Starbucks brews up a new line for China
The names of a series of teas that went on sale in the world’s most populous nation this month were unmistakably Chinese.
There was Bi Luo Chun, a green tea described as having a “crisp, fresh flavour”; Mu Dan, a white tea said to offer “a fresh, mellow sweetness”; and Oriental Beauty, with its “intoxicating floral aroma”.
But these drinks are not recent additions to the menu of one of Beijing’s traditional tea houses. Instead, their arrival is being advertised by display boards in Starbucks. The all-conquering Seattle chain may have spread coffee house culture across the globe, but in China it is unashamedly tailoring its offerings more closely to local tea-drinking tastes.
“I think Starbucks is kind of late in terms of localisation,” says Natalie Zhu, a senior retail analyst at JLM Pacific Epoch in Shanghai.
Starbucks is especially late in relation to equally well-known western fast-food outlets such as KFC and McDonald’s, which are old hands at plugging in to local preferences.
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