Cotti Coffee's square logo was meant to signal quality — customers saw confusion

On April 27, 2026, Cotti Coffee announced a brand upgrade that replaced its familiar round @-symbol logo with a square design combining the @-symbol with a coffee-cup silhouette. The stated rationale was to support overseas expansion, lower communication barriers, and reinforce the message that 'good coffee comes from good ingredients.'

The reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. Chinese social media users compared the new logo to the Beijing subway sign, a water-dispenser icon on high-speed trains, and a generic tech-company mark. The criticism was not about the coffee — it was about the brand signal. Cotti had built its identity around affordable, accessible coffee; the square logo, with its sharper angles and more corporate feel, looked like a different brand entirely.

Industry observers noted that almost every coffee and tea chain in China — Starbucks, Luckin, Mixue, Bawang Chaji — uses a round logo, making the square choice stand out for the wrong reasons. The timing compounded the problem: Cotti was still best known for its 9.9 yuan ($1.37) price war with Luckin, and the logo change looked like an attempt to rebrand without addressing the product gap.

Cotti did not issue a formal apology or pull the logo. The company continued to roll out the new identity across stores and packaging, but the debate had already shifted from what the brand was becoming to why it had changed at all.