Coffee culture

Luckin Coffee Plans to Launch New Guiche Plus SOE Series! What is Guiche Queen Coffee Bean?

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee
Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Recently, Luckin Coffee's launch of the Guiche 5.0 SOE coffee beans has been widely discussed. Firstly, Luckin Coffee's low-priced introduction of Guiche SOE has made many competitors envious, while others believe Luckin Coffee is degrading specialty coffee beans. Secondly, before launching the Guiche SOE, Luckin had insufficient inventory.

Understanding Luckin Coffee's Product Strategy

Recently, Luckin Coffee's launch of the Flower Queen 5.0 coffee bean SOE has sparked widespread discussion. This happened for two main reasons: First, Luckin Coffee's introduction of the Flower Queen SOE at a low price made many competitors envious, with some believing that Luckin was wasting premium coffee beans. Second, before launching the Flower Queen SOE, Luckin's stock was insufficient, selling out in less than ten days. Although they quickly restocked, it was sold out again within days, leading to accusations from many netizens that Luckin was engaging in scarcity marketing once again.

Regarding Luckin's practice of products selling out immediately upon launch, netizens joked: "This year's Flower Queen Dirty is last year's Raw Coconut—getting to drink one depends purely on luck." In response, Luckin Coffee issued an official statement on Weibo on January 11th:

Luckin Coffee official statement on Weibo

At that time, Luckin Coffee explained: For this production season (2021), there truly were only about 90 tons of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans available. The second batch of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans also sold out within days of being listed... Theoretically, after the second batch sold out, this SOE should have been discontinued.

However, on February 16th, Luckin Coffee's Chairman and CEO Guo Jinyi, during a meeting with Ethiopian Ambassador to China Teshome Toga, stated: Before the Flower Queen SOE launch, Luckin had indeed only purchased about 90 tons of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans. But! Chinese consumers loved this SOE series so much that the Luckin team practically "intercepted shipping containers at sea," managing to "secure" an additional 39.2 tons of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans just before the Spring Festival, which were roasted and shipped to various city warehouses by February 15th. This means Luckin Coffee ultimately purchased 129.6 tons of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans, becoming the Chinese coffee brand with the largest purchase volume of Flower Queen coffee beans.

Coffee Bean Production Seasons and Supply Chain Challenges

Each year from October to February is the new harvest season for all Ethiopian coffee beans. This means coffee beans harvested from October 2021 to February 2022 are considered the 2022 new season coffee beans, and Flower Queen coffee beans produced during this period are the new 6.0 series. According to the latest news from Coffee Workshop, the 2022 new season Flower Queen 6.0 series coffee beans are expected to arrive in China as early as March this year.

Due to extremely tight shipping conditions in recent years, containers are also very scarce. After booking a container, shipping to China takes at most half a month, but when a container can actually be booked remains unknown. After all, the container shortage in these past two years has reached a level where even with money, bookings are impossible. Luckin's ability to "intercept containers at sea" to secure an additional 39.2 tons of Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans was truly remarkable. Based on last month's sales speed, it's believed this 39.2 tons will also sell out quickly, so everyone should cherish the opportunity to drink it while available.

Coffee beans and packaging

Lessons Learned and Future Plans

Regarding the multiple stockouts of Flower Queen SOE due to insufficient Flower Queen 5.0 coffee beans, the Luckin team stated: This really taught us a lesson! We also clearly understand that launching an SOE with less than 200 tons of green beans is insufficient to meet demand.

Based on current Flower Queen SOE sales performance, Luckin's latest coffee bean purchase order agreement signed on December 21st of last year states that they will complete the purchase of 3,000 tons of high-quality Ethiopian green beans in Ethiopia during the first quarter of 2022, including 80 tons of Sidamo Flower Queen coffee beans.

Coffee bean production process

Obviously, these 80 tons of Flower Queen coffee beans are not enough, so Luckin plans to participate in solving the Flower Queen coffee bean supply issue by establishing closer relationships with the origin. They will start from the aspects of discovering high-quality specialty coffee and assisting in increasing production capacity to meet market demand.

This meeting with the Ethiopian Ambassador to China aims to, with the facilitation and support of the Ethiopian Embassy in China, purchase more Flower Queen coffee beans and launch the Flower Queen PLUS series SOE in the second half of 2022. At that time, the green bean purchase volume for Flower Queen PLUS will exceed 250 tons, and Luckin is expected to become the coffee brand with the largest global purchase volume of Flower Queen PLUS green beans.

Introducing the Flower Queen PLUS

According to reports, this Flower Queen PLUS is not the 2022 new season Flower Queen 6.0 coffee beans, but another sun-dried Ethiopian native variety coffee bean also from the Sidamo Buku Abel processing plant. A domestic green bean supplier has named this coffee bean "Flower Queen Plus," with documentation indicating it as Ethiopia Hambella Buku Abel Queen Plus G1 Natural.

Image source: Internet

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