#luckincoffee

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If you’ve scrolled TikTok lately, you’ve probably seen someone sipping a pineapple cold brew or coconut latte from Luckin Coffee. China’s largest coffee chain just opened its first U.S. shops in New York City, aiming to shake up your caffeine routine—and maybe Starbucks’ empire while they’re at it.

What’s the hype?

Luckin made waves in China by being fast, tech-first, and affordable. Now, they’ve brought that same energy stateside with sleek grab-and-go shops in Greenwich Village and NoMad, where you order on the app, scan a QR code, and boom—coffee in hand.

How does it compare to Starbucks?

Price: Cheaper than Starbucks (with opening promos around $1.99).

Ordering: App-based with minimal chit-chat.

Vibe: Functional, not cozy café hangouts.

Menu: Fruity cold brews, coconut lattes, matcha frappes, and “Solar Breeze” (blood orange + coffee).

What are people ordering?

Fans are raving about:

Pineapple cold brew (tangy + sweet)

Iced coconut latte (refreshing summer energy)

Matcha frappes

Waxberry drinks (if you want to try something new)

How to Order

Download the Luckin Coffee app.

Choose your drink (look under “summer essentials”).

Pay via the app and scan to pick up.

No long lines, no small talk—just in-and-out speed.

Is it worth the switch?

If you live for fast, budget-friendly coffee with a twist, Luckin is a fun new option. If you love sitting for hours journaling in a cozy café, Starbucks still has your heart. But with NYC queues already forming and TikToks flying, Luckin is here, and it’s making caffeine runs way more interesting.

Learn More About Luckin Coffee| Related Articles & Sources

Luckin Coffee is quietly entering the Singapore market. Ruixing Coffee recently posted a recruitment post on the recruitment website JobStreet, recruiting a store manager in Singapore, with a salary of SGD 3,800-SGD 4,900 (approximately RMB 19,000-RMB 25,000). At the same time, Ruixing Coffee will also recruit positions such as marketing managers, project managers, and senior engineers. The requirements for these positions are slightly higher, and the salary has not been disclosed. Jiemian News confirmed the authenticity of the recruitment information to Ruixing Coffee. The company also stated, “Ruixing Coffee’s vision of ‘creating a world-class coffee brand and making Ruixing a part of people’s daily life’ is currently underway in Singapore. Early market development and testing. Luckin Coffee’s business core is still focused on the Chinese market.” According to Ruixing Coffee's financial report for the third quarter of 2022, it has a total of 7,846 stores, including 5,373 self-operated stores and 2,473 joint-operated stores. This figure has surpassed Starbucks. In addition, Ruixing Coffee’s total net revenue in the third quarter was 3.8946 billion yuan (approximately US$547.5 million), an increase of 65.7% compared with 2.3502 billion yuan in the same period in 2021. Net profit was 528.6 million yuan (about 74.3 million U.S. dollars), compared with a loss in the same period in 2021. Ruixing Coffee, which has a good pace of store expansion and financial performance, obviously needs to find room for future growth. In addition to constantly sinking, overseas markets must be an option. In fact, not only Ruixing Coffee, but many tea brands have also chosen the Southeast Asian market for expansion. In 2018, Michelle Ice City opened its first store in Hanoi, Vietnam under the English name of the brand "MIXUE". By December 2021, the number of local stores has exceeded 200. Taking Vietnam as a springboard, the tentacles of Michelle Ice City began to extend to Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos and other neighboring countries. In December 2021, Michelle Ice City entered Malaysia, and began to enter Singapore in February this year. At present, this tea brand from China has opened 1,000 stores in Southeast Asia. Manner Coffee has even quietly opened its first store in Hong Kong, China. Singapore was chosen by Ruixing as the first stop to go overseas, mainly because of the local coffee culture and huge market potential. According to statistics, the per capita consumption of coffee in Singapore is about 2.6 kilograms per year, and it is a country with a relatively mature coffee culture. Starting from Singapore, Luckin Coffee can radiate to Southeast Asian countries. According to Euromonitor International, the retail sales of coffee in six Southeast Asian countries—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam—reached US$6.5 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 6% from 2014 to 2019, up from 5% over the same period global average level. It can be seen that Southeast Asia is also one of the regions with the fastest growing coffee consumption in the world. In addition, Singapore is an ideal outpost to enter the Southeast Asian market. From the perspective of company operations, Singapore is a relatively mature market with more complete laws and regulations and an attractive tax system. It is the choice of many multinational companies to establish their Asian headquarters. For coffee brands, it has greater advantages. Singapore is a free port and has signed free trade agreements with more than 20 different countries and regions. It is an ideal place to connect major coffee production markets and coffee consumption markets in Asia and the world. link. However, if the warehouses of coffee merchants are located in free trade zones, they will not have to pay import taxes, which is very attractive to coffee import and export practitioners. Starting from Singapore, Ruixing Coffee can make full preparations for its entry into other countries in Southeast Asia. However, whether Luckin Coffee can win the favor of local consumers is a challenge for it. In the Singapore market, Luckin Coffee will face competitors with the same model. Flash Coffee, which was established in 2020, was called "Singapore Luckin" by the local Chinese. The small store model of its store was just borrowed from Luckin Coffee. Users can quickly order and pay through the app, buy and go, and the price is cheap and cost-effective. Like when Ruixing Coffee was founded, Flash Coffee was also favored by capital. In July 2022, Flash Coffee completed the B1 round of financing of US$32.8 million (about 220 million yuan). This round of financing made the company's valuation soar to US$175 million (about 1.18 billion yuan). The strategy of Flash Coffee is the same as that of Ruixing Coffee, focusing on popular products with its own characteristics, such as lychee soda espresso and Melaka Lattes with Nanyang characteristics. It is also difficult for Ruixing to integrate into the local coffee culture and compete with these word-of-mouth brands. It needs to upgrade the product taste and category.