Coffee fans blind test comparison: which is better than freshly ground coffee in foreign convenience stores?

The High Energy Lab invited several caffeine lovers to blindly test freshly ground coffee in three foreign convenience stores.

In 2005, Japan's NHK TV produced a documentary entitled "the desire to capture 1.3 billion people, the Battle of Chinese supermarkets." Ten years ago, foreign convenience stores such as Lawson, the whole family and 7-Eleven began to compete on a large scale with local brands such as Haode, Kede and Kuaike in Shanghai. At that time, foreign convenience stores took local convenience stores with state-run backgrounds by surprise with the secret weapon of lunch boxes.

Today, foreign convenience stores, which have established a foothold in the Chinese market, are trying to further boost their income by introducing freshly ground coffee that has been a great success in places such as Japan and Taiwan.

In 2012, the whole family, Rosen, 7-Eleven and other convenience stores began to introduce freshly ground coffee business in Japanese stores. At present, there are 43000 convenience stores selling freshly ground coffee in Japan. Among them, 7-Eleven 's "SEVEN CAF é" once sparked a consumer boom, with freshly ground coffee priced at 100 to 150 yen (5 to 7.6 yuan), with each 7-Eleven store selling more than 100 cups of coffee a day, with profits up 27% in 2013. Similarly, inexpensive convenience store coffee priced at 35 to 55 New Taiwan dollars (7 to 11 yuan) is also popular in Taiwan, where the convenience store network is well developed. 7-Eleven sold 200m cups of coffee in Taiwan in 2013, with a market share of more than half.

This week, High Energy Lab invited several caffeine lovers to blindly test the quality of freshly ground coffee in three foreign convenience stores in Shanghai. The coffee samples tested were hot American coffee from the whole family, Rosen and 7-Eleven, while the experimenter prepared a hot American coffee from Starbucks as a reference.

7-Eleven 's coffee cup has a white background, printed with brown 7 COFFEE words and some striped city landscape, and the cup body is insulated double-layer hollow design.

Rosen's dark-shaded corrugated coffee cup is printed with the word MACHI Caf é, which belongs to the same category as the one sold by Rosen in Japan, where the advertising spokesperson is Koichi Nakamaru, a member of the former idol group KAT-TUN.

The whole family's "guest" coffee cup is also designed with corrugated paper, and the main color is light blue. It is reported that the average daily sales of the whole family's ground coffee shop is more than 40 cups, with a record high of 180 cups.

Compared with Starbucks and other coffee shops, convenience store ground coffee is generally about 10 yuan, the price is much lower. Among them, the whole family's "guest" coffee can buy hot American coffee at a discounted price of 4 yuan with a "sharing card"-the price level of 15 years ago sounds as exciting to me as it was yesterday.

Not all convenience stores are equipped with freshly ground coffee machines, but due to the high density of downtown convenience stores, sample procurement has not encountered much trouble. The coffee machines in most stores are operated by clerks, and in some whole-family stores, consumers can pay for a cup at the cashier and mess with the freshly ground coffee machine in the corner.

Although the method of the study was blind, it was actually only listening to the subjective complaints of a few mice, and there were no objective criteria. And because of the difference in the temperature of several cups of samples, this assessment is not scientific at all. But do not pay attention to these details, the experimenter is a liberal arts student, research methods do not understand it.

The first subject is Mr. Liu, a 27-year-old civil servant.

Mr. Liu claims that he is not a coffee lover, but only adds some coffee to various drinks. The occasion for drinking coffee is also limited to the tea break during the meeting, or the appointment arrives in advance to buy a cup to kill time. After his wife, who used to drink coffee, got pregnant and temporarily quit coffee, Mr. Liu's frequency of drinking coffee dropped to about once a week.

American coffee is Mr. Liu's first choice, because "fat people are not qualified to eat sugar and milk." However, while the experimenter was chatting with him in his own house, he still added a spoonful of condensed milk to the hand-made iced coffee made from Vietnamese coffee beans.

After tasting several cups of samples, Mr. Liu said that the taste of 7-Eleven coffee beans is sour because the coffee beans are roasted for a short time and a large amount of plant acid is preserved. Rosen coffee, on the other hand, is bitter, which means that Rosen's coffee beans are roasted longer. As for the whole family's "guest coffee", Mr. Liu's feedback was "like drinking cough medicine".

The second person who took part in the evaluation was Miss Xia, a 21-year-old intern.

Miss Xia is the heaviest of the white rats-she has been a fan of Espresso since high school. The pressure of studying in medical school made Miss Xia dependent on coffee. She said that in the worst cases, she would unwittingly drink seven or eight cups of espresso while reviewing all night. In the end, her heart beat so fast that she didn't know what was written in the notes in the textbook.

After her internship in the hospital, Miss Xia's coffee addiction has been gradually brought under control. at present, she only drinks a cup in the afternoon on weekdays to refresh herself, consuming an average of three or four cups a week. Because of her dislike of the light taste of instant coffee, Miss Xia usually buys ground beans and tells the experimenter that she recently plans to buy an Aeropress to make espresso at home.

Miss Xia said she used to patronize independent coffee shops, but after becoming a member of Starbucks, the American coffee shop chain became her main stronghold. In the test, Miss Xia quickly recognized the familiar taste of Starbucks-Starbucks coffee has a richer color and a glossy finish than convenience store coffee. Among the freshly ground coffee in the three convenience stores, Rosen Coffee got a better evaluation, while the whole family and 7-Eleven were too weak to take notice.

The third subject is a 23-year-old student, Mr. Su.

Mr. Su told the experimenter that he usually drinks more economical and convenient instant coffee and occasionally buys brand-packaged coffee in the supermarket. Since middle school, he has formed the habit of drinking coffee, which is not only refreshing, but also has the effect of laxative.

After the test, Mr. Su said that although he was not interested in American coffee, the "smooth taste" of Starbucks coffee was significantly different from that of convenience store coffee. As for coffee in the three convenience stores, he said it reflected "cheap and light" coffee to varying degrees and lacked taste stimulation. However, light also has the advantage of light, "at least not bad breath."

Miss red bean, a 25-year-old female journalist who works in the media, is the fourth white mouse to take part in the evaluation.

Journalism is often upside down day and night, and sometimes I have to burn the midnight oil in order to rush the manuscript. Coffee addiction is almost an occupational disease. As a peer experimenter of Miss Red Bean, I also have a lot of experience.

Miss adzuki bean, who has been in the industry for three years, has a light taste, and a warm latte or mocha and other milk-flavored and sugary drinks are good in winter, so when the experimenter took out four cups of American black coffee, Miss adzuki's face was very long.

According to Miss Red Bean's feedback, Starbucks coffee is significantly higher in color and smell than convenience store coffee, and the taste is also more intense. The high acidity of 7-Eleven has also been confirmed again. And Rosen Coffee seemed to have a lot of impact-she tasted it and spit it out in pain.

The last person to take part in the assessment was Mr. Gao, a 30-year-old financial worker.

Mr. Gao usually drinks two cups of coffee a day. His day's work begins with a cup of coffee at 10:00. At around 02:00 in the afternoon, Mr. Gao will make another cup with the freshly ground coffee machine in the office to dispel the tiredness in the afternoon. Sometimes I work late and have a drink to cheer me up.

The young middle-class man, who claims to be a fan of hand-brewed coffee, always has coffee beans bought at an independent cafe called Seesaw and grinds some Ethiopian beans to drink at home. Mr. Gao has his own set of coffee classics. in his view, hand-brewed coffee has a lot of attention: in addition to the variety of coffee beans, the size of grinding particles, water temperature, the ratio of water to coffee, and the speed of brewing will affect the taste of the drink.

When the experimenter hooked up with this kind of old wizard, he was also very nervous. if he honestly told him to buy a convenience store coffee for 10 yuan, he would inevitably be looked down upon, so he only vaguely said that he was invited to evaluate several new kinds of coffee. After tasting several samples unknowingly, Mr. Gao spoke highly of Starbucks and 7-Eleven. Rosen and the family's freshly ground coffee were disliked for overbaking and too much water, respectively.

Mr. Gao has never bought freshly ground coffee from a convenience store before. After learning the truth, he thought that 7-Eleven 's coffee was doing well, considering the low price. However, he said he was unlikely to buy it at a convenience store, "because it's free to eat company coffee in the office."

According to the results of this unreliable evaluation, in general, convenience store coffee is generally light, 7-Eleven 's freshly ground coffee is sour, and Rosen is the bitterest. As for whether it tastes good or not, it depends on the preferences of consumers.

On the other hand, it is gratifying that Starbucks has not lost face in the competition with freshly ground coffee in cheap convenience stores for every penny.

Interface News Qian Ruisun