The Chinese chain Cotti Coffee is expanding rapidly and is now represented with several branches in Germany.
With 99 cent espresso and a highly automated concept, the company focuses on maximum efficiency and low prices.
Our reporter was on site in Berlin and tested the China chain.
The red and gray balloons from the opening are still hanging in front of the store and the air is slowly escaping from them. In the store, the few tables available are all occupied, but only by individuals engrossed in smartphones.
So this is what the Chinese cheap coffee revolution looks like? I am in a Berlin branch of Cotti Coffee, a new coffee house chain from China that wants to compete with Starbucks, Lap Coffee and Co. Cotti Coffee has recently been pushing into the German market with aggressively low prices, after the company has already begun its expansion into the USA.
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Behind Cotti’s coffee success story are two former managers of the Chinese coffee shop Luckin Coffee. They made Cotti the global number three after Starbucks and Luckin in just four years. This means that two of the world’s three largest coffee shop chains currently come from the Middle Kingdom.
According to its own information, Cotti Coffee now operates around 18,000 branches in 28 countries – rapid growth in a very short space of time. Over 16,000 of the branches are in China. For comparison: The Chinese number one and global number two Luckin Coffee currently operates around 30,000 branches, of which over 24,000 are in China. The US company Starbucks only operates 8,000 branches of its more than 40,000 shops worldwide.
Since the beginning of the year, Cotti Coffee has currently had seven branches in Germany, two of which are in Berlin. The others are in Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg.
So time for a visit.
To order, I have to scan a QR code and can then choose from a menu that offers enough selection to suit the tastes of modern city dwellers, but doesn’t overwhelm anyone.
The menu includes coffee drinks, matcha drinks and frappés, for example with coconut, mango or grapefruit. A simple espresso is also available – at a reduced price of 99 cents.
The order is only digital and I have to provide my email address or telephone number, although it remains unclear why. After that, if I don’t want to pay online, I can at least pay by card at the terminal – unlike in many Berlin cafés.
I order a “Matcha Coconut Latte” (warm) and a “Grapefruit Americano” (cold), both without sugar, wait for the order – and look around the store.
Even though, as we all know, beauty is in the eye of the beholder: the interior design of the Cotti branches seemed, to put it carefully, rather expansive to me. However, on this visit almost all the seats were occupied, mostly by laptop users – the store offers free Wi-Fi.
Unlike the cheap chain Lap Coffee, Cotti uses an artificial wooden parquet look instead of aluminum under the neon lights, perhaps to radiate some warmth. I let the brown faux leather seats invite me to linger.
After a few minutes of writing down my impressions, my order arrives – both drinks a first for me. It’s still a little too cold outside for the iced grapefruit Americano, but it can give me slight summer feelings. More appropriate for the season is the warm coconut matcha latte, which is sugar-free but tastes surprisingly sweet.
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There were a noticeable number of Chinese-speaking customers when I visited the branch: three quarters of the customers present spoke Chinese to each other or on the phone – and ordered in Chinese.
The employees also only speak Chinese and English. One of them tells me that she came to Germany from China specifically for the job behind the coffee shop counter.
In addition to the taste and originality of the drinks, an important unique selling point of Cotti Coffee is the price. With its affordable offering, Cotti Coffee at first glance looks a lot like the Lap coffee chain founded in Berlin, which has attracted a lot of criticism in recent months for its low prices.
Both companies work on the concept of minimalist furnishings, small shop spaces and fully automated ordering and preparation processes that do not require qualified staff.
What prices does Cotti Coffee offer?
The espresso price is generally considered to be the figurehead of the price level of many cafés and coffee shops. In this discipline, Cotti actually clearly beats Lap’s Berlin competition with an espresso for 99 cents. At the Berlin competition Lap Coffee, the 1.50 euro espresso already caused a media shitstorm.
For comparison: Starbucks charges around 3.50 euros for a simple espresso, while the traditional Berlin chain Einstein costs two euros.
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However, if you look at the rest of the offering, Cotti’s Lap can only be slightly undercut. The Americano then costs 1.99 euros instead of the two euros at Lap. The café latte also costs 2.99 euros (Cotti) or three euros (Lap).
The price difference is slightly higher for matcha drinks and all other special forms. The matcha latte costs 3.39 euros at Cotti compared to 3.50 euros at Lap. The situation is similar for mixed coffee drinks.
However, Cotti does one thing differently than Lap: the discount game. When I visit, the Cotti website, where I have to place the order, only shows reduced prices. Next to it you can see the original prices, which are often a quarter to a third higher. However, I cannot see at what point the prices should be raised again.
There are also other attractive offers for new customers: Extra discounts on certain drinks for the first three purchases.
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My conclusion
Compared to Cotti Coffee, Starbucks almost seems like the friendly indie café around the corner and Lap Coffee looks like a colorful furnishings store. Anyone who has experienced gasps critical of capitalism at Lap should avoid Cotti Coffee. Just like Lap, Cotti didn’t seem like a welcoming meeting place when I visited, nor did it offer great quality coffee – but if you’re looking for a quick, inexpensive coffee, perhaps with a bit of coconut or mango flavor, you’ll find it here.
The two drinks I bought and drank were like the store itself: they did what they promised. I still have a little stomach ache afterwards.
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