It has been a while since I last wrote an article. I was sick for quite some time and didn't have the mood or thoughts to write. Today, feeling a bit better, I wanted to write about several new products that Luckin Coffee has recently launched. Undoubtedly, I will have to memorize the recipes again, but fortunately, Luckin's recipes follow a formula: a certain amount of syrup or flavoring plus milk up to the measurement line, which remains constant. For someone like me, who isn't very quick-witted, this is quite friendly. The following new products are reviewed based on my own taste, so please don't criticize if you don't like them.

The first new product I want to introduce is Luckin's Christmas Canelé Latte and Christmas Sweetheart Latte. Both of these were launched during Christmas. At first, I was wondering what a Canelé Latte was, but it has a strong caramel aroma. After searching, I found out that Canelé is a small dessert from France, with spices like vanilla and rum, baked to have a rich caramel scent. Luckin's method is to use this Canelé-flavored syrup combined with milk, topped with whipped cream and chocolate bits.

The Canelé gives me a feeling of strong aroma, which might even be too strong for me since I rarely drink things with syrup. However, if you usually enjoy baked goods, you might want to try this new product. As for the Christmas Sweetheart, you can tell from its color that it is related to strawberries, and it is also made with flavored syrup. The preparation methods are quite similar, but in terms of color, the Sweetheart is more appealing because the Canelé is overall yellow, so the pink is more attractive, although the flavor profiles are quite different.

There are also two new products related to oranges: one is the Orange Americano and the other is the Oolong Orange Latte. First, let's talk about the Oolong Orange Latte. It's quite funny; I really have no cultural knowledge and didn't know how to pronounce "Oolong" at first, I read it as "Zhu," but later a colleague told me it is pronounced "Chu." Luckin's slogan is "Wish for Orange," and the official introduction states that it is made with selected ice sugar oranges to create the syrup, then combined with cheese thick milk. The cup I had was hot, and compared to the cold version, it had more milk, so the orange flavor wasn't very strong. It had a good blend because the sweet and sour of the orange balanced the richness of the milk, giving a refreshing feeling.

Then there's the Orange Americano. If you often drink Luckin, you might find it familiar. Isn't it like the Orange C Americano's sibling? Actually, that's correct; even the preparation method is the same, which is concentrated juice mixed with water and coffee. Since the launch of Orange C, it has received great reviews. I also enjoy drinking it during work, but I don't add much coffee liquid because orange juice is sour, and coffee is bitter; combining the two can be quite strange, though adding sugar solves that. However, oranges are more sour than oranges, so many people still prefer Orange C a bit more.

Luckin has always had a tea coffee series, featuring some well-known Chinese tea varieties, including Biluochun and Tieguanyin. However, Luckin has launched a new product called the New Year Red Dragon Latte. I think it should be black tea. If we talk about the most famous black tea in Guangdong, it should be Yingde black tea, famously known as Yinghong No. 9. But this time, they used red oolong tea, not brewed tea leaves, but red oolong tea flavored syrup. It seems that as long as Luckin has syrup, they can launch dozens of new products.

The Red Dragon Latte feels like a Hong Kong-style Yuanyang, but the tea flavor in Hong Kong-style Yuanyang is very strong. The flavor of this red oolong leans more towards the taste of the tea we usually brew, and the milk flavor is not as strong as Yuanyang, as Yuanyang uses evaporated milk, which is much richer. However, it does have its own sweetness, so it doesn't have the richness of Yuanyang; instead, it has a smooth texture. A colleague said that if you don't add coffee, it really resembles a cup of milk tea, and if you add some tapioca pearls, it becomes a real milk tea.

The last new product is the Sauce Fragrance Chocolate, launched after the Sauce Fragrance Latte. I still remember the enthusiastic response when the Sauce Fragrance Latte was first introduced, which made Luckin go viral. Luckin even had a special red cup for the Sauce Fragrance Latte. Although you often hear about Luckin's 9.9 yuan pricing, not all coffees can be priced at 9.9 yuan. The price of the Sauce Fragrance Latte has remained quite firm, so now there are very few people buying it. During my work hours, there are hardly any cups of Sauce Fragrance Latte, and even the special sauce-flavored cream is no longer made, reverting to the original cream.

Luckin might be thinking of clearing out the inventory of the flavored thick milk, so they launched a new product called the Year of the Dragon Sauce Fragrance Chocolate. The preparation is also quite simple: chocolate pre-mixed liquid combined with flavored thick milk and milk. The taste is dominated by chocolate, while the flavor of the liquor is not very prominent, almost like eating a chocolate with a liquor center. For me, it is really very sweet and rich. While many tea beverage industries are starting to reduce sugar, Luckin is going against the trend. However, it probably won't reach the height of the Sauce Fragrance Latte.

However, there is good news: now handwashing doesn't have to be done every hour; it has changed to every two hours, which seems to show that public pressure has had some effect, although there isn't much difference overall. As for the new products, the flavors are subjective, but there is also a new single item, the Bean Rose Summer, which is quite good. However, the small black cup basically has no discounts, and the single bean espresso still feels a bit lacking. Interested friends can give it a try. In the next article, I plan to talk about Luckin's year-end activities.