A Creative Coffee So Subtle It Was Undrinkable

Recently, friends in the Guangdong region may have noticed a new coffee beverage in the drink refrigerator:

"Caramel Popcorn Coffee"

The more "outrageous" a product is, the more this writer wants to try it... So I bought it without hesitation! At the same time, I didn't carefully read the contents on the packaging. When I heard a "ci" sound upon opening it, I didn't think much of it, assuming it was a milk coffee and took a sip...

How should I put it! After taking one sip, I immediately read the packaging contents carefully... "Arabica Coffee," "Zero Sugar Formula," "Creative Coffee Drink," "Bubbles冲击味蕾, sweet caramel popcorn flavor, full of interesting taste experience."

Honestly, I truly felt everything described on the packaging about this coffee beverage. The Arabica black coffee, set against the caramel popcorn flavor, revealed its unique acidity. Paired with fine, dense bubbles, the overall texture layers were further elevated. The zero-calorie sweetener, after the bubbles dissipated, brought a very strong and unique aftertaste to the palate.

I wouldn't say it's bad to drink, just subtle—so subtle that I poured it out after one sip... It's truly not bad to drink, and perhaps friends who like caramel flavors or zero-calorie bubble coffee would enjoy it. The reason I poured it out was because the flavor layers were all very complex, failing to complement each other, instead fighting on my tongue.

The Problem with Creative Coffee

The emergence of creative coffee was originally to give more people who haven't tried coffee an opportunity to encounter it, allowing coffee to showcase its unique charm with the assistance of other ingredients. However, nowadays, whether it's pre-packaged coffee manufacturers or specialty coffee shops, many creative coffee developers' understanding only停留在好看、奇特, forgetting the important matter of flavor pairing...

It's undeniable that every beverage needs to attract everyone visually first to have a chance to be tried, but creative coffees with mismatched ingredients and coffee flavors that make people feel complicated after one sip really cannot help people who don't often drink coffee to like coffee.

I don't exclude that some people might like it, but the launch of every creative coffee product needs to consider public acceptance. Although most consumers who drink creative coffee are not doing so for the coffee itself, I believe consumers can taste the mismatched flavor layers.

Impact on Consumers and Businesses

For consumers, it's just one unworthy coffee experience; for businesses, launching products with no repurchase rate means daily operating costs increase every day, while the brand's reputation will also decline due to a coffee beverage with unreasonable flavor pairing.

The Future of Coffee

I believe that the first cup of coffee for the main future coffee consumer group will start from today's creative coffees. If we want coffee to be loved by more people, if we want more people to be willing to learn and understand coffee, we should start by doing well with products that ordinary consumers can accept.

Image source: Internet

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