Page 76 - #64 eng 电子版

c Opinion

A “No-Wave” Market

It is hard to say which coffee “wave” Luckin has been
tapping into. It promises the high quality of each cup and
invites WBC champion baristas to join the product devel-
opment team, experimenting with bean blends to find the
best for Chinese taste. In the book Blue Bottle Coffee: More
Than a Cup of Good Coffee, the editorial team from Chi-
nese business magazine, CBN Weekly, said that the de-
velopment of the Chinese coffee industry cannot be seen
as a linear one: “There are different segments among
coffee consumers, based on where they live, the culture
they are living in, as well as their habits and preferences.
Some might still prefer what the first wave has brought,
instant coffee; some have already been into specialty cafes
around the corner of the neighborhood.”

Sometimes I drank

three to five cups

of coffee a day.

There must be more
people like me,

but we just don’t

have many options

when we want the

caffeine boost. Luckin is made for young office workers. Last year

numbers International Coffee Organization show that the
annual increase rate of coffee consumption in China is 15%,
higher than the global average (2%); while the average con-
sumption per person is only five to six cups a year (includ-
ing instant coffee), way lower than the 200 cups of Japan.
Luckin believes that office workers, with huge need for
daily caffeine boost, will contribute largely to the consump-

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