Introduction:Luckin Coffee’s summer offering, the Watermelon Cold Brew, may have caught the eye with its eye-catching promotional image, but the actual flavor left many consumers deeply disappointed. Many reported that the drink barely tasted like coffee at all, more akin to diluted watermelon juice. This article takes an in-depth look at the appearance, flavor performance, real recipe and preparation process of this new product, while also exploring the key aspects of cold brew extraction and ratio design, helping readers understand the core issues and how to choose the right iced coffee for themselves.
Luckin Coffee’s “Summer Watermelon Cold Brew,” launched as a refreshing and energizing summer beverage, ended up receiving a wave of negative feedback after hitting the shelves. Numerous customers noted that not only did the drink look vastly different from the official advertisement, but the flavor was also a letdown—barely any coffee could be detected, leading netizens to mock it as “watermelon bathwater” or “watermelon juice diluted a hundred times.”
In fact, the inspiration for this drink came from the previously popular “Big Watermelon Coconut Cold Brew.” At that time, many customers had already requested to “hold the coconut milk” when ordering, keeping only the watermelon and coffee to create their own refreshing version of cold brew. Unexpectedly, Luckin has now officially launched its own version, promoting it as a combination of refreshment and energy—but the actual result fell short of expectations.
Judging by the promotional images released by the company, the rich red of the watermelon blended with dark coffee tones, accented with eye-catching watermelon elements, created a strong summery vibe. However, many customers, upon receiving the actual drink, found it looked more like watermelon water with just a few drops of coffee—the color was too light, completely lacking the layered look seen in the ads.
The taste, however, sparked even more controversy.Most consumers reported that the first sip revealed no coffee aroma or bitterness whatsoever, tasting instead like sugared ice water.Some further pointed out that even upon careful sipping, they could only detect an extremely faint hint of watermelon sweetness, with almost no coffee flavor at all—hardly something one would associate with the term “cold brew.”
Many took to social media to share their experiences, universally noting: “I thought I was buying an iced Americano with watermelon juice, but it tasted like a flavored watermelon drink,” “The coffee flavor is so weak it’s like a filter filled with water by mistake,” “It’s basically a sugar water with watermelon flavor, and the cold brew aspect didn’t come through at all.” Not only casual customers felt this way—even regular coffee drinkers were left disappointed.
In fact, based on multiple user tests and confirmation from staff, the preparation process for this “Summer Watermelon Cold Brew” hasn’t changed much.It mainly consists ofdiluted concentrated watermelon juice mixed with cold brew coffee.
But the issue lies in the possibility that the coffee was extracted for too short a time or at too low a concentration, and the watermelon juice itself is already heavily diluted—resulting in the coffee flavor being completely masked in the final product.According to behind-the-scenes operational footage shared by insiders, baristas first pour the pre-mixed watermelon juice base, then add ice cubes, and finally pour in the cold brew coffee. The crucial point here is,if the cold brew coffee is extracted for too short a time (e.g., just 18 minutes) or with a high coffee-to-water ratio, it can easily result in a weak flavor with pronounced acidity.
And when such coffee is further diluted in watermelon juice, it becomes even harder to discern the layers of coffee flavor.From a technical standpoint, the ideal cold brew extraction time is generally recommended to bebetween 16 to 24 hoursto fully bring out the sweet and low-acid characteristics of the coffee. Even if using quick cold brew methods (within a short period such as 12 to 24 hours), it’s important to control the coffee-to-water ratio—generally advised to be between1:8 to 1:12
to maintain stable extraction efficiency and balanced flavor.
Unfortunately, in this watermelon cold brew, the coffee was likely extracted for only a short time and made up a low proportion of the final drink, resulting in an imbalanced overall flavor where the presence of coffee is almost negligible. For consumers hoping for a refreshing yet coffee-flavored experience, this product naturally fails to meet expectations.
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
