foothold. At the same time, Heytea, Chagee, and local brand Tea Li Yishi have already occupied the local market. If Chayan Yuese enters at this time, the competitive pressure cannot be underestimated. This article will sort out the ins and outs of the incident and the views of all parties. (Compiled by Front Street Coffee) [more…]

Recently, StayReal, the streetwear brand founded by Mayday's Ashin and artist No2Good, held a limited-time art exhibition in Shanghai, drawing a large number of fans to visit and take photos. Surprisingly, however, a Starbucks store next door to the exhibition unexpectedly went viral thanks to its employees' playful cheering. Staff held up creative signs incorporating Mayday lyrics, prepared limited-edition cup stickers and merchandise perks for fans, and even offered a cheerful "call-out service," keeping the fans waiting in line laughing nonstop. This mutual embrace between fans and Starbucks employees not only eased the boredom of waiting in line, but also won the brand a great deal of goodwill. [more…]

The Chayan Yuese amusement park store that once drew long queues on the 7th floor of Wuhan International Plaza has now been quietly replaced by construction hoarding for another food and beverage venue. This roughly 200-square-meter "Chayan grocery store," one of the first batch of stores to enter Wuhan in 2020, silently exited after four years of serving customers. More noteworthy is that such closures are not isolated cases—Chayan Yuese stores have been shutting down one after another in cities including Changsha and Wuhan. Data from Jihai Brand Monitoring shows that its operating stores dropped from 973 in early October to 903, with at least 70 stores disappearing within a few months. At the same time, the brand is still expanding into new cities such as Changzhou. Behind the store contraction, is it lease expiration, layout adjustment, or pressure on profitability? Consumers' complaints about the redemption mechanism have also been mentioned once again. [more…]

The collaboration between Gu Ming and the hit game "Honkai: Star Rail" ignited a consumer frenzy as soon as it launched, with over 1.2 million people queuing in the mini-program, and the topic quickly shot to the top of trending searches. Store orders poured in like snowflakes, and the limited-edition drinks were all fresh fruit smoothies with complex preparation processes. Under high-intensity operation, multiple smoothie machines were overwhelmed, emitting white smoke and even exploding on the spot, while staff were so busy they didn't even have time to drink water. To deal with equipment failures, some stores prepared backup machines in advance, while others had to borrow juicers from neighboring Shu Yi Shao Xian Cao and Luckin for emergency use. Behind this collaboration frenzy, issues such as excessively high thresholds for obtaining merchandise and enormous pressure on stores were exposed, also triggering discussions on optimization measures such as selling drinks and merchandise separately and cup storage services. [more…]

A Heytea store opened in Rowland Heights, Los Angeles, USA, has recently been confirmed to be permanently closed. The store operated from its opening in September 2024 to the end of business on May 22, 2025, lasting less than a year. As Heytea's first store to shut down in North America, this news has drawn considerable attention and discussion among consumers. Regular customers were surprised by the sudden closure of a milk tea shop that once had long lines, while nearby residents said they had seen it coming. Factors such as the store's remote location, inconvenient parking, rental costs, relatively high drink prices, and intensifying competition from peers are considered possible reasons why the store struggled to survive. This article will review the course of events, consumer feedback, and the possible business challenges behind it, while also offering coffee and tea beverage enthusiasts selected recommendations from the Front Street brand. [more…]

Luckin Coffee has launched a second collaboration with Honkai: Star Rail, offering limited-edition merchandise. However, many fans discovered after placing their orders that the limited-edition cups and themed paper bags were severely out of stock. Some received only one of the two, while others got neither, forcing them to piece together orders across multiple stores. For collectors, these limited-edition packaging materials included with orders are part of the collaboration experience, and the insufficient restocking at stores left them quite disappointed. Whether brands should ensure packaging supply in tandem when launching new promotional campaigns has become the core of this controversy. [more…]

Heytea's sub-brand Heytea Tea House has recently been reported to have closed stores in Jiangmen, Huizhou, and Zhongshan one after another, just half a year after opening. This store, inspired by Song Dynasty tea houses and specializing in freshly extracted tea lattes, was once a popular spot for fans to line up and check in. Since its launch in 2017, Heytea Tea House has only 11 stores nationwide, and the Jiangmen Zhongtian Xindi store is actually its first store to close. This news has led many consumers to think of Heytea's previously discontinued sub-brand "Heye Tea," and has also sparked discussions about competition in the tea beverage market and the survival space for sub-brands. Front Street Coffee continues to follow developments in the coffee and tea beverage industry, bringing readers the latest observations. [more…]

The United States is the world's largest coffee-consuming country, with each person drinking 250 to 300 cups a year on average. For a long time, the weak flavor of American drip coffee and the burnt bitterness of dark roasts led Europeans to mock it as "sock juice," but the third-wave specialty coffee movement has made the United States a leader. The author went deep into Los Angeles, a major coffee hub on the West Coast, drank at forty shops in four days, and selected fourteen reliable, comfortable, and worthwhile cafes, including the award-winning Portola, Bar Nine, which uses ModBar, and Go get em tiger, owned by barista competition champion Charles Babinski. The article also includes his experience of unexpectedly meeting an idol and his observations on the polarization of American coffee during this trip. This article is recommended for reading by Front Street Coffee. [more…]