The Oriental Enlightenment of Coffee

Big players from mature markets, together with growing new forces, are painting a unique ecological picture of this brown powder drink in China.

In the early winter of 985, Chen Baoqing, who worked in Kraft, walked quickly into a foreign hotel in Beijing in the cold wind. He has visited 96 such foreign-related organizations non-stop-with the creamy aroma of Maxwell coffee.

But in China at that time, Chen Baoqing faced a completely blank market: the average person in developed countries consumed more than 100 cups of coffee a year, while 10 Chinese drank less than one cup. However, Kraft believes that with China's reform and opening up on track and an increase in the number of business people, the future coffee market will be considerable. They have carefully prepared beautiful gift wrapping, and 80% of the coffee sold by McDonald's are such gift boxes, which are good gifts for the Chinese.

Almost at the same time, the Swiss company Nestl é also saw this emerging market. In the 1980s, instant coffee, owned by the two food giants, became one of the most vivid and fragrant memories of that era. "delicious" and "Didi is fragrant and full of meaning" are almost the opening remarks of the initiation of coffee education in the mainland. Chinese people who are new to coffee are resistant to black coffee, which is popular in Europe and the United States. as a result, Nestl é launched a bitter-free 1-to-2 mixed coffee and demonstrated its blending method in advertisements. In the sweet taste of the cream companion, the Chinese coffee journey begins.

Nearly 30 years later, the status of instant coffee remains unshakable. But the image of coffee in China has now been turned upside down. Coffee has long gone beyond the meaning of brown powder drinks in glass jars and has been interpreted as a cultural phenomenon of emotion and tone.

And this meaning continues to subvert. Last year, Wang Jinlong, former president of Starbucks China, admitted that "China is in transition, and coffee culture has gradually changed into coffee consumption." Chinese mainland, which has more than 700 stores, plans to add about 150 stores in China this year and operate at least 1500 stores in China by 2015. At that time, China will become Starbucks' second largest market after the United States. In just 30 years, China has almost completed the transformation of the European market for more than a century.

But in fact, China has not lagged behind the three waves of coffee experienced by the European market. Since instant coffee, espresso represented by Starbucks and Costa has gradually formed the second wave, while the faint rise of boutique coffee is in the ascendant. Whether they are big players from mature markets or growing fresh faces, they are depicting a unique coffee ecology for China.

Elite game

In the first decade, instant coffee was almost synonymous with coffee, until a group of Taiwanese transplanted bright window tables, comfortable seats and coffee pots with brown bubbles to the mainland. In the 1990s, Shangdao Coffee and carving time, best known to mainlanders, appeared on the scene. Shangdao Coffee defines the business function of coffee. At that time, drinking tens of yuan a cup of coffee in the soft coffee shop was undoubtedly a luxury, and only business businessmen were willing to pay for it.

The early cafes were indeed a thankless business. When Chuang Tsai, a Taiwanese, opened his first sculpture time near the Halloween Book Garden at Peking University in 1997, he had no idea where to buy a coffee maker and coffee beans. At that time, there were very few coffee makers in China, so they could only ask people everywhere for inquiries. It didn't take long for the first coffee machine to break down, and Chuang Tsai discovered that what he bought at a high price turned out to be secondhand.

In the first few months, the cafe had only a handful of customers every day. In order to attract guests, Chuang Tsai began to show movies in the store, and the works were of a small taste, which coincided with the position of the coffee shop-- the main guests were students and teachers from Peking University and Tsinghua University. "in my feeling, it smells like the left bank of the Seine." Chuang Tsai said to the Timeline.

Different from the business demands of Shangdao, the literary and artistic style revealed everywhere in the carving time intoxicated the petty-bourgeois youth. Since then, small cafes of different styles have sprung up, and most people who run cafes, like Chuang Tsai, are usually driven by a complex rather than a commercial drive.

In this period of coffee trend, coffee culture has always been a top-down pyramid spread. Businessmen bear the cost of cafes, while students act as pioneers of coffee culture. Many cafes choose to open near universities, where young people are willing to accept new things.

Unfortunately, this brief romance was soon overwhelmed by a stronger trend, and when another group of Taiwanese swam across the sea with Starbucks mermaids, American-packaged espresso will reshape the coffee taste of the Chinese in an irresistible way.

The third space

In 2005, Wang Jinlong returned to Starbucks as president of Greater China, six years after Starbucks opened its first store on the mainland. His earliest resume at Starbucks was in 1992, when Starbucks opened its first store in 1987, when there were only 150 to 160 stores in the United States. But in the same five or six years, Starbucks has more than 400 stores in Greater China.

The "third space" built by Starbucks around the world has become the reason for people to be infatuated with it. "in such a space, people's relationships are free and equal, without a sense of hierarchy in the workplace and without the shackles of various roles in the family, people can release themselves."

Compared with the previous small cafes, Starbucks has built a perfect social and identity space. For the first batch of senior white-collar workers who patronize Starbucks, Starbucks has become "standard" for some kind of identity: high-income, tasteful and in line with international standards. Take Shanghai, the home of foreign companies, as an example: Starbucks' sales in Shanghai reached 100 million yuan in two years after opening its first store on Shanghai's Huaihai Road in 2000.

Customers who know nothing about coffee but are curious can also feel relaxed at Starbucks. It has a stylish decoration and a comfortable atmosphere, but it is not as aggressive as other literary cafes. This is the kind of atmosphere Starbucks strives to create. It thoughtfully considers the habits of Chinese customers, such as Chinese consumers who prefer to eat in or near their stores, so most Starbucks stores in China offer more food and seats than in the United States. Considering that Chinese people like hot food, each store also has an oven, which makes Chinese customers who are used to drinking coffee in the afternoon or evening begin to patronize frequently in the morning.

Wang Jinlong certainly understands that Chinese people don't come to Starbucks for coffee, they just want to get a high-profile experience. But he did not give up on the popularization of consumer knowledge. On the counter where Starbucks provides cream and sugar, there are pamphlets such as "making coffee common sense" and "what is espresso". Occasional Starbucks classrooms have coffee masters to teach customers how to taste coffee, as well as more formal coffee tasting parties.

The success of Starbucks has encouraged onlookers, including fast food giant McDonald's and British coffee chain giant Costa. McCoffee appeared in McDonald's restaurants in Beijing and Shanghai in 2010, with better prices and better taste than Starbucks in the United States. Costa launched in China in 2008, and its stores are expanding aggressively thanks to the real estate advantages of its manager, Beijing Hualian.

Unlike Starbucks' fast-food coffee, Costa hopes to provide a more refined experience. Its coffee in white porcelain cups and more soft sofas will make people "feel more upscale." In addition, it also has a richer tea drink, which may come from the British tea culture, but it is obviously also applicable to China.

There is no doubt that foreign giants represented by Starbucks have shaped the development of Chinese coffee in the past decade. Coffee culture has not only become popular, but also become more human and life-like for Chinese people. People fall in love with coffee because they are infatuated with coffee shops, and the places and ways of drinking coffee are also enriched.

Drink coffee in another place.

As early as 2000, Metadesign in Shanghai tried to promote its homemade single cup of coffee to the Chinese market. Metadesign is one of the Chinese agents of Lavazza, a famous Italian coffee merchant, which mainly produces coffee beans and coffee capsules, as well as matching coffee machines. It accounts for 45% of the world's coffee sales.

At that time, the Chinese were just beginning to accept the baptism of coffee from the United States: coffee was usually a large cup, with a lot of milk and sugar, and almost no "annoying" bitterness; by contrast, half a cup of bitter coffee extracted by a capsule is almost unattractive. Like McDonnell at that time, Metadesign set its sights on "foreigners" in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou-a large number of such groups. The Fiat headquarters in Nanjing had many foreign employees, and almost everyone was equipped with a coffee maker. Chinese companies that do business with these foreign companies have become the second group of customers-they need coffee to entertain foreigners who come to do business.

Another place where the aroma of curry is flowing is the Italian restaurant. Some high-end restaurants require high quality coffee, but now grinding beans is very time-consuming, capsule operation is relatively simple, 25 to 30 seconds can make a cup of espresso. Due to the slightly higher cost of capsules, the number of restaurants used is small, but the consumption is also considerable, reaching thousands of tablets a month.

In addition, full-time wives in some upscale residential areas have also become locals who came into contact with capsule coffee earlier. Most of them have received higher education and like a quality life. Lavazza teamed up with Betty Kitchen, a high-end culinary magazine, to invite the chef to teach the ladies how to cook and "by the way" to make a cup of after-dinner coffee.

Compared with instant coffee, single cup coffee faces a tiny market-barely 1% in China. This may explain why Nespresso, the coffee maker and coffee capsule brand owned by Nestl é, did not enter China until 2007.

Unlike Lavazza, Nespresso is aimed at consumers who make coffee at home, which is smaller than the number of people in office buildings. Its sales are mainly through its own boutiques, which opened in Xinguang Tiandi in 2007. The first batch of customers are mostly returnees or people who often go abroad, and they already know the brand overseas. The second batch of customers rely on the introduction of old members, who will inform the brand activities.

The interest is sent to their friends and family, and the person who receives the email takes the gift certificate to the store to buy a machine and can get a rebate of 500 yuan.

Nespresso has also been developing coffee machines that are easy to operate. The fancy coffee maker Lattissima+, launched at the end of May this year, is its latest attempt to make espresso and fresh milk and foam at the same time with one click, and can drink different flavors of coffee such as cappuccino and latte in different proportions.

So far, Nestl é has only two product forms: instant and coffee capsules, which are strategically linked in the view of Manuel Sancho, the manager of Nespresso China. "instant coffee is generally aimed at the general public, especially young people, and when they graduate from college, their income increases and they need to seek higher quality coffee, it is easy to persuade them to switch from instant coffee to a single cup of coffee."

It can be said that Nestl é's products capture both ends of coffee consumption: the masses and high-income earners, while getting rid of the people who may be coffee shops in the middle. And Starbucks obviously doesn't let go of either end. Following the launch of instant coffee Via, in March, Starbucks announced the launch of a single-cup coffee maker Verismo, hoping to boost sales through single-cup drinks enjoyed by customers at home. Currently, Verismo

It hasn't been promoted in China yet, but competitors seem to be more eager than Starbucks. "it's good for us." "right now, a lot of people don't know about a single cup of coffee," Sancho said. "with a big brand like Starbucks, they will understand more quickly. This makes it easier for us to promote our products. Competition means that the industry is good. "

feudal lords vying for the throne

The competition in the coffee industry is getting fiercer and fiercer. Since 2007, illy, an Italian coffee bean manufacturer, has experienced an explosion in its sales in China. Illy is a leader in high-quality coffee beans, and there is a saying in the industry: you only need to look at how many barrels of illy's large cans of coffee beans have been sold to see how many more cafes have been added.

On the one hand, the outbreak of coffee comes from natural growth-the number of people drinking coffee is increasing, and the other is due to the process of urbanization. "since 2007, not only first-tier cities, but also second-and third-tier cities have made great efforts to build commercial centers. Every time a commercial center is built, restaurants and cafes will naturally follow, giving a very big boost to the industry." Chen Lin, China Marketing Manager of illy, told this newspaper.

"it's a state of competition." Uncle Dou, founder of Haofang Coffee Bakery and coffee roaster, commented. When Uncle Dou was engaged in the raw bean trade ten years ago, he could sell about 90 tons of raw beans a year, a figure that has hardly increased much over the past decade. "the demand is indeed on the rise, but more players are coming in."

Uncle Dou's experience reflects the state of the whole industry. Cafes are growing at a rate of about 20% a year, but most are losing money. The main reason for this is the sharp rise in rent and labor costs from raw materials and equipment. The turnover rate in the coffee industry is so high that coffee shops have to expand rapidly. "when the staff base goes up, the cost of training goes down, and if the base is a little more, the employees can afford to leave." Wang Yuexiang, founder of Ten-year Coffee, told this newspaper. He tried to follow a different chain from Starbucks-- only concentrated in a certain area.

Open a shop. "my shop only makes Wudaokou, which is densely distributed, but not outside this range."

This approach is similar to that of Europe before Starbucks was born. In traditional European cities, the service radius of a coffee shop is about two or three kilometers. Residents in that area have lived there for 20 years and the coffee shop has been there for 20 years. "Coffee is a slow business." Wang Yuexiang said, "unlike catering, catering needs new guests. If the guests are not mobile, the catering itself needs to flow. While cafes are old customers, it is best not to be mobile."

But the problem is that most Chinese coffee practitioners cannot afford to wait. With increasingly high rents, more and more industries are kidnapped by real estate, and coffee is no exception. Take Wudaokou as an example, the daily rent per square meter is about 25 yuan. According to the area of more than 200 square meters, you need to sell at least 200 cups of coffee a day to recover the rent cost.

As we all know, in China, cafes do not drink coffee completely. In Wang Yuexiang's shop, coffee accounts for about 25% of the total running water, with meals accounting for the largest proportion, as well as tea, fruit juices and other drinks. The roar of machines in Italian cafes all day is rare in China. Use up 3 kilograms of coffee beans (about 300 cups) in a day, which is the starting volume of foreign coffee shops. Wang Yuexiang only hopes that a 3-kilogram can of coffee beans can be "used up as much as possible in a week". If the time is too long, the coffee beans will oxidize.

According to Uncle Dou, the biggest obstacle to the promotion of coffee in China may be the price. "it's comparatively expensive." Take Germany as an example, a bottle of Coke 1.8 euros, coffee 2 euros, a cup of tea 4 euros, in terms of performance-to-price ratio, consumers will mostly choose to drink coffee. In China, Coke costs 3 yuan, while a cup of coffee in a coffee shop costs about 25 yuan, and a cup of tea costs 15 yuan-coffee is obviously not the best choice.

By contrast, Uncle Dou's coffee shop is one of the best. "my cafe can use 1 kilogram of beans a day." Before returning home, Uncle Dou studied coffee roasting in Germany and witnessed the rise of boutique coffee in Europe, which is the third wave after instant coffee and Italian coffee. The masters of boutique coffee are basically skilled bakers who have a taste for coffee and can bake beans of different tastes and personalities. "after experiencing the standardized education of chain brands, the higher stage must be personalization."

Of course, the process is still a long time, but it is not remote. "this is a crowd-consuming market, and when people with some appeal start drinking coffee, it will lead to a wider range of people at the next level." In the past two years, Uncle Dou has traveled everywhere to teach coffee lovers, and there are nearly 20,000 people on his student registration form. Some of them are interested in coffee itself, some want to understand the petty bourgeoisie life behind coffee, and of course, there are many who want to join in this ecosystem.