Nongfu Spring launched a self-heating bottled coffee

In November 2020, Nongfu Spring launched a self-heating bottled coffee product. This is not a brand new coffee product. In fact, it is a joint sale of a self-heating device with the coffee brand “TANBING”, which was launched in Oct 2019.

The heating method of the product is similar to that of a self-heating hot pot, where the user needs to put a self-heating fuel bag into the cup, fill it with a small amount of water, and then put the unopened bottle into the cup and wait for 6 minutes to 8 minutes.

In fact, it does not change the original packaging of TANBING coffee, but gives away fuel and special containers for heating in addition to the packaging. 

The set is currently sold only on e-commerce platforms by box, each containing five self-heating fuel packs and five bottles of TANBING coffee and one container for heating. The price of each case is 79.9 yuan ($12.18).

Nongfu Spring, a famous drinking water company in China, was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in September this year.

Although its main business is selling bottled mineral water, it has also been trying to develop its beverage business in recent years. Coffee is an important direction in its beverage business. Nongfu Spring launched the coffee brand “TANBING” in May 2019, initially as a coffee sparkling water containing carbon dioxide. In October 2019, it launched classic coffee. In March this year, it launched another hanging-ear coffee product.  In June, it also launched a bottle of coffee that tastes like milk tea and needs to be refrigerated. 

In recent years, the competition in China’s coffee market is very fierce. Luckin, a famous Chinese coffee chain, has not closed down after experiencing financial fraud. KFC China recently released freeze-dried instant coffee to join the market competition. McDonald’s coffee brand McCoffee (China) has also just announced plans to upgrade its 4000 stores. 

Although Chinese consumers prefer milk tea for offline parties and shopping, the demand for coffee is no longer simply instant pure coffee. Coffee brands in the Chinese market are trying to gain competitive advantage by more accurately meeting the coffee needs of users in different scenarios.

TANBING self-heated coffee is not the first hot drink launched by Nongfu Spring, whose bottled tea sub-brand Oriental Leaf launched a soft-packaged tea drink suitable for drinking after heating in the fall of 2019. But the product is not equipped with a self-heating device and is sold in incubators in convenience stores.