珍珠奶茶热潮:中国茶饮品牌想以星巴克式的方式征服美国 外刊|30
Boba boom：China’s tea brands want to conquer America, Starbucks-style
A major competition is brewing
【1】
BACK IN CHINA Emily Chang’s job was to promote Starbucks. “We were nurturing coffee culture in a country that knows centuries of tea,” says the former chief marketing officer of the American firm in the People’s Republic. Now Ms Chang works for Chagee, a tea chain little known outside China, and is doing the opposite. Her task is to champion the Chinese brand and tea-drinking habit in coffee-centric America (and to resist a tendency to mispronounce Chagee—the letter g is soft).
早在中国国内时，张蔚的工作是推广星巴克。这位美国企业在华前首席营销官表示：“我们曾在一个拥有数千年茶文化的国度培育咖啡文化。”如今，她就职于霸王茶姬——一个在中国境外知名度尚低的茶饮连锁品牌，做着截然相反的事。她的任务，是在以咖啡为主流的美国市场推广这个中国品牌以及饮茶习惯（同时还要纠正大家读错Chagee的习惯，字母g发音轻柔）。
【2】
Last year the chain became one of the many firms trying to gain a foothold in America. Their outlets offer bubble tea, fruit tea and fresh Chinese tea, sometimes capped with milky foam. The Chinese newcomers are taking on the long-established competition from Taiwan which helped spread the word “boba” in the first place. (It was originally a Chinese slang term meaning “busty”, as a synonym in English for bubble tea with its pearl-sized balls made of tapioca starch.) In America the coffee market is 28 times bigger than that of freshly made tea, reckons Huachuang Securities, a brokerage. This, it says, theoretically creates “vast substitution potential”.
去年，该品牌成为众多试图打入美国市场的企业之一。门店提供珍珠奶茶、果茶以及中国原叶鲜茶，部分饮品顶部覆有奶沫。这批新晋中国大陆品牌，正与老牌中国台湾茶饮品牌展开竞争，而“boba”这个词最早就是由台湾品牌推广开来。（boba原本是中文俚语，本义指丰满，英文里用来指代木薯淀粉制成珍珠颗粒的珍珠奶茶。）华创证券估算，美国咖啡市场规模是现制茶饮市场的28倍。报告称，理论上这意味着茶饮行业拥有巨大的替代潜力。
【3】
The Chinese firms’ presence is still small. HeyTea, an upmarket brand, has led the way, opening more than 40 American shops since 2023. Just nine of Chagee’s 7,500-odd global outlets are in the States. Mixue, a giant bubble-tea and ice-cream seller, is the world’s largest food-and-beverage chain. But just five of its 60,000 outlets are in America. by comparison, Gong Cha, a Taiwanese brand, runs 2,200 outlets globally and more than 240 in America; Coco, another chain from Taiwan, has more than 5,000 franchises globally and dozens in America. The Chinese contingent wants to overtake them.
中国大陆茶饮品牌在美国的布局规模仍然很小。高端品牌喜茶走在前列，自2023年起在美国开设了40多家门店。霸王茶姬全球7500余家门店里，仅有9家位于美国。蜜雪冰城，这家大型珍珠奶茶与冰淇淋零售商，是全球规模最大的餐饮连锁品牌，但其6万家门店中，仅5家在美国。相比之下，台湾品牌贡茶在全球拥有2200家门店，其中美国240多家；另一台湾品牌都可，全球超5000家加盟店，美国也有数十家门店。这批中国大陆茶饮品牌希望能够超越它们。
【4】
Partly this is because there is too much bubble tea brewing at home. The firms making it in China are eager to find new customers abroad, says Tom Chen of Kepler Mission Design, an American marketing agency. Some American customers see their fare, which includes low-sugar options, as healthier than dessert. “Sometimes I’m like I can’t eat ice cream right now. But I can go get myself a boba, that’s not so bad!” says Isabella Destio in New York’s Midtown. “They’re way better to have in the afternoon than coffee. They don’t give you the caffeine crash.” Down the street, Eric Li walks out of a bustling branch of Mixue, where Spring oolong Milk Tea sells for $3.99. As a Chinese-American, he says he’s happy to see many non-Chinese enjoying his culture. “There’s some tension right now, internationally, but it’s good that everyone can get together over a drink,” he says.
一部分原因在于国内茶饮市场竞争已经白热化。美国营销机构开普勒任务设计的汤姆·陈表示，国内茶饮企业迫切想要在海外挖掘新客群。一些美国消费者认为，这些提供低糖选项的茶饮，相比甜点更加健康。纽约中城的伊莎贝拉·德斯蒂奥说：“有时候我告诉自己不能吃冰淇淋，但我可以买一杯boba，好像也不错！”“下午喝奶茶远比喝咖啡舒服，不会出现咖啡因后劲乏力的情况。”街道另一边，华裔美国人埃里克·李从热闹的蜜雪冰城门店走出，店里春日乌龙奶茶售价3.99美元。他表示，看到很多非华裔人群感受中国文化十分欣慰：“当下国际局势存在一些紧张，但一杯饮品可以把所有人联结在一起，这是一件好事。”
二、雅思金句摘抄（写作可用）
1. Their task is to champion the Chinese brand and tea-drinking habit in coffee-centric America.
他们的任务是在以咖啡为核心的美国推广中国品牌与饮茶习惯。
写作适用：文化输出、品牌出海话题
2. Theoretically this creates vast substitution potential.
理论而言，这创造了巨大的替代潜力。
写作适用：市场、商业经济类大作文
3. The Chinese firms are eager to find new customers abroad amid fierce domestic competition.
在激烈的国内竞争之下，中国企业迫切出海寻找新客户。
写作适用：全球化、国际贸易话题
4. Everyone can get together over a drink, bridging cultural gaps.
一杯饮品就能让人们相聚，弥合文化隔阂。
写作适用：文化交流、多元文化话题
