My subsequent visits to Asia have been pretty painless coffeewise as the market has totally changed. While not a super common drink, coffee consumption is picking up in China and not just the Nescafe variety. There are quite a few local coffee shops & regional chains in the larger Chinese cities, plus the obvious Starbucks that has made inroads. This, by the way is one of those situations where I say thanks be to Starbucks. When I'm in China I don't go about missing that much American food. I miss good coffee and draught Ale. Say what you will about Starbuck's contribution to America's cultural colonialism - I'm pleased as can be to order a 4 shot Americano after spending hours wandering the back alleyways of Xi'an. Creature comforts - we all have them. Guilty.
A couple of interesting developments have been coming out of the Chinese/Taiwanese coffee world.
From the country that gave us bubble tea comes Salted Coffee drinks. Developed by Taiwan's largest coffee chain, 85c the drink is basically a sweetened latte with salt in the foam. The combination of flavors plays upon the Asian desire for contrast. In an article on salted coffee in Time magazine, a Taiwanese is interviewed and describes a possible reason for the popularity as follows -
"Taiwanese are greedy," explains graphic designer Xena Wang, one of six friends who recently tried the drink for the first time. "We like to get all the tastes we can in one bite."
Now back to Starbucks. They just announced that they're going to be buying beans from Yunnan province in Southwestern China and will be exporting it to their stores worldwide. Called South Of The Clouds, I believe this will be the first large scale exportation of Chinese coffee beans.
The articles:
Taiwan's Salted Coffee
Starbucks Yunnan Coffee
