What?! He Fu Noodle Shop Created a Coffee Brand!

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange

Noodle Shops Joining the Coffee Business??

The enthusiasm for coffee shows no sign of cooling this year. For cross-industry players especially, the field looks irresistibly attractive, drawing newcomer after newcomer into the market.

Recently, Hefu Noodles announced its own coffee brand on its official website — "Pick ME's Coffee & Hot Food."

According to the Tianyancha app, in mid-August the chain's parent company, Jiangsu Hefu Catering Management Co., Ltd., applied to register multiple trademarks including "Hefu Cup of Coffee" and "Hefu Cup of Ramen," with international classifications covering advertising sales, convenience foods, beer and beverages, and more. All of the trademarks are currently awaiting substantive examination.

By September 11, Tianyancha showed that applications for "CAFE PICK ME" and "CAFE PICK ME Coffee Convenience Store" were also underway, covering international classifications such as food, alcohol, website services, and convenience foods.

Observers at "Finance Graffiti" noted that the brand logo previously displayed in the website's brand-introduction section read "PICK ME's Coffee Convenience Store," but on the 28th it was replaced with "Pick ME's Coffee & Hot Food."

Hefu Noodles' official website describes "Pick ME's Coffee & Hot Food" as creating "a new coffee consumption pairing, offering young people and office workers a cup of good, affordable coffee, made from quality, green, and healthy ingredients — turning a cup of coffee into a popular lifestyle statement for the young."

About Hefu Noodles

Hefu Noodles is a Chinese direct-operated chain restaurant brand specializing in Chinese noodles, founded in 2012. With the vision of bringing Chinese culinary culture to the world, it champions a "slow catering" philosophy of "nourishing life, nourishing taste," and pioneered an innovative "retail-oriented catering" model.

In its recommended-dishes section, SKUs currently fall into three main categories: coffee, bakery, and hot food. The coffee lineup has two SKUs — the Big White Pear Special Coconut Latte and the Mulberry Special Latte. The bakery category lists three: Fermented Rice Longan European Bread, Honey Mustard Panini, and Sesame Beef Diced Bagel. The hot food bakery category also lists three: Cheese Sausage Yellow Curry Mixed Rice, Italian Cheese Meat Sauce Noodles, and Beef Black Cabbage Mixed Rice.

A "Pick Me's Café" mini-program has also launched, though in its "online ordering" section no store information could be found for major cities yet.

Cross-Industry Expansion in Coffee Market

Compared with overseas markets, China's coffee market still has significant room to grow — and many brands have begun crossing over. Just this month, several newcomers arrived: Xtep (China) Co., Ltd. applied to register the "Xtep Coffee" trademark along with "XTEP COFFEE," while Nayuki took a stake of more than 21.4% in the coffee brand AOKKA Coffee.

Grid Coffee, an independent coffee brand invested in by Kanyun Holding Group (parent company of Yuanfudao), has opened stores in Beijing, positioned as an offline premium coffee chain. According to media reports, it plans to open 20-30 Beijing stores by 2023 and is studying other cities, intending to expand once the model proves successful.

On the 27th, media reported that Dongfang Preferred (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. applied to register trademarks including "Spring Brewing," "Flower Enchanting Smile," "Deep Fragrant Grass," "Entering Black Eyebrows," "Jade Smoke," "Golden Plate Fruit," and "Orange Green Time," all under the convenience foods classification and all still pending. Dongfang Selection previously launched self-operated coffee, with "Spring Brewing" and "Flower Enchanting Smile" serving as names for coffees from different origins.

Market Analysis and Challenges

The coffee market keeps expanding, with young people as its core consumer group — and coffee draws in more of them. For brands with widely distributed store networks, serving coffee in-house spreads costs and generates traffic at low expense. Coffee is also highly adaptable across scenarios and brands: in a milk tea shop, a clothing store, or an office, a cup of coffee is convenient and never seems out of place. But only good environments and genuinely good coffee attract and keep customers. How to fuse brand character with coffee quality is, it seems, the question every cross-industry entrant must answer.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Cross-industry brands betting on coffee know that the drink itself has to be good. FrontStreet Coffee's entry-level specialty beans show what that takes. The Ethiopia Sidamo Huakui (Grandma Guoxiang) lot, prepared by traditional natural processing, bursts with strawberry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey notes — so fruit-forward that many drinkers call it "the coffee that doesn't taste like coffee."

For a gentler introduction, FrontStreet's washed Ethiopia Guji cooperative lot offers jasmine, lemon, and berry notes with a green-tea-like finish, while the Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon provides a soft, sweet, nutty cup that works with or without milk. Three easy-drinking options that prove why coffee keeps winning new fans across China.