Another example of a successful Western product exported to China. Coffee appears to be there to stay.

Is the development of China's coffee culture motivated by a desire to embrace all things Western, or is it a culture that the Chinese have adopted from outside but made their own?

The speed at which Chinese took to coffee is demonstrated by the 90 percent increase in total volume sales in China between 1998 and 2003, when it reached 6,504.5 tons. Demand for coffee more than doubled between 2001 and 2006 and is currently estimated to be growing by 10 percent a year, according to the International Coffee Organization (ICO). Many industry leaders credit the birth of Chinese coffee culture to Nestl's intensive marketing of its Nescaf brand when it pioneered the market in the mid-1980s. Then, the company introduced Chinese to soluble, or instant coffee, which today accounts for about 90 percent of retail sales, according to the ICO.