This isn't exactly true.
They were right that instant coffee is what you commonly find in that you can find instant everywhere -- at grocery stores, at restaurants, people's homes. So, if you're dying for coffee -- so much so that you'll drink something that's a close relative of real coffee, you won't be disappointed. Judging from what I've seen, most people who drink coffee in China drink instant coffee. And, they usually drink some variation of "Milk Coffee" -- instant coffee that has sugar and powdered milk already mixed into it. Instant's entre into the market was probably made easier by the fact that to make it, you "just add hot water," and since all of the water coolers around here have a hot water tap, you're good to go (and since you can't drink tap water here, water coolers are everywhere).
Packages of real coffee (what people here call "ground coffee") are hard to come by. The big international grocery store where we shop only sells one kind of ground coffee. ("International" means that they sell some non-Chinese things, like Land-o-Lakes cheddar cheese.) I've not seen ground coffee for sale anywhere else yet. You definitely can't just run down to the local market and buy this -- they'd only have instant.
You can, however, order real coffee at some restaurants. But this is what you get when you it:
Butter pat used to give you a sense of scale
This is about 4 oz. of coffee. Having been raised on the teat of "free refills" and venti Starbucks, this dinky thing (which I've started referring to as "European sized coffee") is simply not enough. But it has to be. Because coffee here is expensive. And that is what we weren't prepared for.
The coffee in the photo above costs around 2.5 USD (depending on the place where you order it). And that's the cheap coffee (not instant, but the cheapest real coffee on the menu). That means that a cup of coffee is at least as expensive as most meals on restaurant menus. When D and I order coffee with our meal, it doubles the bill's total, and more than doubles it if we order a second cup. It would be cheaper for us to drink beer with our meals (a can of beer is around 30-50 cents USD).
Also, making real coffee is labor intensive. There are no coffee pots at restaurants**; instead, each cup is made by hand using a vacuum method of preparation. This is what the contraption looks like before the water and coffee come into contact with each other:
This method produces a tasty cup of coffee. But most days I just miss crappy drive-through coffee in paper cups (especially, I am embarrassed to admit, Dunkin' Donuts coffee).
Needless to say, the majority of the people in our city (1) don't drink real coffee and (2) probably couldn't afford to even if they wanted to. Even the instant coffee is pretty pricey (and by pricey, I mean it costs about the same as instant coffee in the US, which means that it's expensive here).
So, now you know: Real coffee is hard to find and insanely expensive, but it tastes good if you can get it. Instant coffee is easy to find and also expensive. Of course, the situation may be different in big cities. Our town of 1 million people is small by China's standards.
Notes:
* Coffee shops here are not really coffee shops. They are over-priced restaurants that just happen to feature coffee as the beverage of choice. They think you're a bit weird when you just order coffee. They also serve all kinds of bizzarro coffee drinks. Here I am drinking something called "Noble Lady Coffee" ('cause, ya know, I'm am noble ;-) Note the extended pinky:
And check out the swanky interior of this coffee shop (called U.B.C. Coffee):
This place is huge, and in addition to serving coffee
and food, also serves a full bar
** Coffee pots/makers are hard to come by at stores, too. And expensive. And kind of crappy.
6 comments:
Do you guys have a coffee maker? I think I would be sad for about a week without my Dunkin...but then I would probably be OK.
Did you take a grinder? I can send you some beans from our guy Henry the day after he roasts them. If we vacuum pack it, it will be right as rain. Henry's the man - been a neighborhood roaster since 1968.
Also - since I am now in Shanghai, we can have a compare and constrast kind of thing. Coffee seems more available here; there are even Starbucks (though very few) and some competitors. I will try it all out and report.
Excellent pinky extension! Such manners, such a lady...
i'm sorry, but official protocol says the pinky finger must point at 12 oclock to qualify as noble.unfortunatly you are just a commoner from pa.
Okay - the report is in. Most coffee in Shanghai sucks a fat one. I did try Starbucks just to see, and it's about the same as back home. That is to say, it's middle-of-the-road overall, but pretty good for Shanghai. Prices were the same as the states.
I saw a U.B.C., but had no time to partake.
You'd have to be a contortionist to get your pinky to point at 12 o'clock!
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