Introduction:Luckin Coffee’s collaboration with Kweichow Moutai on their酱香 (sauce-aroma) Latte achieved astonishing sales figures, but the subsequent Year of the Dragon酱香 Chocolate Latte failed to sustain the momentum, resulting in a large surplus of sauce-aroma thick milk ingredients nearing expiration. With no return channels available, these unopened thick milk products had to be discarded by individual stores, sparking discussions on resource waste and the lifecycle management of collaborative products. This article delves into the reasons behind the incident and explores how to better handle near-expired coffee ingredients.

On its first day of launch, the Luckin–Moutai酱香 Latte set a record with over 100 million yuan in sales, not only boosting the company’s stock price but also propelling multiple related topics to the top of social media trend lists. This cross-industry collaboration drink quickly became a flagship product for Luckin, delivering unprecedented brand exposure.

However, when Luckin once again partnered with Moutai to release the Year of the Dragon酱香 Chocolate Latte during the Spring Festival period, the market response fell short of expectations. The new product’s performance did not replicate the success of its predecessor, causing the overall popularity of the sauce-aroma series to rapidly decline—from an internet-famous phenomenon to a fading star.

According to Luckin store employees, it was hoped that the Year of the Dragon酱香 Chocolate Latte launched for the Spring Festival would boost sales of the original酱香 Latte. But the opposite occurred. Not only did it fail to stimulate sales, the entire sauce-aroma product line faced serious stagnation, with piles of unused sauce-aroma thick milk sitting in warehouses with no clear use.

More critically, this batch of unopened thick milk was produced last year, with many items approaching their expiration dates. According to Luckin’s internal policies, expired ingredients must be handled by the stores themselves, including routine items like opened but unused milk or milk foam. Similarly, these unopened yet soon-to-expire sauce-aroma thick milk products, lacking any return channel, also had to be written off by the stores at their own loss.

Faced with the looming expiration, Luckin employees had no choice but to reluctantly open boxes of unopened sauce-aracha thick milk and pour the liquid contents down the drain.“Over a hundred boxes expired at my store—staff spent over two hours just dumping and cleaning up,”described one employee about the process.“Who has sauce-aroma milk expiring box after box? Oh… turns out it’s us. Our boss must be heartbroken,”remarked another, lamenting the waste of ingredients.

This disposal method sparked intense online discussion, with many expressing dismay over such wastefulness.Image source: Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) Many netizens suggested that Luckin could adopt strategies similar to supermarkets for managing near-expired goods—such as launching discount promotions. For example, selling the original 19-yuan sauce-aroma latte at a discounted price of 9.9 yuan to accelerate the use of soon-to-expire ingredients.

Netizens left comments such as:“Hurry up with the 9.9, I’m ready to help finish them.”、“If it’s expired, why not just lower the price before it expires?”、“I never drank it because it’s not included in the 9.9 deal…”、“Only worth buying at 9.9.”—reflecting consumers’ desire for more reasonable pricing.

However, some netizens held differing views, arguing that even with discounts, it would be difficult to significantly boost sales of the酱香 Latte. Since its launch, taste reviews of the product have been highly polarized. Some curious customers described its flavor as reminiscent of“what your boss vomits up after drinking too much,”while many others enjoyed its unique taste and became loyal fans.

Industry insiders pointed out that innovative-flavored products like the酱香 Latte are better suited as limited-time offerings rather than permanent menu items. Once the novelty wears off, failure to adjust product strategy promptly can lead to ingredient build-up and, ultimately, a repeat scenario where near-expired materials have to be discarded.

This incident also raises questions about raw material management strategies in the coffee industry. Striking a balance between maintaining product innovation and controlling inventory risk has become a critical challenge for chain coffee brands.

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.