The Flourishing of Chinese-Style Coffee: Beyond Simply Cloaking It in Chinese Elements

The Rise of Chinese-Style Coffee Culture

In the past year, coffee shops featuring traditional Chinese style elements have mushroomed across the landscape. With the new generation of consumers seeking "national trends" and "local culture," many coffee shops have begun catering to popular demand by blending their styles and coffee offerings with representative local foods, culinary cultures, and traditional elements. Through this cultural consensus, coffee, as a foreign import, has embarked on a path toward Chinese-style adaptation.

Yesterday, a new tea beverage brand renowned for its Chinese style also announced the opening of five coffee shops, all featuring traditional Chinese aesthetics, in a popular commercial district in Changsha.

The Evolution of Coffee in China

Compared to alcohol and tea, coffee is a relatively recent phenomenon as a popular beverage. Although many books record that coffee has existed for several centuries, its true popularity began with the emergence of instant coffee in the 1940s. Only after coffee brands like Nestlé and Maxwell House introduced instant coffee did it officially become a mass consumer product.

As coffee demand grew and more people began pursuing better flavor profiles, coffee shops starting in the 1960s began focusing on using higher quality Arabica coffee beans, employing dark roasting and pressure extraction to produce highly concentrated coffee. The goal was to ensure that even when milk and sugar were added, people could still experience the rich and mellow flavor of coffee.

However, the flavor profiles of coffee during these two trends were not universally accepted, which led to coffee being consistently associated with bitterness. To change the stereotype that coffee was only bitter and to encourage more people to accept and try coffee, after the millennium, coffee bean quality was continuously improved. Coffee shops also began using light roasting and drip brewing methods to reveal fruity, sweet and sour flavors and more complex flavor layers.

Such flavors perfectly matched the taste preferences of the millennial generation, who were children during that era. After a decade of development, starting from 2010, both domestically and internationally, more and more specialty coffee shops emerged, pursuing high quality, fresh light roasts, and distinct flavor profiles.

The Chinese Coffee Identity

Despite the proliferation of specialty coffee shops, China's centuries-old tea culture couldn't immediately lead consumers to accept coffee as a beverage. Additionally, the prices of freshly ground coffee and specialty coffee were somewhat higher than those of new-style tea beverages.

Therefore, although more specialty coffee shops opened, coffee consumption remained limited. It wasn't until the emergence of domestic coffee brands like Luckin and Manner that lowered coffee prices that more people in China began consuming coffee.

With increased consumer demand, Chinese coffee professionals began forming a viewpoint: when coffee arrives in a region, it develops its own unique expression that becomes memorable to people worldwide.

Japan formed its own school through unique roasting and brewing methods; Australia developed its style through a dedication to the flavor profile of espresso milk coffee. Similarly, China needed its own unique way of expressing Chinese-style coffee.

Although coffee became popular in China relatively late, it shouldn't lose its identity. Compared to the Chinese-style brewed coffee uniquely created by Chinese people in Southeast Asia, China's new Chinese-style coffee focuses more on coffee shop décor and the appearance of coffee offerings to resonate with consumers.

Opinions vary on whether the emergence of new Chinese-style coffee—served in traditional Chinese tableware, featuring traditional Chinese décor, and incorporating innovative coffee with regional culinary characteristics—is beneficial or detrimental.

The Path Forward for Chinese Coffee

As visual creatures, humans gradually bridge the distance between Chinese people and coffee through product packaging. This helps Chinese people recognize coffee, which then extends to promoting Yunnan-grown coffee and gradually forming a coffee culture that can represent China.

Like chili peppers, which were originally a foreign import, centuries of Chinese cultivation, harvesting, distribution, and adaptation to local terroirs have allowed chili peppers to express unique aromas and spiciness in every region of China. Through different people creating various home dishes in their own ways and spreading them worldwide through migration, people now instinctively associate chili peppers with certain Chinese dishes.

The Sinicization of coffee has just begun. Making the world immediately think of China when discussing coffee won't happen overnight. There's still a long way to go to achieve global recognition of the Chinese-style coffee school.

Of course, the development of anything离不开 innovation. Only innovation can attract more mass consumers. Only with increased mass consumer demand can there be better dissemination and development. Since the new Chinese-style coffee has captured consumers' hearts, this opportunity should be used to spread more accurate coffee knowledge.

The current new Chinese-style coffee is more about reverse-guiding new consumption habits. Perhaps it's a good start, but to achieve recognition and inheritance like the Japanese and Australian schools, professionalism is essential.

China inherently has the advantage of growing local coffee. Like chili peppers, only by continuously cultivating and growing coffee beans that represent the flavor characteristics of the Yunnan region, and researching roasting approaches and extraction methods suitable for Yunnan coffee, can we truly make the world remember Chinese-style coffee.

The recognition of schools like Japanese and Australian coffee离不开 professionalism. This professionalism is面向 every consumer, leading everyone to experience the charm of a cup of coffee, allowing each person to feel the love for coffee that people in each region have after just one taste.

Attracting public attention while displaying unprofessional aspects will only deepen the world's misunderstanding of Chinese-style coffee. Innovation helps more people accept coffee and understand Chinese coffee, which is a good start, but it also needs roots and soul to promote Chinese-style coffee. Otherwise, people will only remember the appearance of Chinese-style coffee, not its charm.

Image source: Internet

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