All the Tea in China
Forget about all the tea in China. I want to talk about coffee in China.
China is an undemocratic country with a dodgy human rights record yet almost every major trading country desperately wants to cosy up to them because they represent such a huge market. I am aquainted with some experts in specialty coffee who have been poised to be the first ones out of the gate when businessmen in China decide en masse that they need to start drinking good coffee.
And as far as I know, they have been in a sort of holding pattern for years because of the way Chinese government and business is run. It’s ironic that the specialty coffee trend does exist microscopically in China and the rarity is part of the attraction. If retail chains were allowed to pour in, they might be met with a lukewarm reception. The famous documentary about the Cola Wars focused on China for one segment and it is obviously a hard sell to get most Chinese people to change their beverage rituals.
I was wondering how the tainted pet food scandal would affect trade negotiations. American officials seem to be intensifying their trade talks with China, and they recently talked of progress without showing all their cards. Human rights is always the counterpoint to public trade talks. Private businessmen tend to walk back and forth to China on egg shells.
