8 takeaway coffee reviews: What we lack is a cup of really good coffee

“There are many companies that dare to challenge Starbucks, but none that can surpass it in quality.”

If there is a food that you can become addicted to both mentally and physically, it's probably dangerous, but there's no doubt that coffee, the world's most addictive beverage, is one of them.

The growing Internet craze is also sweeping the coffee industry. Luckin Coffee and Lian Coffee are the latest players to join the battle, providing interesting apps and more choices.

However, judging from the taste and delivery time alone, the traditional coffee delivery business can achieve similar efficiency by relying on local life service providers such as Ele.me. Therefore, this tasting study is not only about the delivery time, but also hopes to find out whether these newcomers provide better options in terms of flavor.

When reviewing designs, we were frustrated to find that almost all takeout or store coffee options did not include espresso as a takeout option.

In fact, the basic flavor of all the coffee in a store is determined by Espresso.

Espresso is not only a finished product, but also the raw liquid of all Italian fancy coffee. Almost all fancy coffees such as cappuccino, latte, mocha and macchiato are blended by espresso and various auxiliary materials such as milk, milk foam, chocolate sauce, fresh cream, etc.

Therefore, not being able to directly taste espresso affected our understanding of the basics of a coffee shop's products. To this end, we chose iced Americano as a compensation. Although Americano has the word "American" in its name, it is essentially a type of Italian fancy coffee, made from 1-3 cups of espresso mixed with hot or ice water.

It is said that this kind of coffee was made by American soldiers during World War II who diluted it with water because they could not adapt to the strong espresso in Europe. The specific ratio varies from store to store.

The reason for choosing American style is that it is the option with the least deviation in taste from the original Espresso liquid. Of course, due to the dilution of water and the interference of a large amount of ice cubes, it cannot fully reflect the level of Espresso.

In addition to the quality of coffee, a topic that Crazy Stomach is particularly concerned about is the impact of coffee on health. Although for this tasting, we tasted dozens of cups of coffee in a morning and consumed excessive amounts of caffeine.

It is worth mentioning that if you are sensitive to caffeine, you should especially avoid American coffee. Although espresso looks strong, its coffee beans are highly roasted, the production (extraction) time is very short, and the capacity is very small (about 40ml per cup), so although it looks strong, the caffeine content is not too high.

A seemingly harmless cup of American coffee is made from several cups of espresso and water, so if you always drink a large cup of American coffee, you will actually consume a lot more caffeine. Other Italian coffees also have this problem. For example, espresso accounts for about 33% of a cup of cappuccino. Drinking a large cup (300ml-400ml) of fancy coffee will also consume the content of 2-4 cups of espresso, so the bigger the cup, the more cost-effective it is.

Another index that we are very concerned about is the sugar content of coffee. I won’t go into details about the harm of a high-sugar diet to health. We want to tell you through our tasting test which coffees have a high sugar content and need extra attention. For this reason, we chose two other tasting focuses, cappuccino and caramel macchiato. The reason for choosing the former is that it is more popular, and tasting it can show a store’s sense of proportion in using sugar. The reason for choosing caramel macchiato is that it is a type of coffee with a high sugar content based on its design principle, and we want to see how exaggerated these merchants can be in using sugar.

Coffee will never be better the sweeter it is, but for Chinese consumers, high sweetness often means a smoother taste and more popular among young people, so the abuse of high sugar is a phenomenon worthy of vigilance, and it is also the reason why we must give everyone some consumption guidance.

At the end of the tasting, we weighed the weight of the coffee packaging other than the coffee cups. This dimension is to evaluate the environmental awareness of a coffee shop. Using heavy packaging certainly increases the texture of the product, but it also wastes more wood and paper. This option has nothing to do with the taste, but it is still worth our attention. (Because the outer packaging of some coffees was not completely preserved, only some brands with records are included here, and they are not counted in the tasting results.)

Starbucks recommendation score: 4.3

Everything is as expected

Delivery took 27 minutes

Ordered at 10:33 and delivered at 11:00

Iced Americano

Temperature: 10.7℃

Flavor:

It was unsurprisingly bland, perhaps because too much water was added?

Cappuccino

Temperature: 50.6℃

Flavor: 4 points

Sugar content: 13.5%

Starbucks coffee is so familiar to people, this cappuccino has a good balance and coffee aroma, other than that, there is not much else.

latté

Temperature: 50.8℃

From the fact that the temperatures of the two cups of hot coffee are so close, we can see that Starbucks’ standardization strength is really very strong, which is a strength not reflected in any other coffee.

Flavor: 4 points

Sugar content: 11.5%

Latte means milk in Italian. This cup of coffee also has a very standard milky taste, giving people a familiar and safe feeling.

Packing weight : 50g

Pacific Coffee Recommendation Score: 4.1

The old have their own persistence, the slow have no reason to be slow

Delivery took 1 hour and 21 minutes

I placed the order at 10:39 and it was delivered at 12:00. It was really slow.

Iced Americano

Temperature: 5.8℃

Flavor: 4.5 points

Pacific's iced Americano is undoubtedly the best iced Americano this time. It is rich, fragrant, layered and has a great taste.

Mocha

Temperature: 50.3℃

Flavor: 4 points

Sugar content: 11%

There aren't too many surprises, but because of the good base, it's pretty good overall. The sugar content is only 11 degrees, which is a relatively low sugar content for mocha that requires chocolate, which is commendable.

Lian Coffee Coffee Box Recommendation score: 4

The taste is unique and innovative, and the packaging can be more environmentally friendly

Delivery time: 1 hour 5 minutes & 38 minutes

First time: Ordered at 10:53 and delivered at 11:58

Second time: Ordered at 9:38 and delivered at 10:16

Iced Americano

Temperature: 4℃

Flavor: 4 points

This is one of the more flavorful ones in this tasting, with a more prominent bitterness and a slight herbal taste, but the overall taste is harmonious and has its own characteristics.

Toffee Hazelnut Latte

Temperature: 59.2℃

After an hour of delivery, the temperature of the coffee still got the second place, which is commendable. Of course, this is also related to its particularly thick packaging.

Flavor: 4.1 points

Sugar content: 15.5%

Like Luckin Coffee, Lian Coffee's fancy coffee also seems a bit sweet in experience, with a strong drink feel. But the flavors of hazelnut and toffee are still present, indicating that the details are still well handled.

Bulletproof Coffee

Temperature: 59.7℃

Flavor: 4.3

Sugar content: less than 3%

In fact, we highly recommend that you try Lian Coffee’s specialty – Bulletproof Coffee, which is indeed very strong. Although some people think it has too many calories, it should be fine to drink it occasionally.

The inventor of Bulletproof Coffee is said to be Dave Asprey. He once had altitude sickness in Tibet. The locals gave him Tibetan yak butter tea, which quickly relieved his symptoms. Dave Asprey returned to the United States and added animal butter and coconut oil to black coffee to invent Bulletproof Coffee, which is said to make people feel more energetic.

There is controversy over bulletproof coffee. Supporters believe that it is a ketogenic diet that helps lose weight, while opponents believe that it will consume a lot of calories and fat, which is a health hazard. But in any case, it is a fact that it has become very popular recently. We recommend that Crazy Stomach fans give it a try because the taste is indeed unique, or in other words, very good.

Package weight : 199 g

This is the highest among all the packaging this time. We think it is a bit over-packed, although it is very sturdy. In addition, Lian Coffee is the only merchant that does not use environmentally friendly paper bags but plastic bags.

Luckin Coffee Recommendation Score: 4

The coffee is highly standardized, the sweetness is generally high, and the coffee taste is not strong.

Delivery took 11 minutes

Ordered at 10:19, delivered at 10:30

Iced Americano

Temperature 5±1℃

Flavor 4 points

The coffee beans are roasted to a high degree, showing a strong burnt taste, average bitterness, and moderate acidity, but the layers are not sufficient. Overall, this is not a strong style of coffee.

Luckin Coffee is one of the few companies that claims to use 100% Arabica coffee beans. This logo seems to mean higher quality and more sincerity. But we think it has little impact on the final product. In fact, there are cheaper coffees (such as KFC) that also use this rhetoric. However, in all markets, the 100% Arabica label will be slightly more expensive.

However, most commercial coffees are blended with some Robusta coffee beans, and Luckin Coffee deserves praise for its persistence in this regard.

Cappuccino

Temperature: 64.2℃

It is generally believed that the most suitable temperature for coffee when it is poured into the cup is 65 degrees.

However, most of the brands in this test did not reach this level. Luckin's cappuccino's 64.2 degrees was the highest level we tested this time, which is enough to show its strict quality control. Of course, this may also have something to do with the fact that there is a Luckin store nearby.

Flavor: 3.9 points

Sugar content: 16.5%

Luckin’s cappuccino has a smooth taste, but the aroma of the coffee is not prominent enough, which is related to its high sugar content. The sugar content of 16.5 degrees is higher in this tasting.

What does this mean? A cup of standard Coca-Cola has a sugar content of 10 degrees, which means that this cup of coffee is more than 1.5 times sweeter than Coke. This is obviously to cater to the tastes of young people. So we recommend that everyone choose half sugar when choosing Luckin Coffee.

Caramel Macchiato

Temperature: 58.2℃

The top scores in this test

Flavor: 3.8 points

Sugar content: 15%

Too much sugar and milk make this coffee not like a cup of coffee at all, but like a drink. Surprisingly, the caramel macchiato is not as sweet as cappuccino, of course there may be measurement errors here.

Luckin Coffee is a brand that has been promoting itself a lot recently, emphasizing that it has recruited many top baristas.

But our overall feeling is that if we talk about pure coffee, Luckin lacks the high-end feeling and style that boutique coffee should have, and is generally sweet. It is too focused on standardization and sales, but has no strong ambition to improve quality. We hope that it can put more effort into its main job of making coffee well.

Package weight : 73g

COSTA COFFEE Recommendation score: 3.8

Mild and smooth with low sugar content

Delivery took 36 minutes

Order placed at 10:20, delivered at 10:56

Iced Americano

Temperature: 5.6℃

Flavor: The sour taste is more prominent, the overall style is harmonious, and it has a little bit of high-end feeling

Cappuccino

Temperature: 14.5℃

Flavor: 3.9 points

Sugar content: 9%

This is the cappuccino with the lowest sugar content in this review, which is partly due to the addition of ice cubes. The taste is neutral and soft, suitable for women who need a light and light cup of coffee

Caramel Macchiato

Temperature: 51.6℃

This temperature is a little bit lower than that of a big brand like COSTA.

Flavor: 3.9 points

Sugar content: 12%

The taste of COSTA is still very harmonious. The reason why it did not get 4 points is that it is too light. It feels like drinking a bottled coffee drink (of course, it is much better than that). The sugar content is also appropriate, and there is also a light coconut aroma.

Packing weight : 85g

ZOO COFFEE Recommendation score: 3.6

The barista did put in some effort.

Delivery took 27 minutes

Order placed at 10:25, delivered at 10:52

Iced Americano

Temperature: 5.3℃

Flavor: 4 points

It has a strong feeling caused by heavy roasting, but lacks sourness and other aromas, making the layers not very clear and the aftertaste slightly bitter

Cappuccino

Temperature: 48.8℃

Flavor: 4.0

Sugar content: 11%

This is a coffee with a relatively even distribution of milk and coffee flavors, which shows that the barista has some basic skills. The sugar content is very low and does not affect the taste of the coffee, which is worthy of praise.

Mancafe recommendation score: 3.3

The tail of this crane

Delivery takes 15 minutes

Ordered at 10:27 and delivered at 10:42

Iced Americano

Temperature: 7℃

Flavor: 3.5 points

Bland taste, probably because too much ice was added

Cappuccino

Temperature: 48.7℃

Compared with the delivery time of more than 20 minutes, the temperature is too low, lower than the normal tasting temperature, and is unqualified.

Flavor: 3.3 points

Sugar content: 12%

It still maintains a very light style. The low sugar content is gratifying, but the taste is too light.

Caramel Macchiato

Temperature: 37℃

This temperature is basically cold, and it is 10 degrees lower than the previous cup. It can only be said that Man Coffee's products do not have strict standards and are too casual, which is not a good thing. Coffee is not an industrial product, but following some minimum standards is the pursuit of style. If the basics cannot be achieved, how can we talk about style?

Flavor: 3 points

Sugar content: 17 degrees

It basically feels like a cup of instant coffee, which is very inconsistent with its positioning and price, and it contains a very high amount of sugar.

Package weight : 57g

Overall evaluation

We found that throughout the test, emerging coffee brands such as Luckin Coffee and Lian Coffee did not significantly outperform traditional takeaway coffee in flavor.

However, their value is that they have opened up more varieties and more playability, which is not a rigid demand but should be very attractive to young people. But it must be said that the sugar content of coffee of these two brands is also relatively high on average, which is a noteworthy indicator for health and weight. We recommend that if you choose these two brands of coffee, you must choose half sugar.

In terms of delivery speed, except for Lian Coffee and Pacific Coffee, which took more than an hour, the others were all around 30 minutes, which is acceptable. But what is unacceptable is that the temperature of many coffees (on such a hot day) was below 50 degrees after being delivered to the home, which would seriously affect the experience, and this indicator is rigid.

Our overall impression of the coffee flavor in this review is that it is quite different from the street coffee in Italy, and is also lower than the general standards in Austria and Germany. Even compared with Japan and South Korea, there is still a certain gap.

But compared to many years ago when there was only Starbucks, more and more coffee brands are catching up and moving forward, which is really gratifying. We look forward to the rise of a boutique coffee brand that can approach the local Italian standards soon.

But the fact is that there is no real leader among these coffees. Although Starbucks and COSTA are large in scale, their taste is too industrial. Although Luckin Coffee and Lian Coffee are full of momentum, they lack real breakthroughs in quality and flavor... Strictly speaking, if these coffees are poured into the same cup, most people can't tell the difference (including us), so our sincere confession is -

We really need a really good cup of coffee.