Nordic Coffee Travel Notes (4) Why do coffee chains have no advantage in Nordic?

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"Welcome to Gothenburg! It's our turn to be your guide. " It takes only three hours to get to Sweden's second largest city by bus from Oslo. We were received by Harry and Johanna, Swedish college students who had studied in Hong Kong for half a year. During their stay in Norway, the two enthusiasts have followed me around, including bakeries and warehouses where old friends are not open to the public.

Gothenburg, located in western Sweden, is a vibrant city. In addition to the large number of colleges and universities, hundreds of thousands of tourists visit various exhibitions every year. Better known include the Gothenburg International Film Festival (Goteborg International Film Festival), the Book Fair (Gothenburg Book Fair), the International Science Festival (The International Science Festival in Gothenburg) and the summer music festival.

"where there is a university, there is a cafe." Gothenburg is no exception. In the early days of business, I bought beans and tasted them in koppi, a coffee shop in Stockholm, Sweden. Today, the shopkeeper Anne has become a Nordic boutique coffee celebrity. Da Matteo, who had a good time with her, was our first stop.

Free chairs outdoors?

From the street, the Da Matteo main store in Magasinsgatan looks like a single-story warehouse. The open space at the door, although it is a parking space, will be occupied by outdoor seats in summer. The coffee shop, fried bean machine, cup testing room and bakery here have no solid wall partition, and the bar material is also made of logs, which feels fashionable and natural. In Hong Kong, where the licensing system for restaurants is extremely stringent, it will not be up to standard. Do you want to put chairs freely outdoors? It's almost delusional. But then again, the so-called outdoors in Hong Kong: looking up at the mansion, densely populated, the shrill sound of bus brakes. Where can I drink it when I buy takeout?

Patrik, the roaster, has tried the coffee fried by the author in the "handletter" brought back from Harry. Although I am a new acquaintance, I already have a general impression of the baking style in Hong Kong. It turns out that the biggest challenge for the Swedish industry, like ours, is to make the public distinguish between high-quality goods and commercial products. There are many local coffee shops, but most of them are just fika (similar to tea break during work).

The lease is based on 10 years.

The shop I visited after that made the author feel more deeply.

Kale'i kaffebar is located in a residential area. In an inconspicuous atrium surrounded by private houses, a stone alley led to the white gate. The whole store is like a studio: a cookie cabinet, an Italian coffee maker. The beans in this shop are the work of my old friend Kafferostare (Swedish translation for baker) Per Nordby. The girl who did not know whether it was the boss or the shop assistant curled up to read on the comb, and all afternoon, only a few of us patronized. Johanna explains that unlike Hong Kong, Sweden's business environment is more stable than ours: apart from cheap rents, local leases are based on 10 years, so entrepreneurs have plenty of time to build their brands.

No wonder chain stores have no advantage in northern Europe.