6,200-yuan cup of coffee gives China's coffee drinkers the jitters

By LI Ye

There’s a widely-circulated meme that tells us we could all be millionaires if we stopped drinking coffee, and it might be true if your coffee costs thousands of yuan.

A Shanghai coffee shop has caused quite a stir by pricing a cup at a staggering 6,200 yuan (US$870).

Cup of comfort

According to the shop, the coffee comes from beans that won Best of Panama (BOP) this year. BOP, organized by the Specialty Coffee Association of Panama (SCAP), has been a benchmark for the specialty coffee industry since 1996. Panamanian coffee growers present their best beans for judges to score, and buyers worldwide bid on them in an online auction.

The Carmen Geisha bean scored a record 96.5 and sold for US$10,005 (72,000 yuan) per kilogram.

These top-tier beans are understandably rare in ordinary coffee shops. SCAP's strict protocol ensures that only a few beans can qualify, making them appear exclusive and expensive. Despite this, acquiring these beans can be relatively straightforward, as some domestic store owners purchase them from Chinese residents in Panama, some of whom own coffee farms. All you need is money.

For almost everyone, these beans seem ridiculously overpriced. One cup of pour-over coffee requires 15 grams of beans, about 1,100 yuan. Costs don’t seem especially higher than those involved in making any other cup of coffee.

Trillion-yuan market

Comparisons are being made to a juice brand called Yecuishan, which garnered widespread interest by pricing a cup of olive juice at 1,000 yuan but later faced investigation for false advertising. Despite this, the brand got a lot of attention, possibly the intended goal of the coffee shop involved.

The outrageous coffee price offers insight into the changes in China's coffee market. There are over 180,000 coffee-related companies in China and the market could reach 1 trillion yuan by 2025.

Hill of beans

To stand out in this competitive landscape, brands are focusing on novelties and specialties. Some combine coffee with any other drink that comes to hand, while others talk about higher-quality products.

March, Luckin sent teams to coffee-producing areas in Africa and Central America to find coffee beans. They brought back the Geisha beans and made three types of coffee that sold for 20 yuan.

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