I wonder if everyone has had the "first cup of milk tea in autumn"? I believe that the day of the beginning of autumn is the "spring" for various catering brands. The grammar seems contradictory, but for today's milk tea brands, it is indeed a "brief spring." It is said that the sales of various milk tea brands on that day set new records. I don't know what kind of magic makes these eight words so deeply rooted in people's hearts. If we talk about the brand that is most envious, it must be Luckin Coffee, after all, it is the first cup of milk tea, not coffee. However, Luckin launched a new product that was unexpected, which made milk tea brands uneasy.

On August 5th, Luckin launched a "heavyweight" new product called "Light Jasmine." At first, I thought it was a new tea coffee, but when I learned about the new product, I found out that it actually contains no coffee. It is a cup of milk tea, and the preparation is quite complicated with many ingredients to add. Luckin also promoted it with the slogan "Morning coffee, afternoon milk tea." Even more surprising is that they found Liu Yifei as the spokesperson. At that time, I joked that maybe they couldn't afford Liu Yifei, so they collaborated with her on the drama "The Story of the Rose." It turns out they had a big move planned. The combination of the "national goddess" and "nine yuan nine" undoubtedly ignited consumer enthusiasm.

On the day of the launch, I had to go to work. I am a bit lazy, and I usually don't remember new product formulas because I think that even if I remember for a while, I will forget it as soon as I turn around. It's easier to remember by doing it. But I have a deep impression because that day I encountered many obstacles. This new product has two cup sizes: one is a large cup, and the other is an extra-large cup. Isn't this just the medium and large cups in milk tea? However, the price difference between the two cup sizes is not significant, and undoubtedly many people ordered the extra-large cup. But the design of the cup made me wonder if there was any plagiarism involved.

The cup features a blue and white floral packaging and is named "Light Milk Tea," which is said to have a calorie count equivalent to about one and a half apples. However, there is an interesting phrase in the poster: "Real milk, good tea." I wondered why they specifically emphasized these words. "Real milk" is easy to explain because many cheap milk tea shops do not use real milk but replace it with non-dairy creamer, which is definitely unhealthy if consumed long-term. But why use "good tea" instead of "real tea"? That means the tea used by Luckin is not brewed from tea leaves but made from tea powder.

So on the first day of the launch, many people said, "This is simply a substitute for Bo Ya's 'Jue Xian'." Luckin's price is nine yuan nine, while the cheapest from Bawang Chaji is sixteen yuan. And for Bawang Chaji, "Bo Ya's Jue Xian" is equivalent to Luckin's signature product, the fresh coconut latte. Luckin's high-profile launch of this product is undoubtedly a clear declaration of war against Bawang Chaji, one being the "big brother" of the coffee world and the other the "Starbucks" of the milk tea world. However, as a working person, I naturally don't like it because the preparation process for Light Jasmine is quite complicated. Compared to Bawang Chaji's modern machines, we have to pay attention to what materials to add and how much. I consider myself not slow at making orders, but on the first day of the launch, the efficiency was particularly low. The average time to make a cup of milk tea was two to three times that of coffee, so even if it wasn't very busy, it was still "slow."

Now, businesses are increasingly in a state of internal competition. Luckin, which was once the king of competition, still feels it is not enough. In the coffee industry, it has already taken many competitors down, but Luckin's ambitions go beyond that. Ever since I saw it start selling lemon tea, I began to wonder if one day it would also sell milk tea? Because for Luckin, having a wide variety of products has never been a problem. After all, with so many raw materials, they can easily combine them to create new products to sell. I just didn't expect it to start selling so quickly and show a determination to compete thoroughly.

I think Luckin's current launch of a milk tea product is just to test the waters and see the market reaction. This is not the first time Luckin has sold milk tea; previously, its sub-brand, Xiao Lu Cha, specifically focused on the milk tea route. Unfortunately, the market response was not of interest to consumers. Now that Luckin is stepping into the milk tea market again, it is not only due to the confidence gained from turning losses into profits but also shows that Luckin not only wants to capture the coffee market but is also not letting go of the milk tea market. The milk tea industry is already quite competitive, with various brands and a wide range of prices. However, Luckin's "crossing boundaries" has made milk tea brands start to worry, especially since many brands are experiencing a downward trend in revenue.

Although Luckin is clearly stepping into the milk tea market, it doesn't mean that there are no brands in the milk tea industry that have crossed boundaries. For example, the milk tea brand Nayuki has also launched coffee products. Recently, Bawang Chaji also introduced a new product called "Wanli Mulan." Many people who have bought and tried it felt a racing heartbeat and couldn't sleep at night. As a result, some people specifically took it for testing and found that the caffeine content in a cup of Wanli Mulan is comparable to that of a latte. In other words, milk tea can also replace coffee for a pick-me-up.

With Luckin's launch of the Light Jasmine product, I boldly speculate that the next new product will definitely be related to cheese milk cap milk tea. Although I rarely drink milk tea, many of my friends who do enjoy milk tea products with milk caps. Besides that, I also think that brown sugar pearl milk tea is very likely because the most famous brand for brown sugar pearl milk tea is Chen Wending. Plus, Luckin already has a brown sugar pearl coffee called Meteor Latte, which is simply replacing coffee with tea. However, as a working person, I hope they don't add too many products; there are already too many.

Why does Luckin want to step into the milk tea market again? I think there are several reasons. The first is to increase profit points and reduce waste. Luckin's product line is very diverse. I don't know if you have difficulty choosing when ordering from Luckin, but having many choices is good for consumers, but not for businesses. Because Luckin's material has a shelf life of only two days once opened, if not sold out, it can only be discarded. For some stores with low order volumes, a lot of materials have to be wasted. The store I work at has an average daily order volume of only over three hundred, so basically, a lot of materials have to be discarded every day, resulting in a high waste rate.

The second reason is that they want to sell milk tea not only during working hours but also at other times. The usage scenarios for coffee are limited. In the place where I work, it is usually busy in the morning or at noon because many workers need to buy coffee to stay awake. However, starting in the afternoon, not many people buy coffee anymore; instead, they drink milk tea. Compared to coffee, the consumer group for milk tea is much larger, and the scenarios are more diverse. Therefore, Luckin selling milk tea is also hoping to become one of the choices for consumers in the evening.

The competition between brands is becoming increasingly intense, but the increase has already become exhausting. Many brands are experiencing declining profits and even starting to incur losses. If this continues, I can't imagine what the market will become. Many startups are already unable to sustain themselves and are closing down, replaced by one batch after another. Recently, while shopping in the city bridge area, I found that many stores that had been open for a long time could not bear the burden and closed down. More often, they are putting up signs for leasing, and some even offer six months of rent-free periods, hoping that the market environment will gradually improve in the future.