导读（咖啡网 coffeeyo.com）：Nowwa has rolled out ¥3.9 hand-brewed coffee, undercutting even Luckin in the latest round of China's cut-throat coffee price war.
Editor’s Note (Coffeeyo.com): According to a report by the Metropolis Express (Chengshi Kuaibao) Orange Interactive, NOWWA Coffee has rolled out a long-term “freshly brewed coffee for just ¥3.9 every day” pricing across all its stores nationwide. By stacking an in-store-within-a-store model on top of its own supply chain, it has pushed the everyday price of freshly brewed coffee into the under-¥5 range, earning it the nickname “the Pinduoduo of coffee.”
Two years ago, the deciding battle in the coffee industry was the ¥9.9 price point.
In 2023, Cotti and Luckin waged a close-quarters war of “¥9.9 vs ¥8.8,” dragging a cup of freshly brewed coffee down from the ¥20–30 range. By early 2026, that battle seemed to have run out of steam — Cotti ended its “¥9.9 all-menu” promo, with non-discounted products returning to ¥11.9–16.9, and Luckin gradually tightened its ¥9.9 campaign from 2024, pulling its main price band back to ¥13–15. For a while, netizens thought the price war had receded.
Yet no one expected that half a year later, an even more aggressive contender than Luckin would burst onto the scene, taking the price game even further — freshly brewed coffee for just ¥3.9.
Starting this August, NOWWA Coffee launched a new menu across all stores nationwide, with “freshly brewed coffee for just ¥3.9 every day” becoming a long-term price point — no time limits, no thresholds, no membership-day restrictions. For ¥3.9 you can get a dark-roast Americano, a freshly made lemon iced black tea, or a guava lemonade, while items like the coconut latte and orange-C Americano cost only ¥5.9.
A cup of freshly brewed coffee now sells at the price of a Coca-Cola in a retail shop. The sub-¥5 band had long been occupied by bottled drinks such as Coca-Cola and Oriental Leaf; this is the first time a ten-thousand-store-scale freshly brewed coffee brand has pushed its everyday price into this range. Some have thus slapped a new label on it: “the Pinduoduo of coffee.”
How does the math of a ¥3.9 cup work out? Roughly 80% of NOWWA’s stores run an “in-store-within-a-store” model — no standalone storefront. Beneath the signage of convenience stores such as Meiyijia, Lawson and Youke, it carves out a two-to-three-square-meter counter and places a coffee machine. The partner provides the space and staff; NOWWA provides the equipment, materials and brand, and convenience-store clerks, after brief training, can step in to make coffee.
Looking at the supply chain, NOWWA owns nearly 2,000 mu of coffee plantations in Yunnan, and its self-built roasting factory came online in 2025. This March it broke ground on an intelligent roasting plant in Fenghua, Ningbo, with annual capacity of 20,000 tons, while 15 nationwide warehouse-and-distribution centers support same-day ordering and next-day delivery. Its owned supply chain plus the centralized procurement of ten-thousand-store scale have gradually squeezed down raw-material costs.
There is also an easily overlooked point: ¥3.9 is only a traffic-driving price. Once consumers walk in, they may also buy higher-priced products such as the “TonTon Bucket” Americano. The low price draws people in; the other products lift the average order value.
Behind this playbook lies no shortage of capital. Founded in 2019, NOWWA’s founder Guo Xingjun previously served as BU COO of Ele.me (Alibaba Local Life). To date it has completed at least seven rounds of financing, with investors including SIG, GSR Ventures, 37 Interactive Entertainment, the Belle Group Consumer Fund and state-owned capital from Fenghua, Ningbo. This January, NOWWA closed a several-hundred-million-yuan Series C led by six institutions — Legend Capital, Hyperplane, Challenger Venture, Yuanxing Capital and others — seen by the industry as one of the largest financing rounds in China’s food-and-beverage sector in the past year.
Two months later came news of a Series C+. The money has indeed been spent where it counts: in 2025 NOWWA’s store count soared from just over 1,200 at the start of the year to a little over 10,000 by year-end, becoming the fourth domestic ten-thousand-store coffee brand after Luckin, Cotti and Luckin’s value brand, with full-year revenue of ¥700–800 million and profit of about ¥60 million — Meiyijia alone contributed over 3,600 partner stores.
NOWWA’s entry has made an already-restless coffee track even more crowded: Luckin has surpassed 30,000 stores and Cotti over 18,000. More subtly, tea-drink brands are also collectively moving into coffee — Chapanda launched a ¥1.9 Americano and a ¥3.9 Geisha Americano on its Monday membership day; Auntea Jenny rolled out a ¥9.9 five-cup card (under ¥2 per cup effectively); and CoCo also relaunched its ¥3.9 Americano on delivery platforms.
Yet a closer look shows most of these low prices are time- or channel-limited traffic maneuvers — membership days, promo prices, multi-cup cards — aimed merely at getting milk-tea drinkers to “incidentally” try a cup of coffee. NOWWA is different: its ¥3.9 is a long-term menu price everyone can buy, every day. In a sense, it is experimenting with a new kind of channel, no longer treating coffee as a café business but as an everyday convenience-store beverage, benchmarking against the sugar-free tea and cola in the cooler.
Today’s Interaction: So, have you tried NOWWA Coffee? Feel free to leave a comment and share your views.
Orange Interactive · Metropolis Express reporter Zhang Mimi
Editor Liu Jingyan
Reviewer Luo Yi, Lin Lin
Proofreader Ma Yujun
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