Luckin Disney villain tea party: Key takeaways
- Luckin’s Disney campaign taps into a long-running Stepmothers’ Tea Party meme
- Consumers extended the campaign themselves and noted a rivalry with Chagee.
- Luckin increasingly resembles a mass beverage platform powered by industrialised customer acquisition
Luckin (瑞幸咖啡) has assembled Disney’s (迪士尼) dark side for its latest collaboration – one that draws its cues from a Chinese meme. Together the Evil Queen, Maleficent, Cruella de Vil and Ursula, plus three limited-edition drinks are united for an ‘Apple Party.’ Interestingly, none of this originated with Disney. It began on Chinese social media.
A Stepmother’s Tea Party (后妈茶话会) has become a byword in China for a parent’s tough love. The idea goes as far back as 2019 when a fan-made musical put this same crew of villainesses around one table. The meme sprung up, was circulated even further when songs from the musical were performed on Hunan TV in 2020, and has stuck around since.
Luckin has co-opted this meme in collaboration does all the usual work: three limited drinks use real Aksu apple juice, including an Apple Latte and an Apple C Iced Tea. Villain-covered bags, sharp-tongued stickers and magic-mirror merchandise complete the package.
Villain-covered bags, sharp-tongued stickers and magic-mirror merchandise complete the package
Consumers have since taken the merchandising back online. They cut the Evil Queen from Luckin’s paper bags to make stickers and journal decorations. Others placed her poisoned apple over Apple’s logo on iPhones and Macs – an accidental fit that became a running social-media joke. Also online, rumours…
Unverified reports that Chagee (霸王茶姬) is planning a Disney princess collaboration for September have prompted users to frame the two launches as princesses versus stepmothers and invade Chagee’s comments sections with Luckin villain jokes.
Pointed hats off to Luckin’ for another well-played collaboration, but how many do they need?
The marketing pretty much handled itself as users chimed in to as whether Chagee’s drink could revive customers poisoned by Luckin’s apple series. Pointed hats off to Luckin’ for another well-played collaboration, but how many do they need?
The Dao view: Luckin, queen of collaboration
Luckin has done a bit of magical transformation itself. It’s becoming a collaboration machine. One industry count found 26 collaborations during 2025 – roughly one every two weeks. In Q2 2026, sales and marketing spending rose by more than half to RMB925.1 million (US$136.1 million).
An interesting element to consider here is what that machine sells. Non-coffee drink sales had passed RMB20 billion (US$2.9 billion) by May. Twenty-two such products have each sold more than 100 million cups. The Disney range spans coffee and tea too. Luckin may still call itself a coffee chain. Its numbers describe a mass beverage platform.
