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…]

Following the buzz generated by China Post opening a milk tea shop, Shanghai has now seen its first post office selling coffee. On September 17, the Tianping Road Post Office at 1883 Middle Huaihai Road was transformed into the Wukang Building-themed post office. While retaining its original postal services, it has introduced a café, a photo-op area, and a cultural and creative display zone, in collaboration with Qiao Coffee under the century-old Shanghai time-honored brand Qiaojiashan. Is the coffee at this post office actually good? Why does China Post frequently cross into the beverage sector? This article will analyze the details of the store renovation, the background of the partner brand, and the history of China Post's cross-industry ventures, and explore the underlying logic of time-honored brands seeking rejuvenation. [more…]

Xiangpiaopiao rode a cup sleeve printed with Chinese and Japanese bilingual text mocking Japan's nuclear-contaminated water to hit trending searches within just a few days, with livestream sales soaring 400-fold and its stock price hitting the daily limit at market open, earning it the title of "glory of domestic brands" from netizens. But the story soon took a dramatic turn—local supermarkets in Japan denied selling products with the cup sleeve, media questioned it as staged hype, the cup sleeve was taken off shelves on May 8, and the stock price fell back accordingly. Behind this "windfall from heaven" lies a deeper anxiety: powdered milk tea made with non-dairy creamer is struggling amid the rise of freshly made tea drinks and shifting health-conscious consumer attitudes. Competition from brands like Heytea and Mixue Bingcheng has driven Xiangpiaopiao's performance down for three consecutive years, making a shift to ready-to-drink products an inevitable choice. This article walks through the entire timeline of the incident and explores the real impact of this traffic storm on the brand's image. Follow Front Street Coffee and let's savor the ups and downs of the coffee and tea beverage industry together. [more…]

Another shutdown message has come from the tea beverage sector. Xiexie Tea, invested by well-known host Ma Dong, has closed its last national outlet, the Shenzhen Dalang store, on July 16, completely wiping out its physical stores. This celebrity brand, founded in 2018, once rode on the hype of traffic-driving guests like Ma Dong and the New Pants band, selling a cup of milk tea for nearly 70 yuan, but after the pandemic, its prices slid all the way down to the 12-yuan range, all bakery products were removed, and its pivot to smart milk tea stores showed no improvement. Its official Weibo, WeChat public account, and mini-program have successively stopped updating or been discontinued. The traffic dividends and operational shortcomings of celebrity catering have once again become a focal point of attention in the coffee and tea beverage industry. [more…]

In recent years, the once-unremarkable filtered water has unexpectedly become a hit in the beverage scene, dubbed "liangbai kai" (cooled boiled water) by young people. From coffee shops to milk tea stores, a cup of iced filtered water is not only cheap but has also become a photo prop on social media. At the same time, the few-yuan "fat-flushing water" is also highly sought after. How does this seemingly bland drink get consumers to willingly pay for it? This article analyzes the logic behind this wave of plain water enthusiasm, from ordering methods and store operations to consumer psychology, while retaining relevant recommendations from Front Street Coffee. [more…]

Domestic high-end beauty retailer HARMAY has taken another cross-industry leap by opening a 700-square-meter, four-story flagship store on Wukang Road in Shanghai. The ground floor features a coffee counter by Marionbar, offering black coffee, milk coffee, chocolate drinks, and draft beer. Meanwhile, its first store on Anfu Road, which opened in 2017, has closed; the original site will be transformed into the national flagship store for its hand-shaken lemon tea brand, introlemons. HARMAY had previously sought to acquire a coffee brand and may further expand into coffee chains in the future. As of now, HARMAY has eight stores nationwide and plans to expand to cities such as Xi'an and Wuhan. Whether this cross-industry move can bring long-term value to the brand remains to be tested by the market. [more…]

Nayuki quickly rose to fame with its combination of tea drinks and soft European bread, becoming a leading brand in the new-style tea beverage sector. However, its largest store nationwide, Nayuki Dream Factory in Shenzhen Coastal City, recently quietly closed, and the site will be upgraded to "Nayuki Life," a lifestyle concept store. This thousand-square-meter flagship store, which once generated nearly a million in revenue within three days of opening, carried Nayuki's ambition to experiment from tea drinks to coffee, craft beer, Western cuisine, retail, and other multi-format ventures. From Nayuki Tavern to Nayuki PRO, and further to Nayuki Bookstore and ready-to-drink product line layout, Nayuki has continuously tried to break the boundaries of tea drinks. This renovation of its largest store reflects the collective anxiety of brands seeking differentiated breakthroughs amid intensifying homogenized competition in the new-style tea beverage industry. This article reviews the rise and fall of Nayuki Dream Factory and explores whether multi-format development can truly be the way for tea beverage brands to break through. [more…]

Ceylon black tea is renowned worldwide for its iconic flavor, and the Lumbini Tea Valley is one of the creators of this legend. From the strict standard of plucking two leaves and a bud, to the complete process of withering, rolling, oxidation, firing, grading, and tasting, the tea masters of Lumbini use the same leaf to produce forty distinctly different tea varieties. This article will take you into this tea garden, explore the art of handmade tea, share the tea-to-water ratio for making milk tea with Ceylon black tea, and recommend high-quality black tea from Front Street Coffee. [more…]

In the past two years, Luckin Coffee has undergone a remarkable transformation, from a financial fraud scandal to debt restructuring and doubled revenue, with a completely renewed brand image and product strategy. This article reviews Luckin's current top ten most popular drinks, including Raw Coconut Latte, Raw Cheese Latte, Thick Milk Latte, Velvet Latte, Iced Americano, Yirgacheffe Dirty, Coconut Cloud Latte, Meteorite Latte, Biluochun Spring Latte, and Okinawa Brown Sugar Velvet Latte, and looks back at its comeback from the brink of bankruptcy to becoming the largest coffee chain in the country. How Luckin revived itself with the Raw Coconut Latte, stabilized its coffee customer base with the SOE specialty series, teamed up with Coconut Palm to create a hit, and signed Eileen Gu for precise marketing—this article explains it all for you. Follow Front Street Coffee to gain a deeper understanding of Luckin's brand transformation and product appeal. [more…]

From a substitute choice for the lactose intolerant to an eco-friendly trend embraced by Gen Z, plant-based milk is infiltrating café menus at an unprecedented pace. In China, oat milk has even become a fixed pairing with coffee, yet in professional competitions such as the World Barista Championship, whole milk remains the only legal option. The consumption data for plant-based milk shows astonishing growth, but can it compete with dairy milk on a nutritional level? Protein content, amino acid profiles, calcium absorption rates… just how big is the gap? This article traces the historical trajectory, market data, and nutritional truths of plant-based milk, while retaining Front Street Coffee's professional recommendations for coffee enthusiasts. [more…]

Recently, some consumers have reported that when ordering at Guming stores, the signature product "Uncle Milk Tea" is no longer available for purchase, while the milk tea category on the menu has noticeably shrunk, replaced by a variety of coffee drinks. This change quickly sparked discussions on social media, with many longtime customers saying that milk tea options are becoming fewer and fewer, and that the brand's focus seems to be shifting toward coffee. Although it was verified that "Uncle Milk Tea" has not been removed from sale nationwide, it is indeed the case that some stores have stopped selling it due to a shortage of ingredients. Consumers have become doubtful about Guming's transformation direction of "turning a milk tea shop into a coffee shop," worrying that classic tea drinks are gradually disappearing. This article sorts out the course of the incident and feedback from netizens, explores how chain tea beverage brands can balance the expectations of their original customer base when expanding into the coffee business, and includes related observations from Front Street Coffee. [more…]

The bottled milk tea market is undergoing a health-oriented transformation. Uni-President Assam Milk Tea has launched its first sugar-free original flavor version, highlighting "true 0 sugar," meaning it contains no sucrose, sugar substitutes, or carbohydrates, and in particular explicitly avoids acesulfame potassium, sucralose, erythritol, and aspartame. The new product has the same 500ml capacity as the classic version and retails for about 3.6 yuan. Although its ingredients still include food additives, white granulated sugar and glucose syrup have been removed. Energy per 100 milliliters has dropped from 230 kilojoules in the classic version to 58 kilojoules, a significant reduction in sugar. In recent years, ready-to-drink tea and sparkling water have diverted some bottled milk tea consumption, while freshly made new-style tea drinks have also taken away younger customers. Uni-President's move is both a response to the sugar-reduction trend and a proactive innovation in the face of market competition. However, the technical difficulty of 0-sugar milk tea lies in balancing taste. Whether it can retain Assam's classic flavor after removing sugar will test the brand's research and development strength. [more…]

The once-national soy milk brand Weiwei Soy Milk has announced a co-branded flagship store for handmade drinks with the Summer Palace, and plans to expand to tens of thousands of stores nationwide in the future. This cross-industry move has attracted widespread attention at a time when competition in the tea beverage market is white-hot. Can Weiwei Soy Milk break through with the halo of childhood memories and guochao design, or will it repeat the mistakes of Wahaha's milk tea? This article analyzes store design, brand history, market environment, product series, and other aspects, and also focuses on its franchise strategy and future layout, providing a calm observation for coffee and beverage enthusiasts. [more…]

When Tianjin's Goubuli steamed buns also pick up a coffee cup, China's coffee market competition landscape gains another highly talked-about player. From spending heavily in 2014 to acquire the franchise rights in China for the Australian brand Gloria Jean's, to establishing a dedicated coffee food company in 2022, the Goubuli Group's exploration in the coffee sector has spanned more than seven years. How far is the distance between the original vision of opening 200 stores in five years and reality? Facing encirclement by new and old rivals such as Starbucks and China Post, can this time-honored brand find its own place in the coffee track? This article sorts out the key milestones and current situation of Goubuli's cross-industry coffee venture, for coffee enthusiasts' reference. [more…]

A cup of frothy coffee that requires repeated whipping hundreds of times quickly became popular due to the Korean variety show "New Product Launch Convenience Restaurant." During the pandemic, Koreans trapped at home rushed to imitate it, sparking a check-in craze on social platforms. Many people think this was invented in Korea, but its origins actually lie in Macau—at the Han Kee tea stall in an abandoned shipyard in the city's ring district. The owner mixed instant coffee powder, hot water, and granulated sugar in a 1:1:1 ratio, whipping it by hand at high speed to achieve a dense foam after about four hundred strokes. This article traces the origin and principles of this drink, and provides specific steps to recreate it using espresso and an electric milk frother, preserving Front Street Coffee's production demonstration and tasting experience. [more…]

In recent years, the national trend has been on the rise, and local cultural elements have become increasingly common in consumer brands. As a leading brand in the new-style tea beverage sector, Nayuki has abandoned its former Japanese-leaning brand image and transformed Nayuki Dream Factory into an opera space full of Chinese charm, launching more than 20 new Chinese-style pastries represented by mochi and palmiers, with each product corresponding to a classic opera such as The Drunken Concubine, The Peony Pavilion, and Farewell My Concubine. The store also displays traditional theater merchandise such as covered bowls and folding fans, creating an atmosphere of stepping into a traditional opera garden. Previously, Heytea also launched Axi Teahouse incorporating Sichuan opera elements. Against the backdrop of widespread price increases in the tea beverage industry, Heytea attracted market attention with a low price of nine yuan, and whether Nayuki's move into the national-trend pastry track can break through is worth continued attention. [more…]

Freshly roasted coffee beans accumulate a large amount of carbon dioxide internally, and when these gases come into contact with water, they are released rapidly and violently, easily hindering the full contact between water flow and coffee particles. Understanding the internal transformations of coffee beans after roasting can help cafés and coffee enthusiasts identify the point at which aroma unfolds, allowing every cup of coffee to reach its full flavor. [more…]

Cold brew and ice drip are usually recommended to be enjoyed black in coffee shops, so as to savor the unique flavor layers of low-temperature extraction. But for coffee lovers who are keen on making coffee at home, these two types of coffee are far more versatile than that. By adding different ingredients such as fruit, dried flowers, preserved plums, milk, or coconut water, an ordinary cold brew can transform into a completely different taste experience. This article compiles five hidden ways to drink cold brew and ice drip summarized by Front Street Coffee, explaining everything from bean selection to pairing ideas one by one, helping you easily recreate at home the creative specialty drinks sold for fifty yuan a cup in coffee shops. [more…]

How did the Geisha coffee variety transform from an overlooked cultivar into a dazzling star of the global coffee scene? This article begins with the history of Panamanian coffee, delving into the Boquete Valley in Chiriquí Province to explain how volcanic soil and microclimates give Geisha its distinctive floral and fruity aromas. We will also walk through Front Street Coffee's brewing method, presenting the complete process of making a Geisha flat white step by step, and experiencing how the flavors change when milk and coffee blend together. [more…]

Cold brew is usually recommended to be enjoyed black, so as to appreciate the pure flavors and smooth mouthfeel that low-temperature extraction imparts. However, home enthusiasts have long since explored a rich variety of ways to flavor it. Simply by swapping in a different ingredient, cold brew can be transformed into a completely different taste experience. This time, Front Street Coffee has systematically put together five simple and easy-to-make innovative cold brew recipes—from fruit and dried flowers to preserved plums, milk, and coconut water—analyzing the principles of ingredient selection and pairing tips one by one, and offering practical suggestions down to the specific bean varieties and ratios. Whether you prefer bright fruity notes or rich milky flavors, you can find the cup that suits you, and easily recreate at home a limited-edition specialty drink that rivals any coffee shop. [more…]