Pu’er Coffee

 This question came up because not long ago, a café-owner friend of mine asked me for advice. He was considering adding a specific coffee bean to his menu specifically for making Piccolo, and wanted to know whether consumers today are interested in Piccolo coffee, and whether many cafés are actually serving it. My response at the time more or less touched on the core issue behind why certain coffee drinks struggle to make it onto café menus. That conversation got me thinking—it perfectly captures the fundamental pain point behind why drinks like Piccolo and Cortado are so rarely seen on menus in China. Before we dive into the deeper market dynamics, it’s worth clarifying what these drinks actually are. Piccolo and Cortado are simply two classic examples I’m using here, but what truly defines them is a shared characteristic: a much smaller cup size than most mainstream milk-based coffees , with a stronger emphasis on flavor clarity and technical execution. A Piccolo typically uses...

 Walk into a café nowadays and the menu might surprise you: “Kale Light Coffee,” “Provence Tomato Americano,” “Beetroot & Purple Cabbage Americano”—ingredients that sound more like a salad than part of a coffee drink. What started as a jokingly labeled “dark cuisine” has now gone mainstream: Guming’s kale Americano sells over 50,000 cups per day, Tims’ tomato coffee has repeatedly sold out, and this “add-some-veggies-to-your-coffee” revolution has spread from social media hype to every corner of the street, quickly becoming a trend embraced by young consumers. From Niche Experiment to Mass Phenomenon: The Rise of Vegetable Coffee Vegetable coffee simply refers to mixing the juices or extracts of “super vegetables” such as kale, beetroot, tomato, or carrot into coffee. Its popularity didn’t happen overnight. Instead, it evolved through several stages: Early Experiments: Independent cafés pioneered the movement with extremely bold ideas—cilantro sparkling Americano, Sichuan...

 Global food giant Nestlé is looking for buyers for its high-end coffee chain Blue Bottle Coffee, and the potential sale may be valued below the $700 million acquisition price from seven years ago. This move is not only another round of strategic “slimming” under Nestlé’s new CEO, but also exposes the core pain point of the specialty coffee industry—when the craftsmanship-driven world of “slow coffee” collides with the scale-first logic of “fast commerce,” the once-popular stories of quality are becoming increasingly difficult to sustain. I. Nestlé’s “Amputation”: A Strategic Cut That Was Bound to Happen Nestlé’s consideration of selling Blue Bottle Coffee is far from a spontaneous decision; it is a key step in its systematic strategic restructuring. 1. A New CEO’s Iron-Fisted “Slimming” Since Philippe Navratil (Fei Nairui) took office, Nestlé has launched sweeping reforms: 16,000 global layoffs over the next two years—12,000 of which are white-collar positions—aiming to save 1...

 The 2024 Yunnan Coffee Industry Development Report (hereinafter referred to as “the Report”) was recently released, offering a comprehensive look at the strong momentum of Yunnan’s coffee sector. According to the Report, in 2024, Yunnan’s coffee planting area reached 1.1931 million mu (approximately 79,500 hectares), accounting for 97.85% of the total national planting area. The province’s total coffee output hit 150,200 tons , making up 98.65% of China’s total production, while its total agricultural output value reached 4.872 billion yuan , representing 98.61% of the national figure. With these overwhelming numbers, Yunnan has firmly established itself as China’s leading coffee-producing region , and the full-scale development of the “Yun Coffee” industrial chain is accelerating the creation of a distinct “Chinese coffee flavor.” A Coffee Landscape Defined by Altitude and Diversity Yunnan remains the largest coffee cultivation region in China, with plantations mainly di...

  Coffee prices experienced a rollercoaster session on Thursday evening (Beijing time), rising sharply before pulling back. Arabica coffee futures fell after hitting a new record high, while Robusta futures dropped from a five-week peak. Analysts attribute the decline mainly to easing weather risks in major coffee-producing countries. The recent rally in coffee prices had been fueled by fears that overly dry conditions in Brazil during the critical flowering stage of coffee trees could threaten the 2026/27 crop. According to Bloomberg’s weather analysis, Brazil’s key coffee-growing regions have faced severe drought, with rainfall in Minas Gerais reaching only about 70% of the historical average over the past month. However, Brazil’s meteorological agency forecast on Thursday that rain is expected in major coffee regions this weekend. Meanwhile, Vietnam’s weather bureau lowered the likelihood of heavy rainfall in the country’s central coffee belt. It’s worth noting that low inven...