Coffee experts in Shenzhen blind test: Luckin Coffee latte has the highest willingness to repurchase

Traveling in the crowded subway, the fast pace of the city makes people keep shuttling between different stations. No one stays in the same place for too long. More people choose to keep moving forward without stopping... Without coffee to sustain their lives, it is hard to imagine how they can turn day and night upside down, be tireless, and be online 24 hours a day.

Following the Guangzhou coffee blind tasting, "China Quality Tour" teamed up with Shenzhen News Network to meet with 20 coffee lovers (including 5 media professionals, 5 practitioners, 5 senior coffee lovers, and 5 coffee lovers) and brought a new round of coffee blind tasting activities.

This time, we selected latte and Americano from four representative coffee brands, Starbucks, Luckin Coffee, COSTA, and Pacific Coffee, as the evaluation objects.

Adhering to the fairness and impartiality of the evaluation, we conducted a comprehensive blind coffee test based on five dimensions: coffee delivery time, cost index, appearance, blind taste test, and comprehensive index.

In order to give a comprehensive evaluation of the delivery time, cost index and appearance of the four coffees, we selected two time periods: the peak delivery period at noon (note: two coffees of each brand were ordered at the same time) and the afternoon workday (note: to ensure the taste of the coffee, the order was placed in the order of the evaluation) to place orders, and recorded the order time, delivery time, delivery speed, etc. At the same time, in order to reduce the error caused by the location and distance of the coffee shop, all the evaluated coffees were from takeout.

In terms of delivery time, Starbucks is closest to the blind test point and has the shortest delivery time; Luckin Coffee has better delivery time performance during the noon delivery peak period; Pacific Coffee’s longest delivery time is 52 minutes.

Since each brand of coffee has different preferential measures and delivery fees on each platform, this table calculates the price of 6 cups of each product purchased during the evaluation. Therefore, 6 cups of each product were purchased during the evaluation and their appearance was observed uniformly. (Note: The actual price includes delivery fees and discounts)

From the overall objective indicators, we can see that in terms of price, Starbucks, COSTA and Pacific Coffee can enjoy discounts on third-party platforms, but they need to pay a certain delivery fee; while Luckin Coffee can participate in the "charge 2 get 1 free" activity when purchased on its APP, and actually pay the price of 4 cups for 6 cups. Overall, Luckin Coffee has the best value for money.

The taste and smell of coffee is also the most important factor in evaluating a cup of coffee, which determines everyone's first impression and preference for coffee. The taste and smell of coffee are closely related to the type of coffee beans, the caramelization of coffee during the roasting process, the combination of various raw materials, and the barista's production technology. Since everyone has different acceptance levels of coffee concentration, the evaluation is often subjective.

So, what kind of taste do people prefer between these two flavors of coffee? Which brand do they prefer? What are the unique features of these four brands?

Latte (hot) blind test

"Latte" is not coffee. In Italian, latte means "milk". Latte is a classic mixture of Italian espresso and milk. People who love to drink latte, rather than saying that they like coffee, it is better to say that they like the unforgettable taste brought by milk.

According to a coffee statistics report, the annual growth rate of China's coffee consumption market is as high as 16%, far higher than the world average. In 15 of the 16 cities participating in the survey, the sales champion is latte. Unlike foreigners who are fond of pure black coffee without milk or sugar, Chinese people prefer coffee varieties with rich milk flavor and sweet taste. Among them, the combination of "coffee + milk + sugar" has the highest sales.

In the blind test of latte coffee, blind testers evaluated it from five dimensions: aroma, smoothness, mellowness, bitterness, aftertaste and overall evaluation.

After four rounds of "blind drinking", Luckin Coffee was rated the best in terms of aroma, mellowness, bitterness and aftertaste, while Starbucks was rated the best in terms of smooth taste.

Based on the real scores given by 20 coffee experts during the "blind drinking" process, we have carefully compiled a coffee taste table for your reference: (Ratings are rounded to two decimal places)

Aroma is the best indicator of coffee production and roasting technology, and is also the lifeblood of coffee quality. The climate, elevation, variety, refining, harvest, storage, and whether the roasting technology in the consumer country is appropriate at the production site are all factors that affect the aroma of coffee beans. Luckin Coffee's "Latte" coffee scores much higher in "aroma" than other brands.

The body refers to the feeling of fullness and weight of coffee in the mouth. The feeling of oiliness and smoothness and the feeling of "heaviness", thickness and stickiness of coffee, these two constitute the body of coffee. Luckin's "Latte" coffee is the most mellow, and the mellow aroma of coffee and rich milk aroma slowly linger in the mouth after taking it, and the body is the best.

The source of bitterness has been confirmed to be chlorogenic acid lactone molecules, which are decomposed from chlorogenic acid during the roasting process of coffee beans. During the roasting process of coffee beans, the molecules of chlorogenic acid lactone will increase as the degree of roasting deepens. When lightly and medium roasted, a mild bitterness is produced, which is the characteristic and pleasant bitterness of coffee that coffee lovers love. As the roasting time increases, the molecules of chlorogenic acid lactone are decomposed again and replaced by ethylene catechol polymers, which is the source of the strong bitter substance. Therefore, if you want the coffee you brew to have a high-level and refreshing bitterness, in addition to the good quality of the raw beans, you also need to have rich knowledge and skills from roasting to soaking. Luckin's "Latte" coffee performs best in "bitterness".

Aftertaste refers to the feeling that lingers in your mouth after you drink the coffee. The stronger the acidity and bitterness in the coffee, and the better the balance, the more obvious the sweetness of the coffee. Generally speaking, the better the quality of the coffee beans, the more obvious the sweetness of the aftertaste.

The overall evaluation of latte coffee is: Luckin Latte won the championship, Starbucks ranked second, and Pacific scored the lowest.

In terms of willingness to repurchase, Pacific Coffee's latte has a poor taste, so very few people are willing to buy it again; Luckin Coffee's latte has better quality and taste, lower price, and high cost performance, and the willingness to repurchase and recommend it to friends is the strongest.

Americano (hot) blind test

"American coffee" has a lighter taste and is the most common coffee in the coffee family. It is made with a fully automatic coffee machine, which uses hot water and normal pressure to extract coffee, which is convenient and fast.

The extraction time of American coffee is relatively long (about four or five minutes), so the caffeine content is relatively high. Therefore, it has a very high target audience and its order rate in coffee shops has always been very high. It is jokingly called the "life-saving artifact."

In the blind test of American coffee, blind testers evaluated it from nine dimensions including positive sensory and flavor (including aroma, body, balance and aftertaste), defects (including smoke, bitterness, stale taste and other four dimensions) and overall evaluation.

Based on the real scores given by 20 coffee experts during the "blind drinking" process, we have also compiled a coffee taste table for your reference: (Ratings are rounded to two decimal places)

After four rounds of "blind drinking", we can see from the data in the table that in terms of positive sensory and flavor, Starbucks was rated best in the balance dimension, Luckin Coffee was rated best in the aroma and aftertaste dimensions, and Pacific Coffee was rated best in the mellowness dimension.

In terms of defects, Pacific Coffee performed poorly in the two dimensions of smoke and bitterness; COSTA performed poorly in the stale taste and the other two dimensions; Starbucks was average; Luckin Coffee had the least deductions in the four dimensions of defects and performed the best, which can be said to be "outstanding highlights".

Coffee experts have something to say

The 20 coffee experts were quite satisfied with the taste and quality of Luckin Coffee, a rising star. In particular, Luckin's latte coffee has outstanding highlights in terms of aroma, mellowness, bitterness and aftertaste, satisfying the coffee taste of most people.

After the blind test, we also asked some coffee experts for their valuable opinions.

As a coffee connoisseur, Ms. L usually only drinks hand-brewed coffee and occasionally buys Starbucks coffee. She thinks the quality of Luckin Coffee in this blind test is quite good, and some coffee varieties, such as latte, taste better than Starbucks.

Among coffee experts, Xiaobai described his daily coffee consumption as "no upper limit". He gave high marks to American coffee from Starbucks and Luckin Coffee. As for latte, although he gave Starbucks a higher score, considering the overall performance, he would rather recommend Luckin Coffee to his friends.

Xiao Ran, a coffee expert, is a student who has been coffee-coffeeing for three years. She wrote the evaluation form very carefully. In terms of the overall evaluation of American coffee, she thinks that Starbucks has a lighter taste, a longer aftertaste, and is overall soft; Luckin Coffee has a long-lasting aroma in the mouth, and she is willing to buy it again; Pacific Coffee is too bitter and the taste is totally unacceptable.

Based on the subjective evaluation feelings of the coffee experts who participated in this "blind tasting", one phenomenon cannot be ignored: coffee practitioners and senior coffee enthusiasts have a relatively positive overall evaluation of Luckin Coffee, media people prefer Starbucks in some dimensions, and coffee lovers decide their purchasing intention based on the intensity of each brand's coffee activities.

We hope that this conscientious coffee evaluation, which is based on the sensory experience of coffee experts, can provide a reference for consumers and coffee brands, thereby promoting the healthy development of the Chinese coffee market. However, due to different personal tastes, the above results only represent the valuable opinions of 20 coffee experts.