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.

历史名城苏州，距离上海约一小时车程，运河纵横交错。河岸两旁排列着古老的白色建筑。一个世纪前，这些建筑里有一些可能是传统茶馆，当地人聚在那聊八卦或发展业务。如今，游客更有可能在这里找到可以提供不同饮品的商店。苏州有数十家星巴克门店以及其他咖啡店。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: 0.1 kg per year compared with 4.7 kg. 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， （同期中国人均GDP翻了一番。）普通中国人喝的咖啡量仍然只有普通美国人喝的一小部分：每年0.1公斤，而美国人则是4.7公斤。但去年中国超越了美国，成为世界上品牌咖啡店（星巴克等地）最多的国家， 据研究公司世界咖啡门户报道， 中国拥有近5万家此类门店。

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.

咖啡在中国的早期历史是模糊的。据某些说法，丹麦人于19世纪30年代开设了该国第一家咖啡店。这种饮料没有流行起来，部分原因是清朝对外国人持消极的态度，并试图遏制他们的影响力。那段时期的一份记录将咖啡描述为“外国恶魔饭后喝的黑水，称其有助于消化”。一个世纪后，著名作家鲁迅写道，他不喝这种东西：“我一直以为这是给外国使节喝的。" 他和大多数其他中国人都更喜欢喝茶。

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20世纪80年代中国实行市场改革并对外开放后， Maxwell House和雀巢等外国公司将速溶咖啡带到了中国。他们迎合了当地人的口味，使中国的咖啡比其他地方销售的更甜、苦味更少。西式咖啡店几年后才出现，其中最主要的是1999年的星巴克。公司的现煮咖啡对中国来说是新鲜事物。一手拿着笔记本电脑，一手拿着一杯（相对昂贵的）星巴克，成为年轻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，最大的喝咖啡人群仍然是“一线城市20至40岁的白领”。中国的经历反映了大约50年前日本的经历，当时收入的增长导致咖啡消费增加。中国办公室工作的激增——以及长时间的工作——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，如今，由于销售平价咖啡的国内咖啡连锁店的兴起，越来越多的人开始参与其中。领导者是瑞幸咖啡，拥有超过2万家门店。相比之下，星巴克拥有7，300家店铺。一杯基本的瑞幸咖啡大约是同等星巴克咖啡价格的三分之一。2023年瑞幸在中国的销售额首次超过星巴克。两家连锁店都在向较小的城市扩张。

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.

中国的咖啡公司也仍在努力迎合当地口味。一项创新是“茶咖啡”，这是一种混合两种饮料的混合物。瑞幸提供乌龙拿铁和茉莉海盐拿铁等口味。清朝官员要是知道这肯定在坟墓里打滚。