▲ A cup of fragrant espresso. Courtesy of Photo/Figureworm Creative
I wonder if you've ever tried a steaming cup of Espresso, a very, very pocket cup. Drink it and accompany Italy through the group stages of the European Championship in the early hours of the morning, and finally to the semi-finals and finals.
Whether its bitter taste is as unbearable as the legend says, the aroma of strong coffee wafting out of the cup, the aftertaste between the teeth and cheeks, and the feeling of quick thinking and group passion after drinking coffee, just like the smoothness and strength of the Italian team's goal all the way to the European Cup, more like the heart of the return of the king who finally reached the top of Europe after a final battle, crossing the most difficult ordeal, and finally reaching the top of Europe.
▲Coffee shops have become an important occasion for people's business exchanges. Image source/network
Italians' love of espresso is interspersed in every day of their lives, no less than their passion for football: getting up in the morning, drinking at work, drinking between work, drinking after lunch, drinking afternoon tea, partying with friends. Even after dinner at a restaurant, instead of ordering an espresso but a cup of hot water, the waiter will panic and think that he has not taken good care of the guests.
Also in China, a cup of mellow and strong espresso often represents the highest demand for coffee by senior coffee lovers. During your espresso, you may want to wake up in the early morning or afternoon, or spend your leisure time, or simply to enjoy a fragrant experience.
▲ Italians generally order an espresso after eating. Courtesy of Photo/Figureworm Creative
Coffee drinks come in a kaleidoscopic range of flavors. The style of coffee also varies from person to person, and espresso is the most basic and quintessential of all these wonderful changes. Americano is espresso heated water, which we often call clear coffee, black coffee, pure coffee, and is also the choice of most real coffee lovers. American coffee with milk is latte and cappuccino. Others who prefer chocolate but not bitter coffee may wish to accompany Baileys' irish chocolate liqueur (Baileys). This is known in five-star hotels as classic royal coffee. Especially in the winter when the wind is strong, drink a hot cup of coffee and sweet wine before going out, although you are outside in the cold and freezing, you are also warm.
In commercial coffee shops selling fast coffee, such as Starbucks and Luckin, coffee is paired with caramel, milk, coconut water, vanilla and even soda, and covered with cream or chocolate sauce, and a variety of fancy coffees such as Caramel Macchiato, Latte, Cappuccino, Caffe Mocha, green tea coffee, vanilla coffee and so on. Starbucks coffee lists also include oatmeal and oat milk made from coffee. Luckin has a raw coconut latte. At the Shanghai Coffee Food Expo in April this year, there were also new products that matched soy milk and coffee in different proportions.
▲A variety of coffees, which one is your favorite? Image source/network
Unlike home-grown teas, coffee is an imported product. But from the time coffee shops landed on the commercial streets of big cities, it was dubbed a trendy cultural connotation. A cup of coffee is often seen as foreign, and it seems to be more high-end than a pot of tea. Since the Starbucks chain coffee shops settled in major cities in China at the end of the last century, sales have risen rapidly and stores have increased sharply, illustrating the rapid growth of China's coffee market. But many people have found that in such a huge coffee market, coffee beans, the raw materials of coffee, especially high-end coffee beans, account for a very low proportion of domestic products.
From the cultivation of green coffee beans, to the roasting of coffee beans, to the market sales of coffee beans, to the final coffee that can be drunk in people's cups in the café, in this series of processes, not only the quality and taste of coffee beans should be superior, but also have a good market influence marketing channels, and the café must have both popularity support and cultural heritage. To illustrate this issue, we dissect and compare the brand of Italian coffee beans on the market with the original Jamaican coffee, as well as their market sales style, and compare it with the domestic coffee consumption market and the development of domestic Yunnan coffee.
▲Grow full coffee beans. Courtesy of Photo/Figureworm Creative
The brands of Italian coffee beans sold in China are Illy and Lavazza. Let's use illy as an example to dissect Italian coffee. Illy's brand began in 1933 in the northeastern Italian seaport city of Trieste. It is a coffee brand that has been passed down for nearly ninety years. It uses Arabica, which is of good quality among coffee beans, and is divided into two types: pinned beans and single beans. Pindou Coffee is a combination of nine coffee beans from four continents– Brazil, Guatemala, Ethiopia, India, Costa Rica, Colombia and mainland Italy in the best proportions. The purpose of spelling beans is to adjust the balanced taste, so spelling beans are often more suitable for making espresso. Single beans are unique in taste, so they are rarely made into espresso.
Each of the six types of coffee beans from different regions outside Italy varies in style due to its unique soil, altitude, rainfall, sunshine and growing conditions, and the aroma, taste and mellowness of the resulting coffee are also unique. The degree of roasting of coffee beans is also different in taste: lightly roasted coffee beans are slightly green in color; moderately roasted coffee beans are lighter in color and the taste is mainly sour; and deeply roasted coffee beans are darker in color, thick but not bitter, thick and mellow.
▲People in different countries and regions like coffee beans with different roasting methods. Image source/network
Brazilian coffee is moderately roasted with a strong aroma and a hint of chocolate, while deeply roasted, with caramel aromas, is intense and full-bodied. Guatemalan coffee is moderately roasted and has a sweet taste, rich in caramel and honey aromas, and deeply roasted, rich in rich chocolate aromas. Ethiopian coffee is moderately roasted with sweet floral and fruity notes, while light roasted has a unique sweet and soft aroma, rich in jasmine floral notes, with a slightly soft citrus fruity flavor. Indian coffee beans are aromatic, with aromas of cocoa and toast. The aroma of Costa Rican coffee beans is enchanting with the enchanting scent of chocolate and fruit. Colombian coffee is moderately roasted with rich caramel and dried fruit sweetness, while lightly roasted has a smooth taste and fruity aromas.
Raw coffee beans from different regions are light, medium, or deeply roasted according to their quality and taste style to achieve their best taste. In order to open up the market in Shanghai, illy has opened its own brand café directly at the Liuli Museum on Taikang Road in Shanghai, and the shelves of many large supermarkets like Carrefour are also filled with illy coffee products. Due to its long brand history and long-term marketing accumulation, illy has more than 100,000 retailers in more than 140 countries around the world.
▲Coffee beans with different degrees of roasting have different colors. Image source/network
As a representative of the domestic coffee planting field, Yunnan Coffee has become famous in the domestic coffee market. Coffee cultivation in Yunnan dates back to 1892, when French missionaries brought coffee seeds to Yunnan and planted them successfully in Binchuan County. In the 1950s, large-scale cultivation began in Yunnan. By 2006, about 15,000 tonnes were exported, of which 60% were acquired by Nestlé and Mai's to make low-end instant coffee. In 2010, Starbucks also began to acquire Yunnan coffee beans to make Starbucks brand Yunnan coffee beans. Although there is only one of Starbucks' dazzling varieties, Yunnan Coffee has taken a step forward.
Meet some coffee-loving friends in Shanghai who originally consumed green coffee beans from African or Brazilian regions, but imported coffee beans in Europe or Japan that have undergone extra fine processing and are crowned with well-known brands. Now switch to finding top roasters with top local skills and buying the top imported green coffee beans they roast. The best quality Yunnan coffee they also taste, the main feedback is that the price has an advantage, the taste is OK, occasionally can be drunk but not good enough to replace the previous imported coffee beans. This evaluation is enough to be seen as a reflection of the high-end population of Yunnan coffee beans in the domestic market.
At the same time, the interesting thing in China is that not all people who go to the café are senior coffee lovers, and most of the people who visit the café do not know much about coffee, nor will they order coffee, nor will they drink the super bitter and super strong espresso. They often go to the café and expect a cup of coffee-containing drinks that taste sweet and smooth. Some of these people are white-collar workers who go to the café because of the office culture - drinking coffee can refresh the mind and improve office efficiency, so everyone has to go to Starbucks every day to drink coffee, or save time to let a colleague buy take-away coffee for everyone. It's also a way for colleagues to socialize in the office, showing that they live in the same social class as other white-collar colleagues. And being able to pay for Starbucks coffee is a proof of the dignity and refinement of your own life. These people can become potential customers of Yunnan Coffee, because they are very concerned about the cost performance of coffee, and Yunnan Coffee occupies the market advantage at a preferential price. Coffee shops can reduce costs, which can either increase profits, or increase discounts to get more white-collar customers.
▲ The coffee shop that is still open on the street late at night is much quieter. Courtesy of Photo/Figureworm Creative
The other part is the fashionista, seeing that Starbucks is located in the most prominent position in the city center and the golden floor of the commercial building, and the store design and decoration are trendy, the environment is spacious and comfortable, and they can't help but walk in to try to enjoy and show off their high-style life. They need coffee, they need an elegant environment, they need to experience it alone or with friends in this relaxed atmosphere. Unlike traditional domestic services, even if you don't consume, there is no clerk to sit there for a long time to drive you away; when you consume coffee desserts, you need to queue up and find a seat for yourself, and no one provides services for you. The clerk is called a barista rather than a waiter, and customers don't come here to become gods because they spend money, and it's impossible to yell at the clerk. Some say this shows a little bit of nobility in the coffee shop, while others say they make the guests understand the equal relationship between consumers and servicers.
▲ More and more Starbucks stores have opened into office buildings in major cities. Image source/network
Then there are some people who are real coffee customers, they often go to the coffee shop for a seat, but most of the time they make their own coffee at home, because they have to drink it every day. They purchased equipment such as very good quality espresso machines, hand-brewing pots, mocha pots, French press pots, or the most popular American coffee machines. They know a lot about the taste of a cup of coffee and the quality of the beans. They will be more critical about the taste of the coffee beans and the roasting techniques and quality of the roasters. They are just consumers of real coffee. Generally in first-tier cities, these people may be foreigners living in China, Chinese who have lived abroad, or people who often travel abroad. In short, they accept coffee culture as a part of life, a part of their own cultural values.
Because they understand the importance of coffee in life, they are willing to spend more to enjoy the high-quality coffee experience, the so-called high-end coffee consumer group. That's what Italians look like. Their constitution can already tolerate caffeine and thus does not affect sleep, and they have a strong dependence on coffee out of living habits. Drinking coffee can put them into a very good mental state and feel comfortable and happy. These coffee shoppers will pursue top-notch coffee enjoyment, a typical example of which is to order a cup of Blue Mountain coffee in a decent café.
▲ The coffee shop clerk is called a barista rather than a waiter, and the relationship with the customer is much equal. Image source/network
Jamaica's Blue Mountain coffee, recognized in the coffee industry, is also a good precedent for the development of Yunnan coffee reference. The seller introduced the Jamaica Blue Mountains before selling coffee, "For that blue, the sun, the ocean, the white clouds, the mountains have all tried their best." The sun shines directly on the Caribbean Sea, and the blue sea reflects into the mountains, and this blue spreads between the clouds: simple, primitive, irreplaceable." Coffee tasters pay attention to Jamaican Blue Mountains coffee when they hear about the beautiful Jamaican Blue Mountains: "After nearly 300 years of inheritance, Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee has a high reputation in the world, which can be called the royal family of coffee, representing both quality and identity." Nearly 90% of Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is shipped to Japan halfway around the world every year, which makes its worldwide supply stretched, and Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee is also covered with a mysterious veil."
When you sit in the café bar of a five-star hotel and sip a cup of Blue Mountain coffee, you will also think of the magical Jamaican Blue Mountains, the mysterious Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee. A cup of coffee brings royal identity, magical and wonderful associations, and mellow encounters with the tip of the tongue, all of which are all touching, don't you want to feel this beautiful tacit understanding?
▲ Yunnan coffee plantation, people are picking coffee beans. Image source/network
Referring to the experience of predecessors, there are still many things that Yunnan coffee needs to do. To improve brand awareness, it takes nearly a hundred to hundreds of years of continuous efforts; the technical experience of raw bean roasting and finishing processing is required; the coffee roaster is needed to be super exquisite and serious craftsman spirit; the correct sales strategy and long-term high-quality sales investment are needed; not only to develop cost-effective customers, but also to let coffee customers appreciate the mellow and rich Yunnan coffee because they love the mountains and lakes of Yunnan and the clean and perfect ecological environment; more importantly, to slowly cultivate a long-standing historical background like tea culture.
▲ The production of coffee has been integrated into the lives of locals in Yunnan. Image source/network
China's coffee culture is growing, and Yunnan coffee is also growing. I hope that one day the coffee of the Yunnan brand will become a loud and beautiful brand like the world-famous Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee, or like the Japanese craftsmen who have achieved a top coffee with a super exquisite attitude, or like the Italians who have created a tradition of European romantic living culture. Come on Yunnan! Come on Yunnan Coffee!
▲ Yunnan coffee is being recognized and loved by more and more people. Image source/network
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