Over the past few years, you may have noticed a recurring trend in coffee marketing: the fusion of traditional Eastern and Western medicinal concepts with coffee. This has led to the rise of creative drinks like goji berry Americanos and kudzu root lattes, which have become especially popular among younger consumers—even evolving into a kind of lifestyle trend.
This topic really resonates with me, because I encountered something like this as early as ten years ago. Back in 2016, I visited Seoul, South Korea, and stopped by a café called Tea Therapy. Their entire concept revolved around blending tea, medicinal herbs, food therapy, and coffee. On their specialty menu, you’d find drinks like red bean lattes, wild kudzu lattes, and ginger lattes.
At the time, it felt almost surreal—ingredients like red beans or ginger didn’t seem like they had any connection to coffee at all. But that contrast sparked my curiosity. I just had to try it and see what it tasted like.
Back then, cafés like this didn’t really exist in China. But a few years later, similar concepts started appearing—and eventually took off. At one point, it even became trendy to see cafés sharing space with traditional Chinese medicine clinics.
Interestingly, the relationship between coffee and medicine goes back much further. In Ethiopia, for example, there’s an ethnic group called the Oromo people, who make up about 35% of the population. Historical research shows that coffee has long been part of their daily lives—not just as a beverage, but also as a form of traditional medicine and food. So when people jokingly say, “coffee is medicine,” maybe there’s more truth to it than we think.
So today, I want to use this topic as a starting point to explore how we should really think about this kind of fusion.
At its core, this is a classic “hybrid” business model. It blends cultural innovation with strong marketing appeal—and it deserves to be viewed from a more nuanced, balanced perspective.
To be fair, the idea of combining coffee with traditional medicine isn’t entirely random. There are some conceptual overlaps. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes balance and restoration, while coffee is known for its stimulating, energizing effects—which, in a sense, can be seen as “consuming” energy.
By adding ingredients like goji berries, dried tangerine peel, or monk fruit, the intention is to use “nourishing” elements to offset coffee’s stimulating nature. This perfectly taps into a modern contradiction: young people who stay up late while simultaneously trying to “take care” of their health.
Take the classic goji berry Americano, for example. Goji berries are believed to nourish the liver and kidneys and support eye health—so adding them to coffee creates the idea that you’re balancing out caffeine’s potential strain on the body.
Another shared characteristic? Bitterness.
From a flavor perspective, this pairing isn’t entirely unreasonable. The roasted bitterness of dark coffee can complement the sweet-bitter notes of dried citrus peel or licorice, and even the herbal aroma of ginseng. When done right, it can create a complex and layered flavor profile.
But in reality, making these drinks taste good is no easy task. Coffee itself already has a highly complex flavor structure, while many medicinal herbs are intense and overpowering. If the balance is off, you can easily end up with something that tastes like “coffee-flavored medicine” or “medicine-flavored coffee”—where the elements clash instead of harmonizing.
That said, there’s no denying that this is a highly effective marketing strategy.
These drinks naturally carry a sense of novelty, which makes them perfect for social media. Names like goji berry Americano or tangerine peel latte are inherently attention-grabbing, encouraging customers to take photos and share their experience online—essentially generating free exposure for cafés.
On top of that, today’s coffee market is incredibly competitive, with a high degree of sameness. By incorporating localized “wellness” elements, cafés can quickly differentiate themselves and stand out from the crowd.
There’s also a deeper psychological factor at play—something I’d call “modern Chinese-style anxiety.”
For many young people, these drinks aren’t really about functionality. What they’re buying is a kind of placebo effect and emotional comfort. It’s not about the medicine—it’s about the reassurance: “I’m taking care of my health, so drinking coffee won’t be that bad for me.” In other words, it reduces the guilt associated with their habits.
However, from a traditional Chinese medicine perspective, things are more complicated.
Coffee is generally considered warming and stimulating, with diuretic properties. Meanwhile, many nourishing ingredients require time and stability to be properly absorbed by the body. Combining the two raises questions: could they cancel each other out? Could there be unintended effects? The truth is, there’s still a lack of in-depth research on this.
There are also more practical concerns. Coffee can interfere with nutrient absorption—for example, tannins in coffee can bind to iron and reduce its absorption rate. That’s why it’s generally not recommended to drink large amounts of coffee right after consuming iron-rich foods (like red meat or spinach) or taking iron or calcium supplements.
From a TCM standpoint, the situation becomes even more nuanced. Coffee is seen as pungent and warming, with drying and stimulating effects. Many traditional herbs—such as mai dong, lily bulb, rehmannia root, or sour jujube seed—are used to nourish yin, enrich the blood, and calm the mind. Coffee’s stimulating and drying nature may counteract these effects.
Additionally, because coffee is diuretic, it may not be suitable for people taking “heat-clearing” herbs like coptis or scutellaria. In such cases, the body may already be in a state of internal heat combined with fluid deficiency, and coffee could potentially worsen dehydration.
So when we look at cafés built around this concept, an important question arises: are they truly following the principles of traditional medicine—like personalized diagnosis and treatment—or are they simply mixing ingredients for the sake of novelty?
If we’re honest, most consumers don’t really think about the underlying medicinal logic. Rarely does anyone explain it in depth. More often than not, people are drawn in by curiosity and the fun factor.
And given how complex coffee itself already is, it’s worth staying clear-headed in the face of the endless wave of “wellness coffee” marketing.
If I had to sum it up in one sentence:
Taste comes first. Concepts are just extras. Your body’s response is the real standard.
That way, you can enjoy the creativity without being led blindly by marketing.
