The Chinese coffee giant Luckin is reportedly acquiring the third wave coffee mecca Blue Bottle in a deal worth just shy of $400 million. It’s more than another acquisition: Luckin is making its most aggressive move on Starbucks since it opened its first U.S. locations in New York in 2025 in a rivalry that is quickly heating up. But to understand what’s at play, we need to zoom out for a moment to take a quick scan of the global coffee market. Inside the coffee wars With around 40,000 s...