Coffee shops boom as taste buds improve
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Beijing now has more than 8,000 coffee shops - eight times more than just a decade ago - thanks to the city's people developing a taste for quality brew.
Bai Fang, general secretary of the China Coffee Association, said more outlets have been opened to serve an increasing number of people demanding good coffee.
Cui Jian, who has worked in the industry for more than 10 years, said the past decade has seen a great change.
"Ten years ago, a coffee-roasting factory would handle about 400 kg a month," said Cui, who owns the Hongyaxuan Coffee company.
"Today, such a company would roast more than 400 tons a month."
The number of companies roasting coffee in the city has jumped to 140, seven times the number 10 years ago.
Cui attributed the increase in appreciation to Starbucks, the world's largest coffee shop chain, which opened its first outlet in 1999 in Beijing and now has hundreds in China.
"Actually, we didn't have the habit of drinking coffee," Cui said.
"Starbucks brought the concept of coffee shops to China, which made people realize there's another beverage called coffee we can drink every day."
Xu Lihu, 27, a barista, said that in the past, people didn't value the quality of coffee. They went to coffee shops to be fashionable because drinking coffee was considered elegant and exotic.
"But now quality is the main thing they pursue when they go to coffee shops," he said.
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