Luckin Coffee's products are a runaway hit, with specialty stores generating 8,000 yuan in daily revenue, this 2-yuan "national breakfast" has suddenly gone viral.

Is soy drink trending again?

On September 14, Luckin Coffee's Salted Cheese Soy Milk Latte made a comeback, and the related topic quickly exceeded 15 million in popularity. Comments like "I've been urging for more than half a year" and "It's finally back" flooded social platforms.

Heytea, ChaPanda, Grandpa Doesn't Make Tea and other brands have also placed big bets on this track. A number of specialty soy drink stores are rising rapidly: some have topped the local popular store ranking, with queues still forming as late as 11 p.m., and some specialty stores even recoup their full investment within 3 months.

What new opportunities are hidden behind this wave of popularity?

Luckin Coffee's Products Sell Out, Specialty Stores Rise

Soy Drink Gains Traction Again

"My long-time favorite drink is finally back!"

On September 14, Luckin Coffee's Salted Cheese Soy Milk Series officially returned. In addition to the classic flavor, two new products were launched: Salted Cheese Soy Milk Yuanyang Latte and Salted Cheese Soy Milk Tea.

This product line was first launched in the winter of 2025. At that time, its name was easy to be misread, and netizens teased it as "potato latte". This year when it returned, the views of related topics on social platforms quickly exceeded 15 million, and comments like "I recognized it at first sight, it's the wife that went missing for a year" kept popping up everywhere.

This series of products uses non-GMO soybeans from Northeast China, which are ground at the micron level to lock in the original natural soybean aroma. Paired with deeply roasted coffee liquid, topped with salted cheese milk cap and soybean powder, it delivers three layers of distinct flavors in one sip.

This is not an isolated case. Since the beginning of this year, soy drinks have appeared intensively on the menus of leading beverage brands.

At the beginning of the year, Heytea's Shamian DP store in Guangzhou launched limited-edition fresh yuba soy milk of old Guangzhou style and fresh yuba soy milk ice cream of old Guangzhou style; the hand-beaten soy milk black tea from Lihou Tea House topped the bestseller list for many consecutive days.

Grandpa Doesn't Make Tea launched Golden Soy Milk Da Hong Pao, while ChaPanda released New Green Soy Bean and Jasmine Flower Soy Bean, which uses thousand-mesh matcha and seven-times scented jasmine to match freshly ground pure soy milk and pandan green rice ball, gaining a lot of public attention.

What's more noteworthy is that a number of specialty soy drink stores are emerging quietly.

In Chengdu, Jiang Taibai has built a composite store model that integrates drinks, desserts and snacks, with daily revenue of a single store reaching 7,000 to 8,000 yuan, and consumers still queuing up at 11 p.m.; Apan's Soy Milk Ice in Foshan topped the popular ice cream list of Foshan on Dianping; Shanghai-based Singabean has gained huge popularity by selling strong iced soy milk.

Even in Thailand, CHANDEE, a brand focused on soy milk milk tea, was revealed by industry insiders to "recoup its investment in just 3 months".

Soy Drink Has the Genes of Blockbuster Products

There Are 3 Major Changes in This Round of Upgrade

This is not the first time that soy drinks have stood on the cusp of the trend. As a "veteran" in the tea drink industry, soy products have long "invaded" milk tea cups in various forms, setting off wave after wave of consumption craze.

In 2019, SEVENBUS launched soy milk milk tea, and its first store in Chongqing Raffles City set a record of selling more than 1,300 cups a day; in October of the same year, ChaPanda launched Soy Milk Jade Qilin, which once became the top-selling product in its stores.

Shortly afterwards, Heytea's Doudou Bobo Tea, Nayuki's Thick Soy Milk Treasure Tea, and KOI's Tofu Pudding Milk Tea were launched one after another. In those two years, soy milk almost became a standard item on the menus of leading beverage brands.

Later, as consumers' taste preferences turned to refreshing, low-calorie drinks, light milk tea and fruit and vegetable tea became popular, and soy milk milk tea gradually faded out of the public spotlight.

Nowadays, the demand for rich and mellow tea drinks is returning, and soy drinks are once again targeted by brands. However, this year's trend has significantly changed its gameplay from raw material logic to product expression.

1. Micron-level grinding makes the flavor base more delicate

Many people tend to confuse traditional soy milk and industrial soy milk beverage. The two share the same raw material but differ in processing methods: traditional soy milk is mainly made by grinding and boiling soybeans; industrialized soy milk beverage adds processes such as peeling, deodorization and homogenization, which makes the texture more delicate and smooth, and more suitable for blending tea drinks and coffee.

The introduction of micron-level grinding technology greatly improves the fineness of soy milk beverage. Luckin Coffee selects non-GMO soybeans from Northeast China, and uses micron-level grinding to lock the original natural soybean aroma, laying a solid foundation for subsequent flavor stacking.

With a delicate and stable base, the milk cap, coffee and tea aroma on top can bring their advantages into full play. The Salted Cheese Soy Milk Yuanyang Latte combines black tea aroma with soy milk to create a rich and mellow yuanyang taste; the Salted Cheese Soy Milk Tea blends northern Fujian high-aroma Qilan tea with soy milk, delivering a dense, salty and fragrant taste.

2. Diversified product forms, with aroma becoming a new memory point

The application boundary of soybeans has been further expanded. In the past, soy milk was only a single liquid base, but now it can act as the base, and strong soy milk or extra-strong soy milk can replace part of milk to become the main flavor of the drink.

As toppings, yuba and tofu pudding change the experience from "drinking" to "eating"; they can also be used as an olfactory memory point: sprinkling roasted soybean powder on top makes the soybean aroma hit consumers before they take a sip. Luckin Coffee's new soy milk product was praised as "the soybean aroma as soon as you lift the lid is absolutely amazing!"

3. Carrying premium flavors to redefine the sense of value

In the past, soy milk was a "national drink" sold for 2 yuan a cup at breakfast stalls, but this year's soy drinks are being endowed with a higher sense of value.

Luckin Coffee uses salted cheese milk cap + soybean powder + deeply roasted coffee liquid to create three layers of flavors; Grandpa Doesn't Make Tea's "Golden Soy Milk Da Hong Pao" is described as "liquid soy milk mousse cake"; Lihou Tea House's "Hand-beaten Soy Milk Black Tea" uses 5-degree extra-strong soy milk to create an airy milk foam.

Soy milk is no longer a synonym for cheapness, but a flavor carrier that can carry a premium sense.

Yang Shizhong, head of the R&D center of Baifencha, said that soy milk has several inherent advantages: it belongs to plant-based products, which aligns with consumers' pursuit of healthy diets; roasted soybeans can release a unique burnt aroma.

"Just like buckwheat releases aroma after roasting and then matches with milk tea, roasted soybeans have an elegant roasted aroma, which can form a very full layered sense after combination."

Greater Opportunities Lie in the Coffee Track

Building a Sense of Value Is the Core

Can soy milk drinks settle down as classic long-running products? How big is the room for future development imagination?

In Yang Shizhong's view, compared with the tea drink industry, soy milk has greater opportunities in the coffee track.

Although soy milk has good flavor extensibility and can be matched with various tea bases, the current tea drink industry has an extremely fast new product launch rhythm, and the life cycle of new products is generally relatively short. Blockbusters that can stay on the menu stably for more than half a year are very rare.

To continuously retain consumers, soy milk products need to constantly polish differentiated expressions and continuously output a premium sense.

In contrast, the coffee track has larger development space. Soy milk is inherently plant-based, and the grainy burnt aroma of roasted soybeans can form a perfect complement to the rich bitter taste of coffee.

Forms such as tofu pudding and soy milk milk cap are also easier to create differentiated signature items in coffee stores. The tofu pudding latte launched by Shenzhen coffee brands such as KUDDO and SomethingFor is very popular among consumers.

Cheng Yao, R&D specialist of Coffee Door, also believes that soy milk has both health attributes and high public awareness, and the public has a good acceptance foundation for its flavor.

Building the sense of product value will be the core. "Soy milk is a familiar flavor for the public, and consumers already have inherent impressions of it. The focus of product innovation is to break away from conventional cognition and bring unexpected surprises to the drinking experience."

This article is from WeChat official account "Coffee Door" (ID: KamenClub), written by Wu Yue, authorized for release by 36Kr.