The old adage goes, "Everything you have heard about China is true somewhere in China." So, it is hard to ask blanket questions about China and expect any kind of coherent answer. Just like the United States, it is much more helpful to look at more detailed information of local areas, provinces, and cities.
What is the coffee culture in China? We really have to cut that question down to size. What is the coffee culture in Liuzhou, our local area? Now there is a question we can possibly answer.
Beijing, Xi'an, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and all the other big cities have already been infiltrated by Starbucks, but that does not really say much about the underlying culture of coffee drinkers. Who drinks it? How often to they drink? What kind of coffee?
Coffee in China is still perceived as foreign, classy, expensive, and (if you could really hear what they think) not all that good tasting. I have often had a five or six ounce cup of horrible coffee—think "sour face", gagging, and an aftertaste that never leaves—and paid US$8 for it!
Why would Chinese ever buy that? It is good for the image. Chinese spend money so that others can see them spend money. What makes the problem worse is that nobody really knows how coffee is supposed to taste, cafe owners and cafe customers alike.
I never thought I would say it, but I have to be thankful for the cheap, mass produced coffee which McDonalds has begun to serve. It is only US$1, and worth every penny. Still, as far as quality goes, it is actually way better than what the "cafe"s are producing, and at a fraction of the price.
Hopefully, McDonalds will put all the cheating cafes out of the coffee business. Now, keep in mind, "cafe" in China does not really mean a coffee house as we think of it. "Cafe"s are usually something closer to a pub: they really specialize in alcohol, and coffee is almost always a complete after thought. So, when I say I hope McDonalds will put them out of the coffee business, what I am really saying is that I hope they will have to quit trying to sell their horrible, expensive, old, and fake ("Blue Mountain" and such) coffee.
What Liuzhou and many cities like it need is education. Right now, everything is a trade secret. You cannot know how old the beans are or where they are really from. And the baristas (if you really want to elevate them enough to call them that) do not know the first thing about the different coffees: a latte, cappuccino, cafe au lait, and regular old cup of coffee with milk in it are all the same thing, but are all on the menu.
Viva la freedom of information. The Chinese need to know what to spit out, when to not even buy in the first place, and that coffee really can be something they like for a price that is not through the roof.
