Coffee drinking culture perks up in China

Hot business: People wait for their orders at a Luckin Coffee outlet in Shanghai in this file picture. There is fierce competition between global coffee chains and domestic players like Luckin Coffee in China. — Bloomberg

BEIJING: China is probably the last place where one would expect a large group of consumers to overwhelmingly take to coffee.

Traditionally home to products like oolong tea, Longjing (Dragon Well) tea and Xinyang Maojian tea, the country is, however, slowly seeing consumer preferences and consumption patterns evolve in favour of the dark beverage.