经济学人 | 中国是现在咖啡行业的领导者

教育   2024-08-15 05:45   新西兰  


China is now the world leader in coffee shops  
But the average Chinese person still guzzles much less than a typical American
但中国的人均消费仍然低于美国。
Brew-talist architecture photograph: bryan denton/the new york time/redux/eyevine  

注解

“Brew-talist architecture” 是一种结合了 “Brutalist”(粗野主义)建筑风格与咖啡文化的词语游戏。具体来说:

Brutalist Architecture(粗野主义建筑):是一种建筑风格,以其粗犷、直白、不加掩饰的混凝土结构为标志。这种风格注重建筑材料的本质和质感,通常展现出粗糙的、未加修饰的混凝土表面,具有强烈的几何形状和雕塑感。

Brew(酿造/冲泡):指的是咖啡酿造或冲泡的过程。

将这两个词结合在一起,“Brew-talist Architecture” 描绘了一种与咖啡文化相关联的建筑风格。这种风格可能融入了粗野主义的元素,或者指的是在粗野主义建筑中开设的咖啡馆,或者是设计灵感来源于粗野主义风格的咖啡店。它可能也暗示了一种工业风、简约而又带有冷峻美学的空间,这种空间适合咖啡的酿造与享用。

The historic city of Suzhou, about an hour’s drive from Shanghai, is criss-crossed with canals. Old whitewashed buildings line the banks. A century ago some of these would have been chaguans, or traditional teahouses, where locals gathered to discuss the news or conduct business. Today a visitor is more likely to find shops serving a different kind of beverage. There are dozens of Starbucks outlets in Suzhou, as well as other coffee sellers. Some even look like old chaguans—from the outside at least.   
苏州,这座距上海约一小时车程的历史名城,纵横交错的运河蜿蜒穿过全城。粉墙黛瓦的老建筑沿河而立。一个世纪前,这些建筑中有些还是茶馆——传统的中式茶楼,供当地人聚集一处,谈天论事或做生意。如今,游人更可能在这里找到的是售卖另一种饮品的商店。苏州的星巴克以及其它品牌咖啡的门店随处可见。有些店铺从外观上看,甚至与昔日的茶馆颇为相似。
Between 2010 and 2022 coffee consumption per person in China rose fourfold (see chart), according to the International Coffee Organisation, a group of producer and user countries. (China’s gdp per person doubled over the same period.) The average Chinese person still drinks a fraction of the amount of coffee guzzled by the typical American: 0.1kg per year compared with 4.7kg. But last year China surpassed America, becoming the country with the most branded coffee shops (places like Starbucks) in the world, as the World Coffee Portal, a research firm, reported. China is home to nearly 50,000 such outlets. 
根据国际咖啡组织(由生产国和消费国组成的团体)的数据,2010年至2022年间,中国人均咖啡消费量增长了四倍(参见图表)。同期,中国人均GDP翻了一番。尽管如此,平均下来,中国人每年饮用的咖啡量仍远低于普通美国人:中国人每年平均饮用0.1公斤,而美国人则为4.7公斤。然而,去年中国在咖啡店数量上超过了美国,成为全球拥有最多品牌咖啡店(如星巴克等)的国家。据研究公司World Coffee Portal报道,中国现有近5万家这样的咖啡店。

chart: the economist    
The early history of coffee in China is fuzzy. By some accounts it was Danes who opened the first coffee shop in the country in the 1830s. The drink didn’t catch on, in part because the Qing dynasty took a dim view of foreigners and sought to curb their influence. A record from that period described coffee as a “black liquor, which the foreign devils drank after meals, saying it can help with digestion”. A century later Lu Xun, a celebrated author, wrote that he didn’t drink the stuff: “I always thought it was for the foreign excellencies.” He and most other Chinese people preferred tea.  
中国咖啡的早期历史颇为模糊。据一些记载,19世纪30年代,丹麦人在中国开设了第一家咖啡店。然而,这种饮品并未真正风靡开来,部分原因在于清朝对外国人持有深深的戒备,并试图遏制他们的影响力。当时的记录中,咖啡被形容为“洋鬼子饭后所饮之黑酒,称其助消化”。一个世纪后,著名作家鲁迅曾写道,他从不喝这种东西:“我总认为那是洋大人喝的。”他和大多数中国人一样,更钟情于茶。
But after China introduced market reforms and opened up to the world in the 1980s, foreign firms such as Maxwell House and Nestlé brought instant coffee to the country. They catered to local tastes, making their mixes sweeter and less bitter than what they sold elsewhere. Western-style coffee shops arrived years later—chief among them Starbucks in 1999. The company’s freshly brewed coffee was new to China. Having a laptop in one hand and a (relatively expensive) cup of Starbucks in the other became a way for young middle-class people to indicate their status.   
然而,随着中国在20世纪80年代实行改革开放,外国公司如麦斯威尔和雀巢将速溶咖啡带入了中国市场。为了迎合本地口味,他们调整了配方,使咖啡更甜,苦涩感也大大降低。几年后,西式咖啡店逐渐进入中国市场,其中最为瞩目的是1999年进驻的星巴克。对于中国人来说,星巴克的现煮咖啡是个新鲜事物。一手持笔记本电脑,一手捧着一杯(相对昂贵的)星巴克咖啡,成为年轻中产彰显身份地位的一种方式。
The biggest coffee-drinking demographic is still “white-collar workers in first-tier cities aged between 20 and 40”, according to Deloitte, a consulting firm. China’s experience mirrors that of Japan some 50 years ago, when rising incomes led to more coffee consumption. A surge in office jobs—and long working hours—in China has also fuelled demand.  
咨询公司德勤指出,中国最大的咖啡消费群体仍然是“20到40岁之间的一线城市白领”。这种现象与大约50年前的日本颇为相似,当时随着收入水平的提高,咖啡的消费量也随之增加。如今,中国的办公室职位激增以及日益延长的工作时间,同样催生了对咖啡的强劲需求。
Today, though, a wider range of the population is partaking thanks to the rise of domestic coffee chains selling affordable brews. The leader is Luckin Coffee, with over 20,000 outlets. Starbucks, by comparison, has 7,300 shops. A cup of basic Luckin coffee is about a third of the price of an equivalent Starbucks offering. Luckin’s sales in China exceeded Starbucks’ for the first time in 2023. Both chains are expanding into smaller cities. 
然而,今天更多人参与所带来的消费市场要归于国内生产出的价格实惠的咖啡及其产业链的上升。瑞幸咖啡作为领先者,拥有20000家店面。相比之下,星巴克拥有7300家。一杯瑞幸咖啡的价格约是同等杯的星巴克咖啡的三分之一,2023年瑞幸咖啡在中国的销量首次超过星巴克。两者的产业正在涌向更小的城市圈。
Coffee companies in China are also still trying to cater to local tastes. One innovation has been the “tea-coffee”, a concoction that blends the two drinks. Luckin serves such fare as Oolong Latte and Jasmine Sea Salt Latte. Qing-dynasty officials are surely rolling in their graves. ■   中国的咖啡企业也正在努力满足着当地人的口味。一个创新的茶品,比如“茶咖”,融合了两种饮品。瑞幸咖啡供应乌龙拿铁和茉莉海盐拿铁等美食。可惜清朝官员是见不到了。
本文以 "Increasingly caffeinated "为题刊登在《经济学人》印刷版的中国版上。

翻译:萌小跳 | Andy

审阅 Xinxing

英语悦读客
True mastery of any skill takes a lifetime.
 最新文章