Differences Between Australian Coffee and Chinese Coffee_What Are the Characteristics of the Best Coffee Brands in Australia

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A Comparison of Australian and Chinese Coffee Industries

Over the past 20 years, the coffee industry has developed with unstoppable momentum globally. I have had the privilege of experiencing firsthand the development of Australia's coffee industry over the past six years. Now with some experience, looking at China's coffee industry, I have some simple thoughts. I come from Shanghai and now live in Sydney. These two cities can, to some extent, serve as microcosms of the Australian and Chinese coffee industries respectively. Therefore, the descriptions below use these two major cities as representatives to examine the differences in the development of Australian and Chinese coffee industries from the perspective of these two cities' coffee market development.

Coffee Popularity

Looking at the results from past World Barista Championships and the performance of the Australian local market, Australian coffee can be said to be among the best in the world. Although due to its remote geographical location, Australia's connections with other continents are limited and affected by regional factors, this geographical distance does not affect the development of the coffee industry in Australia at all. Particularly represented by the two major cities of Sydney and Melbourne, it's not uncommon to find customers who consume 2 to 3 cups of coffee daily, showing that coffee holds an irreplaceable position in people's daily lives.

In contrast, domestically, taking Shanghai as an example, although the history of people drinking coffee here can be traced back to the 1930s, coffee is still considered a high-end beverage in people's minds, not a daily drink. Even today, one can find that the vast majority of coffee shops, whether coffee chains or independent cafes, position their ambiance at a relatively high level—in other words, not suitable for ordinary people to drink every day. The low popularity rate of coffee in China is one of the main reasons restricting the development of the coffee industry.

Coffee Bean Supply

In Australia, just in Sydney alone, there are many well-developed green coffee bean suppliers through whom one can buy reasonably priced, high-quality coffee beans from around the world. The entire supply chain is quite complete. In China, although there are a certain number of coffee suppliers, the quality-to-price ratio of coffee is difficult to compare with Sydney. For example, a specialty coffee shop in Shanghai owned by a Q Grader coffee taster can only guarantee to supply customers with green coffee beans scoring above 80 points. In Sydney, at the Reformatory Caffeine Lab where I work, we often drink coffee of extremely high quality scoring around 90 points. Therefore, it can be said that the development of the domestic coffee market still has some distance to reach the standards of specialty coffee.

Coffee Roasting and Brewing Methods

In recent years, with the introduction of various paper filter coffee brewing methods, Brew Bars can be found in most famous cafes. Now these paper filter coffee brewing methods are gradually becoming the main way to taste specialty coffee. Additionally, some businesses still use paper filter methods to make coffee, similar to traditional Japanese coffee shops. Due to habit, most Chinese people previously tasted more over-roasted coffee, which is very different from the Australian coffee market. Medium to dark roasted coffee causes significant loss of coffee aroma and components, and the coffee shelf life is shorter. Although light coffee bean roasting methods have gradually become popular in China, due to the lack of truly high-quality green coffee beans, the performance of espresso in the Chinese market is not prominent. Instead, light coffee roasting suitable for paper filter methods has shown good results.

Milk Quality

It must be said that Australia has excellent milk sources. The good natural environment allows Australian dairy farmers to supply the market with large quantities of high-quality fresh milk, which ensures the delicious taste of coffee beverages in the coffee market. In China, because the quality of local market milk cannot guarantee perfect integration with espresso, most cafes have to use imported milk to ensure the quality of coffee beverages, which to some extent increases the operating costs of cafes and adds to the difficulty of operation.

Cafe Menu

In Australia, although coffee brewing methods are still mainly based on espresso, we are accustomed to calling it "Australian style coffee" because espresso in Australia has made considerable progress compared to its original theory. In domestic cafes, coffee menus are mostly based on American menus as reference, so you can still often see Americano on them.

Additionally, quite a number of cafes in Sydney have very rich and varied accompanying food offerings, some of which can even compete with large restaurants. In China, most people's current understanding of cafes still remains at the basis of only selling coffee and Western simple meals. The items on the menu are basically sandwiches, pasta, salads, plus a few desserts. Moreover, the sources of food ingredients mostly cannot guarantee quality, making the food unappealing. In some specialty coffee shops, the desserts are actually more outstanding than the coffee. If this is used to attract customers, it's truly a disgrace to the name "specialty coffee."

Conclusion

The above are just some of my humble opinions. In summary, looking at the Shanghai market, coffee is gradually becoming more popular, and more people are willing to learn how to appreciate true specialty coffee. I believe that in the near future, specialty coffee will no longer be unfamiliar to Chinese people.

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