忙得不可开交的中国年轻人选择咖啡而非茶
2024-04-22 19:05阅读：
喝咖啡已成为越来越多中国人的嗜好。2023年中国的咖啡店达到近5万家，而美国约有4万家。中国咖啡市场曾被星巴克等外国品牌主导，但在大城市，它们正面临来自本土连锁店和独立咖啡店的日益激烈竞争。这意味着咖啡爱好者有更多选择。
China's stressed and overworked youth skip the tea and
reach for coffee
Lattes drizzled with pork sauce or spiked with the liquor baijiu
pop up on menus as coffee companies battle for dominance in the
surging Chinese market.
By Jennifer Jett, Dawn Liu and Rae Wang
BEIJING — For more and more people in China, coffee has become
their cup of tea.
Last year, China overtook the United States as the country with the
most branded coffee shops in the world, according to a report by
World Coffee Portal. The number of outlets in China grew 58% in
2023 to almost 50,000, compared with about 40,000 in the
U.S.
The Chinese coffee market used to be dominated by foreign brands
such as Starbucks, Tim Hortons of Canada and Costa Coffee from
Britain. But they face intensifying competition from Chinese coffee
chains such as Luckin, Cotti and Manner, as well as local
independent cafés in big cities like Beijing.
For coffee drinkers, that means more choice than ever, whether it’s
a plain Americano or a latte infused with pork flavors or Chinese
liquor.
Though tea remains foundational to Chinese culture, some young,
middle-class consumers are finding coffee’s caffeine kick to be
more suited to the pressures of a competitive job market and
workplace.
Li Yizhe, 26, said in the past two years she had started drinking
coffee every day as a way to boost her energy.
“I used to drink milk tea, but now I’ve shifted to coffee,” Li, a
government worker, said while sitting at an artisanal coffee shop
in a Beijing hutong, or alley.
Zhang Jian, a 33-year-old freelancer, said he has about a cup of
coffee a day, often at Luckin.
“It’s convenient to buy because the stores are everywhere, and the
prices are also budget-friendly,” he said.
He cited the high job stress and long hours workers face as reasons
for coffee’s growing popularity, as well as the addictive nature of
caffeine.
“As colleagues start to pick up the habit, it gradually forms a
coffee culture,” he said.
China’s demand for coffee will reach an estimated 5 million bags in
the 2023-24 season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported,
making it the seventh-biggest consumer in the world. That compares
with more than 20 million bags for the two biggest coffee-consuming
countries, the U.S. and Brazil.
The rise in Western-style coffee consumption in China can be
attributed to a shift in lifestyle preferences as more people have
more disposable income, said Nirmit Limbachia, project lead for
food and beverage at Mordor Intelligence, a market research firm
based in India. Urbanization, globalization and the rapid expansion
of both domestic and foreign coffee shops have also made
international coffee culture “more accessible and familiar,” he
said.
Last year, Luckin overtook Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in
China, Starbucks’ biggest market after the U.S. Luckin opened more
than 5,000 stores in China in 2023 for a total of more than 13,000,
World Coffee Portal said, compared with more than 6,800 for
Starbucks, which opened 785 stores in China last year.
The U.S. company has said it aims to have 9,000 stores in the
country by next year.
Zhang said it was “surprising” to see how many stores Luckin has
now, seven years after it was founded in Beijing.
When Luckin first emerged, he said, “they claimed to be the coffee
for Chinese people. At that time, many consumers were skeptical
about Luckin’s ability to last and maintain stability.”
That skepticism was only reinforced in 2020, when Luckin was found
to have inflated the previous year’s sales figures by more than
$300 million. The company has since emerged from bankruptcy and
replaced the executives involved in the scandal.
Luckin and other domestic chains have caught up by “expanding to
new cities, offering competitive pricing, and leveraging technology
for convenient ordering and delivery services,” Limbachia
said.
“Domestic coffee chains often emphasize localization in their
offerings, incorporating traditional Chinese ingredients and
flavors into their menu items,” he continued. “They also tend to
cater to the preferences of Chinese consumers in terms of ambience
and service.”
This month, Luckin opened a store in the southern Chinese city of
Shenzhen that is co-branded with Kweichow Moutai, a luxury brand of
the popular Chinese spirit baijiu. The store aims to capitalize on
the success of a baijiu-infused latte the two companies
collaborated on last year, which according to Limbachia sold 5.42
million cups on its first day and generated more than 900 million
yuan ($124 million) in total sales.
“Adding baijiu in coffee is a commercial stunt, but at the same
time it caters to Chinese people’s drinking habits,” said Wang
Zichen, 29, a former café owner in Beijing.
Starbucks, which has been in China since 1999, says the Chinese
coffee market is still evolving and “has not yet fully
tiered.”
“You see an influx of mass-market competitors focused on fast store
expansion and low-price tactics to drive trial,” Belinda Wong,
chairwoman and co-chief executive of Starbucks China, said on an
earnings call in January. “This will shake out over time.”
The competition has pushed foreign chains such as Starbucks to pay
more attention to Chinese tastes, Limbachia said, including
“adjusting menu options, adapting store designs and forming
partnerships with local businesses.”
For the Lunar New Year in February, Starbucks offered a
limited-edition pork-flavored latte at its 25 Reserve stores for 68
yuan ($9.45). Garnished with a piece of pork and topped with a
drizzle of pork sauce, the drink was inspired by Dongpo braised
pork, a classic dish from eastern China that is served at
traditional family gatherings.
While the company plans to “dial up” such product innovations, Wong
said, it is “not interested in entering the price war.”
“We’re focusing on capturing high-quality but profitable
sustainable growth,” she said. “It is our aim to be the best and
lead in the premium market.”
Limbachia said both domestic and foreign chains could expect
continued growth as coffee consumption becomes more ingrained in
Chinese culture, for example through expansion into smaller cities
and rural areas.
Wang, the former café owner, said older people were also starting
to drink coffee.
“As coffee becomes a national drink, it will be more inclusive and
diverse, and then it will become more popular,” he said. “For
cafés, the increase in customers means that the entire industry is
developing for the better.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-stressed-overworked-youth-coffee-market-surge-rcna144402
