How China’s Coffee Market Grew Rapidly After 2011

In early January 2011, massive flooding in Australia wiped out key grape-growing regions, guaranteeing a spike in wine prices for the year. Even without disasters, fine estate wines had already been climbing in value for over a decade. A popular Japanese manga, The God of Wine, obsessively detailed wine flavours, food pairings, storage, and drinking contexts—all to turn wine drinking into a refined sensory experience. Readers who followed its advice and bought wine back then could have seen returns of 3 to 5 times their investment by 2011, far outperforming gold and surviving the 2008 stock market crash.

Yes, China’s coffee market in 2011 was near zero per capita—but that’s exactly where the massive growth began. By 2009, the average Chinese person drank just 8 cups of coffee per year, compared to 286 in South Korea, 360 in Japan, and over 1,000 in Nordic countries like the Netherlands and Sweden. That gap hinted at enormous future potential as incomes rose.

The Wine Parallel: How a Niche Became Mainstream

Drinking and collecting fine wine wasn’t new, but a widely loved Japanese manga accelerated its popularity across Asia—especially in newly wealthy China. The same pattern would soon play out with coffee.

A Fictional Tale with Real Coffee Market Lessons

A novel styled like The God of Wine, but about coffee, fictionalized the early 20th-century London coffee trade. It followed a hedonistic young writer whose refined coffee palate attracted an ambitious trader. The writer’s poetic descriptions became the secret weapon for selling a new drink in Britain. The plan was to open a high-end coffeehouse serving premium single-origin beans—but that vision quickly gave way to industrialized packaged coffee. Blended, mass-marketed coffee powder won out, supported by heavy advertising that taught consumers to brew quickly at home. What started as an artisanal product became a commodity driven by cost, not quality.

The story took a darker turn with financial intrigue: Brazil, the world’s largest coffee producer, faced a bumper crop and planned to destroy surplus beans to prop up prices. Speculators in London tried to short the market, expecting a glut. A writer was sent to Brazil to investigate, uncovering corruption—officials were secretly selling the “destroyed” beans, while corrupt farmers fed false data to traders. Armed with inside knowledge, the speculators made huge profits by betting against the market and manipulating supply perceptions.

Why China’s Coffee Market Was Poised for Explosive Growth

Early-stage markets offer the chance for outsized returns—and coffee in China was one of those rare opportunities around 2011. While Taiwan was also seeing rising coffee consumption, the real focus was on mainland China, where per capita intake was almost nothing.

According to briefing data from RT-Mart CEO Huang Mingduan, in 2009 the average Chinese person consumed just 8 cups of coffee annually. In contrast, South Koreans drank 286 cups, the Japanese 360, and Dutch and Swedish consumers drank over 1,000. This massive gap, paired with China’s rapid economic development, pointed to a coming boom in demand.

Stock Market Plays in Coffee and Related Sectors

While Taiwan’s stock market had limited pure coffee plays, some related investments were gaining attention. Convenience stores sold coffee, but it made up just a tiny fraction of their 3,000+ product lines. A more focused option was 85°C Coffee (85C), recently listed and expanding aggressively in China. Another was Super Coffee, a Singapore-listed company (also trading as a TDR on the Taiwan Stock Exchange) that specialised in instant coffee. By 2011, it was already the top instant coffee brand in Southeast Asia and had begun building factories and retail locations in China.

Unlike luxury wine or spirits stocks, which required specialised knowledge for trading and storage, coffee-related equities were more accessible. They offered a way to invest in the sector’s growth without needing to master the complexities of fine wine collecting.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much coffee did the average Chinese person drink in 2009?

In 2009, the average person in China drank just 8 cups of coffee per year, according to data from RT-Mart CEO Huang Mingduan shared internally.

How does China’s coffee consumption compare to other countries in 2009?

In 2009, South Korea averaged 286 cups per person, Japan 360, and Nordic countries like the Netherlands and Sweden exceeded 1,000 cups annually. China’s 8 cups was far behind.

What were the investment opportunities in coffee around 2011?

Potential investments included 85°C Coffee, a publicly listed company expanding in China, and Super Coffee, a Singapore- and Taiwan-listed instant coffee firm that was already leading in Southeast Asia and starting operations in China.

Did the coffee market in China start from zero?

While not literally zero, China’s per capita coffee consumption in 2009 was extremely low (8 cups), indicating the market was just beginning to develop.

What was the fictional book about coffee mentioned in the article?

The article references an unpublished or fictional novel styled after The God of Wine, focusing on 19th–20th century London coffee traders, colonial economics, and including a financial plot involving Brazilian coffee supply manipulation.

Why did packaged coffee beat specialty coffee in the story?

In the fictional narrative, industrialised, blended, and advertised packaged coffee won out due to convenience and mass appeal, shifting focus from artisanship to profit-driven production.

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