A coffee liquid has sold 1 billion cups, changing the daily coffee routine of young people! On August 26th, Luckin Coffee announced that the cumulative sales of Luckin Coffee liquid exceeded 1 billion cups. Following the announcement of 900 million cups at the beginning of the month, Luckin Coffee's instant coffee has broken sales records in a short period of time. As soon as the news came out, jokes such as "900 million cups of joy haven't been put down yet, 1 billion cups have already arrived", "This… may be the fastest expired poster in history", "Knowing that Wang Yibo is a cow doesn't know how cow he is, Wang Yibo becomes Wang Yibo", "Everything can be coffee liquid" became social media topics.
Faced with this wave of popularity, Luckin Coffee did not release a regular battle report, but instead responded to netizens' emotions with a lengthy official thank-you letter. Thank you for bringing out 1 billion possibilities for drinking coffee liquid "and" Thank you for living a serious life 1000000000 times ", and presenting numerous cases of consumers DIY coffee drinks with coffee liquid, triggering netizens to follow and create.
From 900 million to 1 billion, the changes are not just numbers, but also reflect the evolution of portable coffee consumption in recent years. Young people are no longer satisfied with "making a quick drink", but pursue good taste, convenience, and freedom of combination, and adapt to richer daily scenarios such as commuting, office, home, and travel.
Behind 1 billion cups: Consumers drink coffee as a 'hidden menu'
On August 3rd of this year, Luckin Coffee announced that its cumulative sales of instant coffee liquid exceeded 900 million cups. At the same time, Luckin Coffee teamed up with global brand ambassador Wang Yibo to make simultaneous appearances on the Asian Light Giant Screen in Chongqing and the TSX Large Screen in Times Square, New York, witnessing the milestone of category change for "instant coffee entering the liquid era".
After more than 20 days, Enjoy Coffee announced a new record of 1 billion cups. This is not only due to Wang Yibo's extensive influence, but also inseparable from consumers' continuous repurchase, sharing, and creative DIY.
On social media platforms, the usage scenarios of Luckin Coffee instant coffee are constantly being "recreated": someone adds milk to make a latte before work; Someone added thick coconut milk, coconut water, and sparkling water to create different flavors of iced coffee; Some people pour coffee into fruit juice, tea drinks, or ice cream, developing various novel drinking methods with social dissemination properties.
This is exactly the difference between coffee liquid and traditional instant coffee: it is not a fixed question, but more like an open-ended question. For consumers, a cup of coffee can be the "power button" for 8 a.m., the base for ice drinks in the office, or the base for homemade drinks when staying at home on weekends. Compared to 'how to charge', people are more concerned about 'how to set up today'.
Therefore, 1 billion cups is not only a sales figure, but also a concentrated reflection of product strength, category value, spokesperson influence, and user creativity. For many young people, coffee is transitioning from being a "try" to a "regular" beverage, from a "convenient drink" to a "free choice", becoming a daily delicacy integrated into their homes, offices, and travels.
Coffee consumption has become "all-weather", portable coffee is not just convenient to mix
Luckin Coffee's growth in instant coffee is also due to the trend of daily coffee consumption. According to the "Coffee Beverage Category Development Report 2026" by the Red Meal Industry Research Institute, as of July 2026, there are over 550 million coffee drinkers in China, with an average annual consumption of 28.57 cups per person, a significant increase from 16.7 cups in 2023; Coffee is gradually covering diverse scenarios such as office, social, leisure, and learning.
This change provides a wider range of usage space for portable forms such as coffee liquid. In the past, portable coffee was often defined as "instant powder", with the core demands being fast, convenient, and refreshing; Nowadays, with consumers placing higher demands on taste, texture, and scene adaptation, the value of coffee liquid has begun to extend from "portable" to "versatile". This trend of "coffee+" is not only reflected in brand research and development, but also in consumers' personalized blending.
Taking Luckin Coffee's Italian black coffee series as an example, its main product line is 0 sugar and 0 fat, with approximately 8.6 calories per cup; 14 times high concentration alcohol, recommended blending ratio of 1:13; Adopting nitrogen locking and quality control by Q-Grader international coffee quality appraisers, while supporting rapid mixing of cold and hot water. Independent packaging makes coffee more suitable for various scenarios such as home, office, commuting, and travel.
It is reported that since the upgrade in 2024, Luckin Coffee has continued to expand its pre packaged products such as coffee liquid, bottled ready to drink coffee, instant coffee, coffee beans, capsule coffee, and hanging ear coffee. The brand slogan is "Enjoy good coffee anytime, anywhere". During 618 this year, Ruixing Instant Coffee won the comprehensive top 1 in the coffee list of Tmall, Tiktok and JD, showing its development potential in the retail coffee scene.
Whether it's 900 million cups or 1 billion cups, the growth of Luckin Coffee's instant coffee reflects the changing habits of portable coffee consumption. As more and more consumers turn coffee from an "instant new form" to a daily choice for home, office, travel, and DIY, the competitive focus of portable coffee is shifting from "whether there is coffee" to "whether it can enter consumers' day more naturally".
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