Do the Youth of Hangzhou and Shanghai Drink Coffee or Tea? We Find Out…

(photo credit, AllenHsu)

Located 180 kilometers southwest of Shanghai, the city of Hangzhou is home to beautiful scenery, 6.4 million people, and from our street team surveys, many youth Chinese tea drinkers. The Hangzhou youth mentioned brands such as Longjing, Guanyin, Pu’er Tea, and Nestle as their tea brands of choice. They also mentioned that Longjing, the British Royal Flower Tea and Pu’er Tea offered high quality drinks. Compared to our Shanghai street team surveys, the majority of the Shanghai youth we interviewed, drink Coffee on a regular basis. Brands Shanghai youth prefer include Starbucks, Nestle and Maxwell. Coffee brands that offer high quality also include Starbucks, Nestle or Maxwell. From our quick surveys, it’s clear that the Hangzhou lifestyle supports a larger tea-drinking sect compared to Shanghai’s youth coffee drinkers.

(photo credit, balzaraikin)

Shanghai is China’s largest city as well as having a large international influence. We attribute this as being a large reason for the spread of coffee culture. But another reason could also be a larger market supply of coffee and coffee shops. From our survey, most Shanghai youth drink coffee in coffee shops such as Starbucks or Chamate. Hangzhou youth prefer drinking coffee or tea at home, in school, or in teahouses. The opinions of Coffee and Teashops in both of these cities vary as well. Opinions in Shanghai range from, “not enough stores” to “expensive” and a “lack of culture”. In Hangzhou, people indicated they are “very good”, “lots of room for development”, “too commercial” or most interestingly having “strong history” and strong culture”. In Hangzhou there appears to be more of a resentful attitude to commercial coffee shops and more appeal for shops with history and culture.

(photo credit, d’n'c)

The most fascinating comparison lies in the reasons for drinking coffee and tea in Shanghai and Hangzhou. The Shanghai youth noted that they prefer coffee for more energy, relaxation, and because of boredom. The youth in Hangzhou had more idealistic answers. They indicated a tea preference because of the health benefits, for rest and relaxation, and because of the good environment to chat with friends and family. We’ve seen from other youth studies that many Chinese youth are idiosyncratically ideal, but in the case of coffee or tea, Hangzhou youth appear to link tea to its idealistic attributes; an interesting connection.