Everyone knows that China is famous for its tea, and its tea-drinking culture, but coffee? Believe it or not, Chinese coffee production is on the increase, and the world’s biggest coffee giants are getting inon the act – Starbucks have produced their very own brand of Chinese coffee.

Coffee is not traditionally associated with China; indeed, you’re much more likely to find tea-houses than coffee-shops there. But China’s climate and geography mean that there are ideal coffee-growing conditions in some parts of China, such as the southwestern region of Yunnan, where in 1988, a project to produce coffee was started by the Chinese government and the United Nations Development Program. Yunnan’s climate and conditions are fairly similar to those of the coffee-growing regions of the Americas and Indonesia. The coffee growing area there grew steadily, and soon the idea of coffee production caught on elsewhere, in regions like Kunming, Baoshan and Ruili. And what’s more, the majority of the coffee beans grown in China are arabica rather than robusta (unlike in Vietnam, for example). There’s every potential for China to become a mainstream player in the coffee market, and Starbucks are trying to be there when it happens!

Starbucks has actually been opening stops in China for over ten years now, and although there are just over 350 Starbucks branches in China (a drop in the ocean of 17,000 throughout the world), it is undeniably one of the fastest growing markets for the company. Steadily, they are attempting to introduce the Chinese to “coffee culture” - something that is extremely well established in the western world, and which is starting to take of in China now. This is in part thanks to the efforts of Starbucks and similar companies, but also due to the Chinese interest in anything that might be considered Western (and thus cool and hip!). Once the Chinese are crazy for their own coffee, then it’ll be time to take Chinese coffee to the rest of the world!

The Starbucks Chinese coffee brand is called “South Of The Clouds”, which is the literal translation of the name of region in which the coffee is grown: Yunnan. Beans sourced from Yunnan are then combined with good quality beans from regions elsewhere in the world (including Asia Pacific and Latin America) to create a unique-tasting blend with a bright acidity, a smooth cocoa-like texture, and hints of herbs and spices. A really exotic Oriental coffee! The aim is to eventually be able to source premium quality arabica beans within China, so that the blend is wholly, authentically Chinese coffee.

Chinese coffee is without a doubt a work in progress, but brands like the Starbucks one have proved that it has a bright future. The coffee-growing regions of China can produce clean-tasting green coffee beans which make for a heavy bodied, strong-tasting cup of coffee.

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