Crazy Rich China | Coffee, Luckin, New-Style Tea Drinks and the Beverage Economy begins with a cup that would have looked unusual in much of China only a generation ago: iced coffee ordered on a phone, collected from a compact store and flavoured with coconut milk, jasmine, fruit or something that sits halfway between coffee and tea.
Did you know? Luckin Coffee ended 2025 with 31,048 stores and annual net revenue of about 49.29 billion yuan, up 43% from 2024. Its average monthly transacting customers reached 94.2 million.
China’s wider coffee industry reached about 354.9 billion yuan in 2025, according to a 2026 industry report released in Shanghai, while per-capita annual coffee consumption rose to 28.57 cups.
That makes China coffee, Luckin Coffee, Chinese coffee market, new-style tea drinks, milk tea China and Chinese beverage brands surprisingly rich search territory. This is a story about stores, apps, agriculture, flavour design, delivery and habit formation.
Did You Know? China Built a Mass-Market Coffee Habit Very Quickly
Coffee existed in China long before the current boom.
What changed was frequency.
Large chains, lower prices, dense store networks and app-based ordering turned coffee from an occasional foreign-style experience into an everyday purchase for many urban consumers.
The transformation is important because habits create recurring demand.
Luckin’s 31,000-Store Network Is Really a Data Network
A coffee chain is not just a collection of cafés.
Each transaction creates information about location, timing, flavour preference, promotion response and repeat purchase.
At scale, that data can influence menu design, store placement and promotions.
The beverage becomes part of a feedback system.
Small Stores Can Be a Strategic Choice
Traditional cafés often monetise space and atmosphere.
Many Chinese coffee formats are designed around speed, takeaway and delivery.
A smaller store can lower rent, shorten construction time and place the brand closer to offices or transit nodes.
The business is then optimised around throughput rather than lingering.
Why Mobile Ordering Matters So Much
Ordering before arrival changes the queue.
Payment happens digitally. The store receives demand earlier. Staff can begin production before the customer reaches the counter.
That reduces friction and turns the phone into part of the coffee machine.
The digital interface is not separate from operations. It changes the operations.
The Menu Became a Laboratory
China’s coffee market is unusually experimental.
Coffee is frequently blended with coconut milk, fruit, tea, cheese foam, floral flavours and seasonal ingredients.
Some products would make a traditional espresso purist nervous.
Commercially, however, experimentation is rational.
A chain with millions of customers can test flavour combinations at extraordinary speed.
Tea-Flavoured Coffee Shows Cultural Hybridisation
The 2026 China Urban Coffee Development Report noted growing popularity of tea-infused coffees, including jasmine-flavoured drinks.
This is important because it shows localisation rather than simple imitation.
Coffee becomes more successful when it learns the language of existing taste preferences.
New consumption often grows by connecting unfamiliar products to familiar flavours.
New-Style Tea Drinks Are the Mirror Image
At the same time coffee was becoming more Chinese, Chinese tea was becoming more like a modern beverage platform.
New-style tea brands combine tea with milk, fruit, cheese foam, herbs and seasonal ingredients.
Stores use digital ordering, loyalty programmes and social-media launches much like coffee chains.
Tea and coffee are therefore converging as business models even while remaining distinct products.
The Real Competition Is for Beverage Occasions
Consumers do not wake up thinking only about beverage categories.
They think: I need caffeine. I want something cold. I want dessert. I am meeting a friend. I need a drink on the way to work.
Coffee, tea, milk tea, fruit drinks and bottled beverages compete for those occasions.
That is why menu boundaries blur.
China’s Beverage Economy Is Also an Agriculture Story
Coffee beans and tea leaves begin as crops.
Yunnan is China’s main coffee-growing region and has moved strongly toward higher-value specialty coffee.
The 2026 report cited by Shanghai authorities said the specialty share of Yunnan coffee rose from 8% in 2021 to 31.6% in 2025.
A café trend in Shanghai can therefore influence agricultural upgrading hundreds or thousands of kilometres away.
The Supply Chain Has to Deliver Freshness
Freshly brewed drinks have a short production window.
Milk, fruit, coffee beans, tea leaves, ice and prepared ingredients need reliable cold chains and replenishment.
A chain opening thousands of stores is really building procurement and distribution infrastructure.
The cup looks simple because the complexity has been pushed backward into the supply chain.
Store Density Creates a Habit Loop
Convenience changes behaviour.
If a customer passes three stores on the way to work, coffee becomes easier to choose.
If delivery takes fifteen minutes, the drink becomes an office snack.
If an app remembers the order, the cognitive cost falls again.
Habits grow when friction falls.
Discounting Can Buy Trial—but Not Loyalty Forever
China’s coffee wars have included aggressive coupons and low introductory prices.
Discounts are powerful because they persuade consumers to try a product.
But a business cannot depend forever on paying customers to show up.
Long-term loyalty still depends on flavour, convenience, reliability, price and brand identity.
Why Shanghai Has More Than 10,000 Coffee Shops
Shanghai reached 10,336 coffee outlets in 2025, according to a report released at the 2026 Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival.
That concentration turns coffee into urban culture.
Independent roasters, international chains, Chinese chains, bakeries and tiny neighbourhood shops compete within walking distance.
A dense market makes consumers more sophisticated because comparison is easy.
Coffee Shops Are Social Infrastructure
Not every cup is bought for caffeine.
Cafés provide meeting space, work space, informal date space and neutral social space.
That means the product is partly liquid and partly environment.
Even app-driven chains participate in city life because they create predictable places to meet and pause.
Chinese Beverage Brands Are Going Overseas
Luckin opened stores outside mainland China, including Singapore, Malaysia and the United States.
New-style tea brands are also expanding internationally.
Overseas expansion tests whether a format built for Chinese consumers can survive different rent levels, labour costs, tastes and regulations.
The first international store is a brand experiment as much as a retail opening.
Singapore Is a Perfect Comparison Market
Singapore has strong café culture, kopi traditions, bubble tea, international coffee chains and a dense food-service market.
Chinese beverage brands entering Singapore therefore compete against both global chains and deeply local habits.
That is useful because it reveals what travels well.
Read Making Singapore Rich | Food, F&B and Food Manufacturing and Crazy Rich Singapore | Michelin Stars and the Fine Dining Economy.
Ten Vocabulary Words for Reading the Beverage Economy
- throughput — how many orders a store can process in a period;
- footfall — the number of people passing or entering a location;
- average ticket — average amount spent per transaction;
- repeat purchase — a customer buying again after the first trial;
- store density — concentration of outlets in an area;
- cold chain — temperature-controlled storage and transport;
- SKU — a specific product or menu item tracked in inventory;
- promotion — a temporary offer designed to influence buying;
- localisation — adapting a product to local tastes or conditions; and
- unit economics — the revenue and cost structure of one store, order or product.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Luckin Coffee stores were there at the end of 2025?
Luckin reported 31,048 stores at year-end 2025, including self-operated and partnership stores across its markets.
How large was Luckin’s revenue in 2025?
The company reported net revenue of about 49.29 billion yuan for fiscal year 2025, up 43% year on year.
Is coffee popular in China?
Yes, especially in large cities and among younger urban consumers. Consumption per person remains lower than in some mature coffee markets, which is one reason companies still see room for growth.
What are new-style tea drinks?
They are modern made-to-order beverages combining tea with ingredients such as fresh milk, fruit, cheese foam, herbs and other flavours.
Why do Chinese coffee menus use tea and fruit flavours?
Localisation helps brands connect coffee with familiar flavour preferences and creates frequent new-product launches that encourage repeat visits.
Does China grow coffee?
Yes. Yunnan is the country’s main coffee-growing region and is increasingly associated with specialty coffee.
Helpful Reading Across the China and Singapore Graph
- Crazy Rich China | Chinese Tea, Six Tea Types and Gongfu Brewing
- Crazy Rich China | Chinese Food, Regional Cuisines and the Global Food Economy
- Crazy Rich China | E-Commerce, Online Shopping and the Digital Retail Machine
- Making Singapore Rich | Food, F&B and Food Manufacturing
References and Current Sources
- Luckin Coffee, Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results.
- Shanghai Municipal Government, Shanghai tops over 10,000 coffee shops in 2025.
- Hangzhou Municipal Government / China Daily, New-style Chinese tea drinks reach global consumers.
- National Bureau of Statistics of China, Total Retail Sales of Consumer Goods in December 2025.
The Cup Is a Tiny Behavioural Machine
A drink may contain only a few hundred millilitres.
But the habit around it can support farms, factories, apps, warehouses, stores, couriers, landlords, designers and millions of recurring transactions.
Did you know? That is why coffee and tea are powerful business categories. People finish the product—and then come back tomorrow.