Money

Coffee shops boom as taste buds improve

By Lu Chang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-13 07:54

Beijing now has more than 8,000 coffee shops - eight times more than just a decade ago - thanks to the city's people developing a taste for quality brew.

Bai Fang, general secretary of the China Coffee Association, said more outlets have been opened to serve an increasing number of people demanding good coffee.

Cui Jian, who has worked in the industry for more than 10 years, said the past decade has seen a great change.

"Ten years ago, a coffee-roasting factory would handle about 400 kg a month," said Cui, who owns the Hongyaxuan Coffee company.

"Today, such a company would roast more than 400 tons a month."

The number of companies roasting coffee in the city has jumped to 140, seven times the number 10 years ago.

Cui attributed the increase in appreciation to Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, which opened its first outlet in 1999 in Beijing and now has hundreds in China.

"Actually, we didn't have the habit of drinking coffee," Cui said.

"Starbucks brought the concept of coffee shops to China, which made people realize there's another beverage called coffee we can drink every day."

Xu Lihu, 27, a barista, said that in the past, people didn't value the quality of coffee. They went to coffee shops to be fashionable because drinking coffee was considered elegant and exotic.

"But now quality is the main thing they pursue when they go to coffee shops," he said.

"Coffee shops in China are not only places where people hang out but where they can taste really good coffee.

"I'm surprised many people can now tell the difference between good and bad coffee."

Tang Tianchao, another barista with more than 10 years' experience, said kopi luwak, or civet coffee, from Indonesia is considered the rarest and the most expensive coffee in the world.

It's made from coffee beans that have been ingested by the Asian palm civet.

"The civets select the best coffee beans to eat as they love the fleshy pulp," Tang said.

"After it passes through the cat's digestive tract, the beans are evacuated and harvested.

He said it's rather like a natural filtering process of best coffee beans. "The harvested beans are then cleaned and roasted - and the end product tastes very good."

A cup of civet coffee can cost up to 200 yuan.