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概要：也许你不相信，但是中国咖啡店数量真的已经是世界第一了。原因首先是多年来的经济发展，其次是瑞幸咖啡这样的国内咖啡店以低价逐步取代星巴克等外国咖啡店。
China is now the world leader in coffee shops
中国咖啡店数量已成为世界第一
But the average Chinese person still guzzles much less than a typical American
但是中国人均咖啡消费量仍然比美国少得多
August 8th 2024
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.
距上海约一小时车程的历史名城苏州，运河纵横交错。河岸边有古老的粉刷过的建筑。一个世纪前，这些建筑可能是传统茶馆，当地人聚集在一起讨论新闻或做生意。如今，这里更有可能是供应不同种类饮料的商店。苏州有几十家星巴克门店，还有其他咖啡店。有些甚至看起来像老茶馆——至少从外面看是这样。
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.
根据由生产国和消费国组成的国际咖啡组织的数据，2010年至2022年间，中国人均咖啡消费量增长了四倍(见图表)。(同期中国人均GDP翻了一番。)中国人均每年喝掉的咖啡量仍然只是美国的一小部分，中国人是0.1公斤，而美国人是4.7公斤。但是根据研究机构World Coffee Portal的报告，去年中国超过了美国，成为世界上拥有最多品牌咖啡店(如星巴克)的国家。中国有近5万家这样的商店。
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.
中国咖啡早期历史已经模糊不清。根据某些说法，丹麦人在19世纪30年代在中国开了第一家咖啡店。咖啡没有流行起来，部分原因是清朝不喜欢外国人，试图抑制他们的影响。那个时期的一份记录将咖啡描述为“一种黑色液体，洋鬼子饭后会喝，据说可以帮助消化”。一个世纪后，著名作家鲁迅写道，他不喝这种东西:“我一直以为是给外国使节喝的。”他和大多数其他中国人喜欢喝茶。
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.
但是在20世纪80年代中国改革开放后，像麦斯威尔和雀巢这样的外国公司将速溶咖啡带到了中国。速溶咖啡迎合当地的口味，比在其他地方的咖啡更甜，更少苦味。几年后，西式咖啡店出现了——其中最主要的是1999年开业的星巴克。对中国来说，星巴克的现煮咖啡还是新鲜事物。一手拿着笔记本电脑，一手拿着一杯(相对昂贵的)星巴克咖啡，成为年轻的中产阶级表明自己地位的一种方式。
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.
咨询公司德勤称，最大的咖啡饮用人群仍然是“一线城市年龄在20至40岁之间的白领”。与大约50年前的日本如出一辙，中国居民收入的增加带来了咖啡消费的增长。中国白领工作的激增——以及长时间工作——也刺激了需求。
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，出售平价咖啡的国内咖啡连锁店已经兴起，人们得以饮用咖啡。市场领导者是Luckin Coffee，拥有超过20,000家分店。相比之下，星巴克有7300家。一杯普通的Luckin咖啡大约是星巴克同等产品价格的三分之一。Luckin在中国的销售额在2023年首次超过星巴克。两家连锁咖啡店都在向小城市扩张。
(扫码查看同名FlowUs专栏，可以把文章复制到自己的空间做笔记)
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. ■
中国的咖啡公司也在努力迎合中国人的口味。一项创新是“茶-咖啡”，一种混合饮料。Luckin供应乌龙茶拿铁和茉莉海盐拿铁等饮料。清朝官员要是知道，肯定会在坟墓里爬出来。■
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