Is Luckin Coffee's Guji 5.0 Coffee Bean Authentic? Can Luckin Monopolize the Market by Purchasing Guji Coffee Beans?

The Luckin Coffee and Guji Coffee Bean Controversy

Since Luckin Coffee announced it would purchase over 80 tons of Guji coffee beans from their origin in the first quarter of 2022 and launch the SOE Guji 5.0 series nationwide, coffee professionals and brewing enthusiasts have widely condemned the move. The sentiment after reading the news was likely similar to that of the barista in this video.

The Challenge of Crafting Quality SOE Espresso

After watching the video, baristas might feel their blood pressure rising! The barista in the video used lightly roasted specialty-grade coffee beans to extract espresso, which the customer then poured into a glass filled with ice, adding light milk and cream before tasting... From the perspective of a barista or specialty coffee enthusiast, this is truly heartbreaking. Why?

Making a delicious SOE (Single Origin Espresso) is already challenging enough, but extracting a lightly roasted coffee bean into an SOE without harsh acidity, astringency, or eye-watering sourness is nearly impossible!

The purpose of light roasting is to preserve more flavor and acidity in coffee beans. For pour-over coffee, this increased acidity makes the coffee refreshing, but for espresso extraction, increased acidity can easily cause flavor imbalance. The purpose of SOE extraction is actually to help change the public's perception that "espresso is just bitter" – allowing people to experience clean acidity and clear flavor layers when tasting espresso, without any unpleasant mouthfeel.

To extract such a perfect light roast SOE, beyond requiring high-quality green beans, customized roasting approaches, and daily monitoring of the roasted beans' condition, it also requires baristas to clearly understand the coffee beans and develop extraction strategies – adjusting daily based on the beans' condition – ultimately presenting customers with an SOE featuring distinct, clear flavor layers, where acidity, sweetness, and crema are perfectly balanced.

So for baristas, every successful SOE represents tremendous effort. When seeing customers receive their SOE only to immediately add sugar, milk, or cream without first tasting it, it's natural to feel heartbroken... Of course! The customer has paid for the coffee, and how they choose to drink it is their own decision. As baristas, we have no right to interfere. But holding back from speaking up while fighting back tears becomes inevitable...

The Industry's Perspective on Luckin's Approach

The reason coffee professionals condemned Luckin Coffee for using Guji coffee beans for SOE and launching it nationwide comes down to this: To ensure consistent SOE quality across 5,000+ stores, Luckin chose to roast the Guji beans darker, reducing the beans' natural acidity and flavor, minimizing quality variations between stores, rather than training baristas on SOE characteristics and how to extract delicious SOE. However, Guji coffee beans are specifically valued for their berry-like sweet and sour characteristics and juice-like full body. This dark roasting approach, in the eyes of industry professionals and specialty coffee enthusiasts, is nothing short of sacrilege.

The statement by Li Guoqing in the video: "If you're running a chain, using blend beans would be fine. Other chain stores don't bother with specialty beans. Why are you doing this? Trying to disrupt the market? Who can even tell the difference!" likely stems from the same perspective: if Luckin chose to use Guji 5.0 beans for SOE, they should showcase the flavor characteristics of Guji 5.0 beans in their SOE products. To promote specialty coffee culture, you need to show consumers the difference between single-origin specialty coffee and espresso made from blended beans through the final product, rather than dark-roasting specialty beans and extracting them with the same "casual" approach, leaving consumers unable to taste the difference while paying more.

A Broader Perspective on Market Impact

But does Luckin Coffee really not deserve to use Guji coffee beans? Obviously not – they purchased these beans fair and square, without competition or theft, so they can do as they please. Whether their intention is to genuinely promote specialty coffee culture or to attract public attention through popular Guji 5.0 beans, purchasing at reasonable prices provides income for coffee farmers, enabling them to cultivate coffee trees and process beans more scientifically, ultimately producing higher-quality coffee beans. Is this really a case of armchair criticism?

By acquiring quality beans and selling them at lower prices (regardless of flavor), this approach does increase public awareness of "specialty coffee" as a concept, moving beyond just understanding the difference between instant and fresh-ground coffee. For the entire coffee market chain, this is beneficial, rather than simply debating whether Luckin's approach wastes coffee beans or attempts to monopolize the market and drive up coffee prices.

The world is vast, and there's much to be done. If we remain stuck in narrow perspectives discussing others' shortcomings, that's hardly honorable. If you think Luckin's approach is unreasonable, then take action to change it, rather than standing behind the scenes stirring up public opinion. The rising price of Guji coffee beans has little to do with Luckin – Luckin purchases directly from the origin, while regular coffee shops can only buy from domestic green bean suppliers. The annual production of Guji coffee beans is limited, and this 1000+ ton production serves the entire world, not just China.

In our view, Luckin's use of quality beans for espresso is somewhat wasteful, but it hardly constitutes market monopolization. Taking 80 tons out of 1000+ tons is just 8% – how could that create a monopoly? Obviously impossible. Guji beans are expensive because other domestic green bean suppliers import small quantities. The solution to high prices is simple: increase import volume, and prices will naturally decrease. Taking a step back, even if all 1000+ tons of Guji were bought up, Africa would still have excellent beans – Guji coffee beans aren't the only option.

Sources and References

First original video: TikTok (chefauthorized)
Content provider: Weibo (Huangpu Chunma)
Image sources: Internet, video screenshots, Coffee Workroom comment section screenshots

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