Starbucks Coffee, as one of the representatives of American fast food culture, has grown into a world-class enterprise with 50 stores after just 40 years' development since it was founded in Seattle, USA in 1998.
The name Starbucks comes from Herman Melville's classic work Moby Dick's Hero. There are not many readers of this book. Only people with good education and high cultural taste will know about Starbucks. As can be seen from the brand name, Starbucks' positioning of its target market is very clear: it is not the general public, but a group of urban white-collar workers who pay attention to enjoyment, leisure and knowledge. Customer experience is the core appeal of Starbucks brand equity. It can be seen that Starbucks is a western culture that advocates knowledge, people-oriented and petty bourgeoisie.
At the same time, Starbucks stores will be designed according to local cultural characteristics and integrated into the Starbucks brand; On the basis of brand unification, strive to give full play to individual characteristics. Starbucks' storefront building near the Confucius Temple in Nanjing is integrated with the surrounding areas. If it is not so iconic, it is not a coffee shop at all. Xi 'an Zhonglou Store is a building independent of the square, and its style is completely consistent with the surrounding old buildings. The hollowed-out carved fence in the shops of Shanghai Chenghuang Temple reveals a strong old Shanghai style everywhere. Of course, in addition to Starbucks, McDonald's is also a typical representative of multinational companies that focus on integrating into local culture.
In addition to the elaborate design of the store, Starbucks has continuously improved its menu, adding China tea, various scented teas and popular chocolate drinks. Even in the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival in China, holiday gift sets will be launched, which shows that Starbucks is trying to infiltrate China culture slowly. Tea culture originated from China's history of paying attention to ideology, especially in poetry, painting, singing and dancing. During the Tang and Song Dynasties when poetry prevailed, many famous sentences and articles related to tea were born.
In modern times, in daily life, people often say that rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea are seven things, which shows that tea has become an indispensable necessity for ordinary people. Tea culture has become an important part of traditional culture in China. After entering China, the bitterness of coffee has gradually become the darling of the trend and a symbol of fashion. It can be found that young and middle-aged people account for the vast majority of customers who accept coffee as a daily drink. In addition to taste and price, the persistence and hobby of traditional culture is also one of the factors that affect the choice of the older generation.
Tea Culture and the Development of Coffee Culture
1, the rise and development of tea culture in China
At first, the medicinal value of tea spread among the people. With the development of history, it gradually became a drink in people's lives and later became a culture. During the Qin and Han dynasties, people in Bashu area began to drink tea, and literati became attached to tea. There is a written record saying, "Master Wu, bought tea; Jin officials love guests before they have tea ",that is to say, entertaining guests with tea in social activities began in the Three Kingdoms period, while ritual and stylized tea drinking and Chaze were established in the Jin Dynasty. In the Jin Dynasty, tea has become people's daily drink, and people began to give tea a quality beyond material significance during drinking.
When "tea" becomes "tea culture", we have to mention "tea ceremony". China is known as a country of etiquette, in which "guests come to offer tea" has been a etiquette creed since ancient times, and it goes without saying that it is well known to all women and children. There are various forms of "tea ceremony", among which Yunnan Bai nationality is famous for its three teas. As early as the Ming Dynasty, it was used by the White House as a way to treat guests and make friends, and it gradually became a kind of etiquette. As for the skillful technology, elegant posture and exquisite tea set in the process of fighting and tasting tea, it has become famous all over the world with the passage of time and is imitated by all countries. In addition to the obvious cultural etiquette mentioned above, we have to mention the three sources of China traditional culture-Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Confucianism has always emphasized the word "harmony", that is, the golden mean between heaven and earth, while tea culture advocates communication of ideas, harmonious atmosphere, friendship and so on in drinking tea. Speaking of Buddhism, we should talk about the wonderful relationship between Zen and tea. Tea tastes bitter, if it is sweet after drinking, meditation is self-evident, and finally the conclusion that "the sea of suffering is boundless, and turning back is the shore" is drawn. In other words, Zen and tea are both bitter before sweet, and they are both ancient civilizations with real bitterness; The core of Laozi and Zhuangzi's Taoist thought is to return to nature, to be natural in Taoism and to be extraordinary and refined. Quietly, drinking tea can make people feel calm and natural, as if they are integrated with everything in the universe, and reach the realm of selfless struggle. It can be seen that the tea culture in China is the unity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, the unity of heaven and earth, the unity of matter and spirit, and the unity of elegance and vulgarity. The rise of tea culture was in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Zhu Zizhen, an expert in tea history, said: "There was only one tea in the Tang Dynasty, and there was only one word for tea; Lu Yu became a monk to learn tea when he was a sutra; Tea began to be taxed before the establishment of tea policy; Tea began to be sold on the side, and there was a tea trade. In a word, tea production developed and tea culture really took shape in the Tang Dynasty.
In the Tang Dynasty, Liu summarized that tea has "ten virtues": "relieving depression, driving away sleep, nourishing life, driving away diseases, benefiting benevolence, respecting it, tasting it, keeping fit, being feasible and interested in Kaya", which brilliantly revealed the material culture and spiritual culture, and made us fully realize the function and spiritual connotation of tea. Later, people endowed tea with more humanistic feelings, linked tea with personality, tea with human morality, linked tea culture with moral culture with the help of tea's "gentleman's nature", and used tea and tea drinking etiquette programs to achieve the purpose of self-cultivation In addition, in the process of the development and evolution of China tea culture, the art of tea tasting has gradually formed, which makes tea drinking artistic and aesthetic, endows tea trees, tea sets and tea tasting with the meaning and form of beauty, and makes tea culture a "happy" culture.
Tea culture really reached its peak in the Song Dynasty. Due to the further improvement of tea-making technology and the continuous expansion of tea areas, the types of tea gradually increased, and the number of famous teas in Song Dynasty reached about 200. The custom of drinking tea is more popular among court nobles and literati, and also spread to the lives of ordinary people, becoming an indispensable thing in people's daily life. Wang Anshi's "On Tea Law" records: "Tea is for civilian use, which is equal to rice and salt. It is indispensable." Therefore, tea became a widely accepted drink in the Song Dynasty, and tea shops, teahouses and teahouses gradually appeared. Tea is associated with many aspects of social life, and many social phenomena, customs or concepts related to tea have emerged, enriching the content of tea culture.
The development of tea culture not only improved the taste of food culture, but also penetrated into all social strata, and gradually formed a tea culture with distinctive system, morality, ethics, customs, etiquette, cultivation and other relative norms, and then developed into an important part of people's social communication culture, affecting people's social life and becoming the carrier of spiritual culture.
2. The rise and development of coffee culture
On a global scale, coffee is considered as the most consumed beverage. Since the 20th century, coffee has been widely accepted in China. With the continuous growth of China's economic strength, people's lives are getting richer. In this tea-drinking land, there is a love for coffee, especially recognized by the younger generation. There is a "coffee culture" trend gradually. In various cities, cafes and coffee bookstores have become good places for people to read and rest. And how did this coffee culture, which was originally only popular in western countries and pursued freedom, comfort, novelty and effectiveness, gradually form? This is worthy of our in-depth understanding in order to better convey and enrich this culture.
Coffee produced in Ethiopia, Africa, is gradually recognized by the world with the development of global traffic and the smooth exchange of information. At present, the origin of coffee covers more than 50 countries including Central and West Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, India and the Pacific Ocean. Coffee has gradually become popular in the whole western countries, from the decoration of the upper class to the daily necessities of the people.
It is France that really began to spread the cultural connotation of "strength and enthusiasm" of coffee. It is said that the free and romantic temperament of the French nation is very consistent with the sweetness of coffee quality. Later, on the basis of French coffee culture, the famous American Starbucks coffee culture was positioned as "your neighbor" and the "real pot coffee culture" rose in Japan. Take the United States as an example Because American coffee culture pursues kindness, relaxation, leisure and popularization, American coffee culture has caused a coffee heat wave wherever its famous brand Starbucks goes. Drinking coffee in America is like playing a random game. "All forgiven" and "Coffee" are also deeply integrated into their lives, and it is difficult to separate them. The influence has even reached the point where life is not without coffee, and there is often a scene of "I am on my way to the cafe if I am not in the cafe".
Nowadays, coffee culture has spread widely and rapidly around the world. Modern people, especially young people, are more adapted to the taste and feeling of coffee and regard it as a symbol of fashion, which makes coffee culture known to more and more people and makes coffee run smoothly in the world.