Poke the heart and ask: the coffee in so-and-so shop tastes so bad, why do so many people still go?

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In the past year or two, I believe one of the things that you can particularly experience is that the drink of "coffee" appears more and more in our daily life. Even if the Chinese coffee market is expected to exceed 100 billion this year, it is illusory for us, who have no more than two cups of coffee a day, but those new activities and coupons from Starbucks and Luckin Coffee, or even happy tea and daily excellent fresh start selling coffee are very close to us.

For Chinese people, coffee is no longer just a bag of three-in-one instant brewed in hot water. From a mermaid green logo, a small blue cup, a small red cup, to a variety of online celebrity coffee shops and boutique coffee shops hidden in the streets, we can choose so many cups of "coffee".

However, where there is choice, there will be comparison. Coffee, which is similar to daily water in the eyes of foreigners, seems to form a chain of disdain in our eyes. For example, those that come out face-to-face are real coffee, while large chain stores sell style, online celebrity stores sell dog meat, and convenience stores are full of bitter and astringent black liquid.

So did coffee drinkers flock to boutique coffee shops where the shelves are full of coffee beans and baristas play with equipment and customers?

The answer is: no.

You must have seen it a lot and even complained about the products of Starbucks, Luckin Coffee or other coffee shops. However, for the coffee that many people say is "really bad", Starbucks sells 400 million cups a year, and Ruixing, which opened a year ago, also announced that it had exceeded 100 million cups. However, a large number of boutique coffee shops have fallen on the road of dreams.

It's time to prick your heart and ask: why do you continue to buy coffee when you obviously think the coffee in that store is not good?

I have to say, coffee is not just a "simple" drink for us. Whether a shop's coffee tastes good or not is often not the most fundamental reason for whether we buy it or not. For the following reasons, we tend to be repeat customers of this or that not-so-delicious coffee shop.

1. All I need is a cup of caffeine

Although there were some misunderstandings about the effects of drinking coffee on our bodies in the past, such as insomnia and carcinogenesis, its remarkable refreshing effect was admiring. Maybe a lot of people get into the coffee pit, the original motivation is because of that little "caffeine".

Many scientific experiments have been conducted to study the effects of coffee on the human body. A number of results show that drinking coffee in the morning helps to awaken people's more positive emotions, while the biggest benefit of drinking coffee before lunch is to strengthen memory and learning ability. As a result, we can often see office workers hurrying back to the office in the morning with a cup of take-away coffee in their hands.

Bean knowledge: Robbosa beans have more caffeine than Arabica coffee beans

At such times, compared with the deliberate pursuit of the delicacy of coffee, coffee from convenience stores or chain coffee shops that provide takeout services is qualified, even if it tastes a little worse, but it is convenient and quick to provide the right amount of caffeine.

2. I'm not the one drinking coffee, it's my phone

Nowadays, whether a thing has a social attribute or not determines whether it can become a popular style. One of the reasons coffee has become popular in China, where tea culture prevails, may be that it is endowed with social attributes.

Try to remember what it was like when we were attacked by an Amway coffee shop on various social platforms. Usually, we see a large number of photos of the ornate, antique or minimalist decoration of the coffee shop, followed by fine desserts and light snacks, and coffee is often not the protagonist.

The taste of coffee no longer matters. Take a good picture and get a lot of likes on Wechat, Weibo, Little Red Book, Douyin and other social media, then the cup of coffee on the table has done its job.

3. Work, study, chat and talk about business. I just love the coffee shop.

It is undeniable that the coffee shop has now become the "third space" that is quite important to us. Many people are keen to bring work and study and even important business beans to coffee shops. Since ancient times, many foreign writers have finished their works in coffee shops.

A comfortable coffee shop, most of the time, does not need pleasing decoration, even if the coffee is not a problem. Because, for people who pursue a place suitable for doing their own things, what is more important is the unique atmosphere of the coffee shop. Foreign scientists have even studied this, suggesting that a moderate coffee shop sound, while distracting, can also make the brain think more actively, which translates into productivity and creativity.

In fact, many countries also make full use of the space of coffee shops. For example, coffee shops around many universities in Japan are responsible for providing job-hunting places for students. In this case, the taste of coffee does not bring these meanings.

Do we really need to drink coffee so seriously?

For some coffee lovers, coffee can only be coffee, not anything else. Drinking coffee is not about the environment, selfies and moments, but about tasting the flavor and knowing all kinds of information about the cup of coffee you drink.

Of course, this "sense of ritual" has also aroused dissent. Coffee is just a drink, deifying it will only make it more and more out of touch with the public. It's just coffee. If you don't know whether the acid is raspberry acid or citric acid, you're not qualified to drink it?

The editor believes that drinking coffee is actually a very personal matter. Whether it's pursuing an affordable cup a day, or exquisite taste of each bean, or simply clocking in to take pictures or finding a place to open your computer, it's all reasonable. Coffee is a different drink in everyone's eyes. As long as you can get the value you want from it, you will buy it later even if it is not so good.

So, what on earth did you buy that cup of coffee for?