Coffee anyone?

Coffee shops are springing up all over China. Unlike tea, coffee is not grown in China, so it's luxury. Coffee is Western and considered trendy; it is marketed as "the drink of achievers." The Chinese drink coffee in tiny cups with delicate handles. They take their tea straight, but coffee they lace with cream, and they dump in lots of sugar, stirring with tiny spoons. The beverage tastes like candy.

There is a pretty coffee shop on the first floor of the foreign teachers' residence (above). Often, when students stop by to see me, I invite them to have tea or coffee. They always choose coffee, which they profess to like. As we talk, my students smell coffee; they stir the coffee; and they cup their hands around the delicate coffee cups. Seldom however, do they actually drink the coffee.