Luckin Coffee copies Chagee’s best selling drink

To celebrate the Qixi Festival, China’s equivalent of Valentines’ Day, Luckin Coffee has launched a new drink called … “Light Jasmine Milk Tea” (轻轻茉莉). 

The product, from its ingredients to its English name, has great resemblance to the best seller of Chagee “BoYaJueXian” (伯牙绝弦, or “Jasmine Green Milk Tea”). 

The popular drink is essentially a mixture of jasmine tea, milk and syrup. It probably accounts for about ⅓ of Chagee’s annual sales, or ~230 million cups in 2023, according to analysts. 

The name BoYaJueXian comes from an ancient Chinese tale of deep friendship. In the story, a musician, 伯牙 (Bó Yá), breaks his lute after his closest friend, the only person who truly understood his music, dies. The drink’s cultural connotation probably contributed to its popularity. 

Many consumers have tried Luckin’s new drink, launched earlier this week. Many reviews on Xiaohongshu said that the drink is “very similar to” or “a diluted version of” Chagee’s BoYaJueXian. 

Luckin has revealed multiple parameters of its new drink, in a plausible attempt to convince consumers that its Jasmine Milk Tea is healthier. For example, Luckin’s jasmine tea leaves were infused 7 times, as opposed to ‘3-5 times’ of BoYaJueXian.

Regardless, Luckin definitely plays the price leverage. With a voucher applied, consumers can buy a cup for as low as RMB9.9 (US$1.4), while Chagee’s BoYaJueXian normally costs twice at RMB20 (US$2.8). 

A Luckin executive once told us that although Chagee is positioned as a ‘tea’ chain rather than a ‘coffee’ chain, “they resemble us the most”.  

Ultimately, purer coffee like Americano probably accounts for a very small percentage of Luckin’s sales. Most consumers opt for a combination of caffeine, milk and sugar, not that different from what milk tea chains offer.