Mixue Invests 1 Billion Yuan in Fresh-Ground Coffee: Pilot Stores Near 170 Cups a Day

At a Glance (China Coffee Network): Recently, Mixue launched a systematic upgrade of its coffee product line, drawing market attention. This ten-thousand-store brand, known for affordable tea drinks, is trying to leverage freshly ground coffee to pry open a new growth curve for its stores.

Recently, Mixue launched a systematic upgrade of its coffee product line, drawing market attention. This ten-thousand-store brand, known for affordable tea drinks, is trying to leverage freshly ground coffee to pry open a new growth curve for its stores.

It is learned that the core of Mixue’s upgrade is replacing traditional drip coffee with freshly ground coffee. To this end, the company has allocated 1 billion yuan in special funds to subsidize franchisees for introducing fully automatic coffee machines. The equipment is custom-built by Mixue in cooperation with Dr. Coffee, equipped with a smart grinding and extraction system and using European-imported burr grinders and a dual-boiler system to ensure continuous, stable output during peak hours.

Product ingredients have been upgraded in step. The coffee beans have been switched to freshly roasted beans with a 30-day short shelf life, the milk upgraded to cold-chain fresh milk, and the coconut milk upgraded to cold-chain raw coconut milk. On the menu, besides the classic Americano (5 yuan), fresh-milk latte (12 yuan), and raw-coconut latte (10 yuan), a flavored fruit-coffee series has recently been added, using real fruit slices and cold-chain fruit juice, with overall prices still kept at an affordable positioning.

According to Mixue’s disclosure, several test stores in Zhengzhou reported that cup volume rose markedly after the coffee product line upgrade, with some stores reaching nearly 170 cups sold a day. Over the past month, average daily per-store coffee sales at pilot stores rose about 90% compared with regular stores, and average daily per-store coffee revenue rose about 120%.

To support the upgrade, Mixue has recently issued several rounds of coupons through official channels, including a 2-yuan no-minimum coupon, an 8.9-yuan raw-coconut latte coupon, and a 2.9-yuan Americano coupon, so as to lower the threshold for trying something new and drive repeat purchases.

From the industry backdrop, China’s per-capita annual coffee consumption grew from 9 cups in 2016 to 25 cups in 2025, still a wide gap from mature markets in Europe, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea, leaving vast room for growth. At the same time, consumer demand for coffee is shifting from “refreshment” toward “quality.”

For Mixue, its nationwide network of more than 44,000 stores is the biggest infrastructure for expanding its coffee category. The introduction of freshly ground coffee not only optimizes store product structure, but may also, to some extent, lift overall store revenue and the efficiency of the single-store model.

Meanwhile, it has become a trend for freshly made tea-drink brands to double down on the coffee track. Beyond Mixue, several leading tea brands are also launching new coffee products with rich flavors and upgraded quality. The industry generally believes that tea-coffee fusion will accelerate the popularization of freshly ground coffee, but it also means competition will grow increasingly fierce.

Whether this coffee upgrade can become a new engine for Mixue’s store growth remains to be verified by store data from a wider scope. Nevertheless, from the 1-billion-yuan subsidy to customized equipment, and from ingredient upgrades to price concessions, Mixue’s level of investment and strategic resolve in this category are already clearly discernible.