We have to put Trønder in quotation marks, but at the coffee shop in Beijing, distilled drops are served over the counter in a mixture not entirely foreign to Norwegians. The small caveat is a bit about dosage and a bit about quality. We are talking, and it tastes, “buy spirits”. Niu Ylli, a 45-year-old graphic designer, looks in through the window, grabs his mobile phone and scans a QR code with an expression of slightly stressed anticipation. It’s almost as if he thinks the opportunity he just saw might slip away. The graphic designer Niu Ylli has previously had to walk home in a hurry from the Luckin coffee shop. Today he got paid for his hard work. Photo: Fang Yonbing / news – I have visited the coffee shop near my office four times to try, but each time I was told that they were sold out. Now I came here on an errand. By chance I saw that they had it. I was surprised, he says. On September 4, the Luckin coffee shop launched late summer’s big plague. In collaboration with China’s most famous liquor, they brought a new coffee to the market, the Moutai latte. In the first few days, waiting times at various outlets of 1–2 hours were reported. The extra cunning tried to order a double Moutai latte without ice, without milk. Even without coffee. Photo: FLORENCE LO / Reuters – On WeChat, friends brag and share Moutai-laced videos with themselves. Everyone asks each other how they managed to get hold of one and how it tastes. Niu Ylli takes a sip and becomes talkative. So I also order. It is not often that you as a correspondent can quite legitimately drink at work. In the app, the coffee shop automatically suggests the option they think is best: iced latte without sugar, but with cream and therefore something extra. I skip the cream and have a hot latte instead of an iced latte. Niu has followed the recommendation completely. He holds a goblet crowned with a large cream top. From Nixon to Nordli Moutai + Luckin is this year’s big celebrity marriage in China. Moutai is something much stronger than a legendary spirit made from sorghum grain and with an alcohol percentage between 35 and 53 percent. Moutai is the symbol of luxury and status. Year after year, it is named China’s strongest brand. A bottle rarely costs less than 1,000 yuan, or NOK 1,500. It is the liquor President Nixon toasted with China’s leaders in Beijing in 1972 when the United States and the People’s Republic of China put the Cold War aside. Two years after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, Moutai was declared a national spirit in 1951. Photo: Sheng Li / Reuters It is the spirit that Prime Minister Odvar Nordli was not as enthusiastic about when he visited China a few years later and said the oft-quoted words: “Don’t be lucky with this one!” Luckin is a much younger company with a more restless upbringing. They have ridden the waves of the coffee revolution in China where people who a few decades ago preferred tea have now also developed a taste for coffee. The young engineer, Ji Weim, makes his girlfriend taste. The face cuts out and locks into what is a painful grimace. – This was not good! Photo: Fang Yonbing / news Luckin was established in 2017 and this summer passed Starbucks with 10,000 outlets in China. – It’s all quite clever, says Niu Ylli. He has turned a little red in the cheeks and is in a good mood. – Luckin was taken off the stock exchange in the US because they cheated on how much they earned. They agreed to pay a huge fine, but almost went bankrupt. They needed something new, Niu believes. Coffee for the People’s Republic Maybe not just Luckin? Perhaps China’s entire economy needs a shot of some joy and cheer. The real estate developers – the major driver of China’s domestic economy – are straining at their moorings. This summer, Beijing abruptly stopped publishing unemployment figures for graduates coming out of China’s universities and colleges. When the Moutai latte was launched and Chinese social media was filled with images of long queues, Moutai and Luckin shares pulled up the index on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The orders strained the capacity of China’s internet. On the first day, 5 million cups were sold. An early bird bid on its first round of Moutai latte deliveries in Beijing. Photo: Fang Yonbing / news – Look at the branding. It is more Moutai than Luckin. The paper bags, the heat damper around the cup. Ordinary people who would never spend money on a bottle can get a bit of the status that Moutai gives in their hands, and that for 19 yuan a cup, says Niu. So a little under NOK 30. About half of those who come out of the coffee shop have the new latte with the little extra in their hand. The people behind the counter say that they sell around 500 cups every day. It is about half iced coffee and half hot coffee. Luckin has overtaken Starbucks in China, and now has over 10,000 outlets. Photo: Fang Yonbing / news – Norwegians must have good advice But how does it taste? I’ll take a sip first. Maybe more irish coffee than karsk? Photo: Fang Yonbing / news – It’s actually a bit disappointing. The various layers of flavor in the coffee don’t come through and you can’t fully taste the liquor either, says Niu. Ji Wei, a 27-year-old engineer, agrees. After all the hype, he was hoping for a little more flair. – The Moutai is mixed in the milk. You have a little taste in the first sip, but after that it’s a completely normal latte. I myself test both hot without cream and cold with cream, and I somewhat agree. The taste that gives a little heat is only in the first sip, maybe the first two. Niu will not give up the coffee drink. – I will try all the combinations they offer. Maybe one of them is sitting? Ji Wei, the young engineer, thinks the product will quickly fade away. Only men buy. A woman next door disagrees, holding up an iced Moutai latte. For just under NOK 30, Ji Wei can take part in the status symbol Moutai. Photo: Fang Yonbing / news – It will be on the menu as long as it keeps the share price up, says Niu. The average Chinese has probably never heard of Norwegian village parties and half cups of coffee, but most Chinese have a connection to a village not too far back or too far back in the family. They grasp the concept quickly. – But half a cup of coffee. Half a cup of Moutai? Norwegians must have good advice, they laugh. They pick up the difference between bought spirits and more local production just as quickly. There is something interpersonal about karsk. In Luckin’s new latte there is only 2 milliliters of spirits or 0.5 percent alcohol. What do people outside the coffee shop in Beijing think people from Norway will think of this new Chinese variety? – I think Norwegians would be very interested and a bit amused, but after trying they will buy an americano in half a cup, and fill up the rest on their own. There are slightly less regulated markets around China where it is entirely possible, says Niu and laughs.
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“Karsk” in Chinese – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
