8-1 咖啡的梦想

A Dream of Coffee

E Huiyuan: Ten years ago, you opened the company with your friends, which once aroused certain interest of some Chinese media. It is not so easy for a foreigner to start his own business from scratch1 in China, why did you choose to do that?

Stuart Eunson: We saw a tremendous potential2 market here in Beijing, for coffee, and so we pursued that market. When we first started the company, we completely misjudged3 the local Beijing market. We expected there to be much more demand for gourmet 14 quality coffee and that wasn’t the fact. We had to work much harder than we originally thought. Actually when we started the business in 1994, we were hoping to sell coffee to the 200,000 plus foreigners in Beijing, and it turned out that market did not exist in the form we thought it was. And so we were forced to sell coffee in a much more local Beijing market.

And actually, when we first came up the idea, we did not know much about coffee. Once we decided 2 that we wanna invest coffee in China, I went to be internship 35 with coffee roasters in U.S.; my two friends who came from Australia went back to Australia to be internship there. When we decided to be coffee roaster, we learned everything we could do about coffee. Coffee is a life time of experiences; so you never stop learning. But to learn how to roast coffee takes about a month, maybe two months, to learn how to roast coffee well takes a long long time, just like tea.

E: What is the greatest achievement you have made after so many years’ work in China? Any special thoughts or feeling about your work here?

Stuart Eunson: Still alive for 10 years in China coffee market is the achievement by myself. I would say that one of the biggest achievements is that we have worked hard and saw great fruits in the education of Chinese coffee customer. Although our efforts are not as great as someone like Nestle, when people are interested in coffee, we teach them about coffee. We like to think that through our training, people know more about coffee, they understand more about coffee, and that they really learn to appreciate coffee.

And one thing that touched my deepest heart was -- when we started the company in 1994, we almost starved to death6. We completely misjudged the coffee market here like I was saying; we really thought that we were going to be rich within 6 months. That did not happen. And so overtime 4 as we developed the business, we had to be very creative with how we solved the problems here. Basic principles are the same everywhere in the world, but the way you go about solving problems here in China is very different than other places in the world. And be able to do so, be able to deal with all the different departments, we have to deal with different companies, be able to maintain the business as a small sized enterprise to survive in coffee market for ten years when different companies come into China, some big, some small. It is really a source of pride. It is very challenging to run a business in China.

E：Chinese people like to drink tea, and we have an age old tea culture. Coffee is the traditional drink of western people, is there anything so called “coffee culture”?

Stuart Eunson: Tea has 2,000 years of history. Coffee, worldwide, also has the same way. It has affected 5 countries all over the world. It is a drink that is drunk all over the world. The story of discovery of coffee is very similar to the discovery of tea in China. There are various fanciful7 but unlikely stories surrounding the discovery of roasted coffee beans. One story has it that an Ethiopian goatherd was amazed at the lively behavior of his goats after chewing red coffee berries. The culture of coffee drinking goes back to the 11th century. It was then that coffee was first imported to Arabia from its original home in Ethiopia. The Persians were enraptured8 by the invigorating9 effects of this new “wine of Islam,” because real wine was strictly 7 forbidden to Muslims. The word “coffee” comes from the ancient Arabic “qahwah”. In the first half of the 16th century, coffee came to play an increasingly important role in many places of world. Coffee is the single largest consumed drink in the world. And tea is the single largest consumed drink in China. In China, there are hundreds of different types of teas. Even if you look at the three families of teas, black tea, green tea or flower tea, the three types of teas are very different. In coffee, there are several families of coffees also. Probably, there are over thousands of different types of coffee in the world. Overall, yes, I’d like to say that there are a lot of similarities between tea and coffee.

E：In talking about coffee, such established brands as “Nestle” and “Starbucks” maybe are more familiar to Chinese people. How does Arabica coffee differentiate 8 itself?

Stuart Eunson: Nestle is the world largest food company. Nestle Coffee is worldwide, but one is larger than others. For us, I think as you look at, Nestle is instant coffee, we do only roasting coffee. Starbuck is a coffee retailer 9, they open coffee shops all over China, especially in large cities. We focus mainly on wholesale 10 coffee. We provide gourmet quality coffee, and high quality coffee in high services.

E：Nowadays, college students in China are facing severe employment pressure. Some of them plan to settle this problem by starting their own business. Do you have any suggestion or advice for them?

Stuard Eunson: To do what you really want to do. At first, you may try different jobs. And you will find out that one job is most suited for you. Choose what you like, it is very important. Of course, if you wanna start your own business, you will face a lot of difficulties. There is one thing that you must bear in mind -- never give up.

注释：

1. from scratch [口] 从起点开始，从零开始，白手起家

2. potential [pEu5tenFEl] a. 潜在的，可能的

3. misjudge [7mis5dVQdV] vt. 错误地判断(或估计)

4. gourmet [5^uEmei] a. 供美食家享受的

5. internship [`Int:nFIp] n. [美]  实习医师(或实习教师、实习生)的职位(或职务)

6. starve [stB:v] vi. 挨饿， ～ to death 饿死

7. fanciful [5fAnsiful] a. 想像的

8. enrapture 6 [in5rAptFE(r)] vt. 使狂喜，使着迷

9. invigorating [In`vI^EreItIN] a. 使精力充沛的

咖啡的梦想

鄂慧媛：10年前，你和你的伙伴一起办起了这家公司，曾引起一些中国媒体的关注。作为一个外国人在中国白手起家是相当不容易的，你为什么做出这样的选择呢？

禹思浪:我们看到了咖啡在北京潜在的巨大市场，所以我们试图抓住这个市场。但是当我们的公司启动后，我们才发现我们彻底错误地估计了北京本地的市场。我们本以为这里对高品质的咖啡有着很大的需求，然而事实却并非如此，所以我们必须比当初所预计的更努力地工作。事实上，当1994年我们的公司刚刚起步时，我们希望将我们的咖啡卖给在北京超过20万的外国人。然而事实表明，这一市场并不以我们认为的那种方式存在，所以，我们不得不在一个更加具有北京地方特色的市场中销售咖啡。

实际上，当我们最初萌生在北京创业的念头时，我们对咖啡了解得并不多。一旦我们决定在中国投资，我就回到美国跟着咖啡焙制师做实习生，我的两个澳大利亚朋友也回到澳大利亚实习。当我们决定当咖啡焙制师后，我们尽全力学习关于咖啡的所有知识。咖啡是一生的体验，所以你永远也不能停止学习。学会焙制咖啡大概需要一个月或两个月的时间，然而焙制出高品质的咖啡却需要很长很长的时间，就像茶一样。

鄂：经过这么多年在中国的奋斗，你认为你最大的成就是什么？对你的工作有些什么特别的想法或感受？

禹思浪：10年以来一直存在于中国的咖啡市场就是我的收获。我们努力工作，并看到了在指导中国消费者享受咖啡方面所取得的丰硕成果，我想这就是我们最大的收获之一。虽然我们的成就不能和某些公司相提并论，譬如雀巢，但当人们对咖啡感兴趣时，我们会告诉他们有关咖啡的知识。我们希望，通过我们的指导，人们对咖啡知道得更多，懂得更多，而且真正学到如何享受咖啡。

令我感触最深的一件事是，当我们的公司在1994年刚刚开始运转时，我们差点儿被饿死。正如我所说的，我们完全错误地估计了北京的咖啡市场，真地以为我们会在6个月内成为富翁，但事实并非如此。所以我们不得不加班加点来发展我们的业务。同时，我们还必须十分有创造性地解决我们在这里所遇到的问题。处理事情的基本原则在世界上所有地方都是相同的，但是在中国，解决问题的方式却与世界其他地方截然不同。为了能够解决这些问题，为了能够对付各种不同的部门，我们不得不同各种公司打交道。10年来，在各种或大或小的公司进入中国市场的情况下，我们这个小规模的企业仍能够维持营业并在咖啡市场中生存下来，这真是令人骄傲。在中国做生意真是一项非常具有挑战性的工作。

鄂：中国人喜欢喝茶，在中国有着历史悠久的茶文化。咖啡是西方人的传统饮料，所以，是不是也有所谓的“咖啡文化”？

禹思浪：茶有2000年的历史，而风靡世界的咖啡也同样历史悠久，它影响了世界上所有的国家，是一种世界性的饮料。咖啡被发现的故事与茶在中国被发现的故事很相似,而关于焙制咖啡豆的发现则有很多异想天开却不切实际的传说。有一个故事是这样的：一位埃塞俄比亚牧羊人吃惊地发现，他的羊在吃了红色的咖啡豆以后变得活蹦乱跳。咖啡文化可以追溯到11世纪，当时咖啡首次从它的原产地埃塞俄比亚出口到阿拉伯半岛。由于穆斯林严禁饮酒，所以这种“伊斯兰之酒”使人精力充沛的功效令波斯人为之着迷。“Coffee”这个单词来自于古阿拉伯语“qahwah”。16世纪上半叶，在世界许多地方咖啡开始扮演一个越来越重要的角色。咖啡是世界范围内消耗量最大的饮料，而茶则是中国消耗量最大的饮料。在中国有许多不同品种的茶，即使你只看看3种不同种类的茶:红茶、绿茶和花茶，你也会发现它们是完全不同的。咖啡也有几种不同的种类,世界上可能有上千种不同品种的咖啡。总之，我想说茶和咖啡有很多相似的地方。

鄂：说到咖啡，也许中国人更了解“雀巢”、“星巴克”等知名品牌。阿罗科咖啡有什么不同之处呢？

禹思浪：雀巢是世界上最大的食品公司；雀巢咖啡是世界性公司，比其他公司都要大。对于我们来说，我想你也看到了，雀巢主要提供速溶咖啡，而我们只从事焙制咖啡。星巴克是咖啡零售商，他们在中国各地，特别是一些大城市开店。我们的重点是批发业务，以高质量的服务向消费者提供美味、高品质的咖啡。

鄂：目前中国大学生的就业压力很大。一些大学毕业生想通过自己创业来解决就业问题，你能给他们提些建议和忠告吗？

禹思浪：去做你真正想做的事情。开始的时候，你可以试着做不同的工作，然后你就会发现有一份工作是最适合你的。选择你喜欢的，这很重要。当然，如果你想自己创业的话，你会面对很多困难。有一件事你必须牢记心中--永远不要放弃。