Thursday, March 16, 2006


the passionate spell of specialty coffee continues, redux

"coffee consumption in india, russia and china, traditionally considered to be tea lovers, is going up with the younger generation getting hooked to the beverage, a top official of tata tea ltd said today.

while in india, the consumption of coffee has jumped from 60,000 tonnes about one and half years ago to the present 70,000 tonnes, russians, especially the youngsters were preferring coffee to tea, according to hamid ashraff, managing director, tata tea ltd, the largest coffee plantation company in asia.

coffee consumption in russia is growing at the rate of 15 per cent year-by-year, ashraff said. about 5000 tonnes of instant coffee was sold in russia last year, he said.

china is also slowly shifting to coffee like india and russia, he claimed."

what a wonderful article, one that warms the cockles of my coffee cup. i so often run into these dead-leaf people who explain to me -- with their pinkies extended of course! -- in tones as if i were a retarded child, how tea will take over the world.

and while i have nothing against tea in particular, seeing as i love a nice cup of gen ma chai ara as much as the next person, i do have to politely remind them that the consumption trends are against them.

they've already basically lost japan itself -- now the world's third largest coffee-importing country, right after the u.s.a. and germany -- i mean, why do you think paul bassett started his chain of coffee shops in the ginza? -- and it looks as if other major asian nations are following suit.

more to the point, this is the trend that will finally end the so-called coffee crisis. now, while consumer preferences are developing in these 3 major countries, we coffee lovers and the professionals we adore need to work with these newbie java lovers to move their tastes from instant and soluble coffees to specialty and whole-bean.

posted by fortune | 8:17 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments