Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/491368
78 STiR tea & coffee industry international Starbucks entered the Taiwanese market in 1998 and now has 284 outlets in a joint venture with Uni-President Enterprises Corp. and President Chain Store Corp. According to a recent article in China Daily, President sells latte for NT$50 ($1.65) at the 4,700 or so 7-Eleven stores it operates throughout the island. Another competitor, Gourmet Master, has 325 outlets under the 85C brand, where it offers a 16-ounce serving of latte for NT$65 ($2.20). That compares with NT$110 ($3.65) for the same latte at Starbucks, and NT$120 ($4) at Mr. Brown. Other items that can be enjoyed for NT$130 at Mr. Brown include hazel- nut café latte, vanilla café latte, chocolate toffee café latte, café mocha, iced coffee float, espresso ice cream, espresso frappe, mojito mint chocolate frappe, and honey citron frappe. "More than 50 years ago, people started drinking coffee because of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan," Wu said. "My grand- father and my father drank coffee, and so my generation got into the coffee-drinking habit too." In absolute terms, the Japanese are Asia's most avid coffee drinkers, consuming 7.13 million bags in 2012, according to the London-based International Coffee Or- ganization. That compares to Indonesia (3.58 million bags), Philippines (2.17 million bags), South Korea (1.71 million bags), Vietnam (1.58 million bags), China (1.07 mil- lion bags), Thailand (1.05 million bags) and Taiwan (396,000 bags). In its latest report, the ICO says Taiwan's per-capita coffee consumption jumped from 0.4 kg in 1990 to its present 1.0 kg, while the island now has more than 10,000 coffee establishments. "Taiwan also has an increasingly urbanized population, which is conducive to fur- ther growth in the market," said the ICO. "Most imports are of green coffee (67% in 2012), but soluble coffee played a key role in developing the coffee market in the late 1990s. Furthermore, the market share of Arabica in the Taiwanese coffee market is one of the highest in the region, estimated to have exceeded 60% on average since 2000." Even so, average per-capita coffee consumption in Taiwan, while higher than Thai- land, Indonesia, and Malaysia, is way behind Brunei (4.3 kg), Japan (3.4 kg), South Korea (2.1 kg) and the Philippines (1.3 kg) — so there's clearly plenty of room to grow. "Young people don't drink tea as much anymore. Now coffee shops are more popular," Wu said, adding that while Starbucks has a much larger presence in Taiwan than does Mr. Brown, true coffee connoisseurs know the difference. "We are a 100% Taiwanese company, and we make everything in-house," she said. "We import the green beans, roast in our own factory, and deliver to our shops every week. Starbucks roasts its coffee in America or Europe and then imports it to Taiwan. Sometimes they keep the coffee for months, so it's not fresh. Our coffee is always fresh." Wu said Mr. Brown roasts all its coffee at a factory in Chungli, which is near the country's main international airport, about 40 minutes south of Taipei. Wu says the company roasts about 3,000 kilos of coffee daily. The factory utilizes two lines of high-speed filling machines manufactured by Japan's Mitsubishi; each line produces 1,500 cans per minute. "We have to work very hard, because so many companies are getting into this mar- ket, and we want to stay number one," she said. Yet it hasn't always been smooth sailing for the jolly, ever-grinning Mr. Brown. In September 2008, a Chinese scandal involving milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine made worldwide headlines — including in the New York Times —after 50,000 children in China were sickened. King Car was forced to recall seven Waitstaff wear color coordinated uniforms and are well trained in customer service. Mr. Brown Coffee's mascot, below. Mr. Brown coffee shops sell roast coffee to go along with branded accessories.