How Never Coffee Sells Specialty Coffee for 9.9 RMB

Ever wondered how a specialty coffee can cost just 9.9 RMB (about $1.35) without tasting like instant? In Beijing, a new player called Never Coffee is doing exactly that—and shaking up the entire specialty coffee market in the process. Their claim? High-quality coffee doesn’t need a premium price tag.

No, it’s not a scam: Never Coffee sells specialty-grade canned coffee for 9.9 RMB per bottle. The brand’s daily sales have hit around 5,000 bottles, generating nearly 1.5 million RMB monthly—comparable to three Starbucks stores. But how are they pulling this off?

Never Coffee: The 9.9 RMB Specialty Coffee Disruptor

Launched just six months ago, Never Coffee has become China’s biggest buyer of specialty coffee beans among suppliers—sometimes using up to 960 kg of specialty-grade beans in a single month. For context, a typical specialty café might go through less than 20 kg. The company is the brainchild of Liu Zuofei, a former U.S.-trained lawyer who sold a juice brand before entering coffee. With co-founder Kang Jin—known in the scene as “Master Kang”—they’ve created a direct-to-consumer product: six different specialty brews (including Yirgacheffe and Mandheling) sold in sealed, microwaveable cans. The twist? Each 9.9 RMB bottle is made from specialty-grade beans (scored 80+), but skips the third-wave café experience entirely.

The launch was explosive. On day one, the team sold out 10,000+ bottles—1,950 packs—despite only preparing 100. Their current run rate is around 5,000 bottles per day. The catch? There are no cafés to speak of. At least, not yet.

Why 9.9 RMB? Breaking Down the Price

The radical pricing wasn’t arbitrary. Co-founders Liu and Kang debated it heavily. Kang, who runs two Beijing cafés, argued the standard fair price for specialty coffee is around 50 RMB. Liu disagreed. Having lived in the U.S., he saw firsthand how pricing in the specialty coffee sector often functions as a profit bubble: “A black coffee with no milk costs 40 cents to make. Yet cafés sell it for 22–28 RMB. A typical Starbucks store sells 600 cups a day at an average 30 RMB. That’s a 10x margin, even after overhead,” he says. Meanwhile, higher-end specialty cafés struggle to lower prices due to high fixed costs and low turnover.

So Liu and Kang went after the price-sensitive but quality-conscious customer: people who want better coffee than instant, but can’t—or won’t—pay 30 RMB per cup. Their target isn’t the third-wave enthusiast. It’s the functional coffee drinker who needs caffeine without the markup.

How They Keep Costs Low—And Quality High

To hit the 9.9 RMB price point while maintaining specialty-grade quality, Never Coffee cut everything non-essential. There are no cafés (for now), no seating, no latte art stations. Even their planned new stores will be purely grab-and-go. The real cost savings come from scale: the company buys green beans in bulk—5-ton shipments from Ethiopia, Sumatra, Brazil, Honduras, and Yunnan. These container-sized purchases give them up to 30% lower costs than independent cafés.

But how do you ensure quality in an industrialized, canned format? Here’s where Liu’s background in juices helped. He and his team built custom equipment: an industrial coffee extractor and semi-automatic bottling line covering over 200 square meters. Though “ugly” in design, the system ensures consistency. Their production line currently outputs 5,000 bottles/day—a volume that’s already starting to strain capacity. Next step: importing a Japanese industrial extractor and considering contract manufacturing to scale further.

This approach has sparked fierce debate. Some in the industry dismiss the product as “not real specialty coffee,” accusing Never Coffee of sparking a race to the bottom. Others defend the innovation. Zheng Songmao, chairman of Tasting Room Coffee, says he’s watching the brand with interest. Seesaw founder Zong Xinkuang calls it “a worthwhile experiment in business model innovation,” though both agree: only profits will prove whether the model works long-term.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Never Coffee selling exactly?

Never Coffee sells canned specialty coffee priced at 9.9 RMB (about $1.35) per bottle. The coffee is made from specialty-grade beans (80+ points) and comes in six flavors, including Yirgacheffe and Mandheling. The product is designed for microwave heating and meant for direct consumption, not café-style service.

Is 9.9 RMB coffee really specialty grade?

Yes, according to the company, their coffee uses beans scored 80+ points, which qualifies as specialty grade under industry standards. However, some critics argue that the industrialized, canned format strays too far from traditional specialty coffee preparation and experience.

How can Never Coffee sell coffee so cheaply?

They achieve low prices through bulk green bean sourcing (up to 5 tons at a time from countries like Ethiopia, Brazil, and Yunnan), skipping retail café overhead, and using proprietary industrial brewing and bottling equipment. This allows them to reduce production and procurement costs by up to 30% compared to traditional cafés.

Do they have physical cafés?

Currently, Never Coffee does not operate any cafés open to the public. They are preparing to open a few grab-and-go style locations with no seating to further lower costs, but these will not offer sit-down service.

Why is the price so controversial in the coffee industry?

The 9.9 RMB price challenges the perception that specialty coffee must be expensive. Many in the industry worry it could commoditize quality coffee or trigger a destructive price war. Supporters see it as a legitimate attempt to broaden access to better coffee beyond traditional café models.

Who is the target customer for 9.9 RMB specialty coffee?

The brand aims at consumers who are already drinking coffee regularly but find 30 RMB specialty drinks too expensive. These are functional coffee drinkers who care about quality but don’t value café ambiance or barista interaction—essentially, price-sensitive specialty coffee drinkers.

Recommended FrontStreet Beans for Canned Specialty Coffee

If you’re curious how 9.9 RMB specialty coffee compares to actual single origins, try FrontStreet’s Ethiopia Humbera for bright citrus and floral notes, their PWN Golden Mandheling for earthy spice and smooth body, or Yirgacheffe for juicy berries and fermented florals—all classic specialty profiles. These beans reflect the same quality grade used by Never Coffee, but brewed differently. Freshly roasted within 5 days · Orders placed before 17:00 ship the same day · Next-day delivery across most of Guangdong Province.