Eric's Beijing Diary

Coffee. Walked into the coffee bar this evening and went to my regular study spot on the third floor. I overheard the fuwuyuan talking to the folks below on her walkie-talkie (in Chinese, of course), "Grandpa Marx is here, so get the coffee ready, and make sure it's very hot." Good. They're getting the message. Actually, I've never complained. But several times I have taken my coffee to the bar to have it heated.

The problem is that sometimes coffee bars like this use a thermos. You wouldn't have a coffee bar like this in America with only one coffee pot. But here, many people order other things, like tea. And the ones who do order coffee often order the gourmet stuff, brewed by the cup. Not that many people order the house coffee. So they make some coffee and pour it in the thermos and let it sit. It isn't really that bad, especially when the place is busy. But the coffee does cool off a bit. When that happens, I just take my cup to the counter and have them put it in the microwave. But if the place is not very busy, then sometimes the coffee sits for quite awhile. I know, I sound picky, don't I?

Tea is different. The rest of the world uses tea bags, which dissolve quickly, because tea bags are made from ground up tea leaves. But in China we don't use tea bags. We sprinkle a few leaves in the bottom of the cup and pour in very hot water. The leaves are dehydrated and shriveled up, but not ground up. When you pour in hot water, the leaves open up. But you have to steep them longer, because they are whole leaves. When you finish a cup, you don't need to dump the leaves out. Just pour in more hot water. Of course, you can't keep doing this forever. Certainly not for a week or month. But one day isn't bad. After the day is over, I will usually dump the leaves.

But you can't do that with coffee. I was at a coffee bar over by Beida one evening, and noticed that the house coffee came with free refills. I tried it and it was unbelievably horrible. I asked the fuwuyuan about this, and she told me that the house coffee was not brewed by the cup (Starbucks style). I had no problem with that, but I told her that it tasted very old. She said it couldn't be old, because they made it fresh every morning. I couldn't help laughing. You just can't do that with coffee. Coffee gets rancid pretty quickly. Bottom line is that in China, you get both the best coffee and the worst coffee.

Speaking of Starbucks, bloggers in China have stirred up a minor furor over the presence of a Starbucks establishment in the Forbidden City. But the spokesman from Starbucks said that the government actually invited them to set up shop there. Traditionalists think that it is a sign that the Forbidden City is going to the dogs.

Personally, I am no fan of the excessive commercialism of historic sites, but I don't think that Starbucks should take all the blame. And if Starbucks was forced to move, what would replace it? Don't think for a minute that the Forbidden City would be less commercialized.