Page 68 - #62 eng e-mag

c Opinion
CBN Weekly and Sohu. He is not
the best in acting, nor the best
in singing, but he is the most
exposed and popular idol,
proved by the numerous invita-
tions to become the brand am-
bassador including the global
luxury brand Louis Vuitton.
This has, from one aspect, il-
lustrated how businesses be-
coming more and more aware of
the profit they could generate
through utilising the power of
fan economy.
Nonetheless, a notable
feature of the term “fan econo-
my” is that the soil for its
growth is mainly based in Ori-
ental countries, such as Japan,
Korea, and China. Different
culture and different mind set
have resulted in different ways
of interaction between idols and
fans. While “fan economy” is
still a rather unfamiliar term in
the western culture, the FT
Chinese website has published
an article to discuss China’s
emerging fan economy back in
the beginning of 2007.
Idols in Coffee
It is debatable if the same
concept could be applied in the
coffee industry. Even though
baristas as a group does have
the potential to be idolised, it
seems that the definition of
idol in the specialty coffee in-
dustry is slightly different.
Coffee people, including the
marketing director and co-
owner of high end green bean
trader, the Grand Cru Coffee;
Owner of Coffee Tags in Bei-
jing; and Owner of Metal Hands
Cafe; when asked “if you think
there are idol baristas, who
they will be”, while a large
amount of the response was “I
don’t have one”, the most men-
tioned three idol baristas that
are below.
1.
James Hoffmann
Co-founder of Square Mile Roasters,
author of the World Atlas of Coffee,
2007 WBC champion. The three
personal achievements in coffee that
James owns established his reputa-
tion in the coffee industry.
2.
Scott Rao
Owner of many coffee related busi-
nesses, author of a few books including
The Professional Barista’s Handbook
which is hailed as the bible for baristas,
consultant for coffee businesses glob-
ally. By introducing scientific and sys-
tematic guidelines for baristas, Rao’s
contribution to the bursting growth of
specialty coffee is beyond words.
3.
Jeremy Zhang
Owner of Uni Uni Coffee Shop and
M2M Roaster, CBC champion in 2014
and 2016, ranked 8th in WBC 2017,
which was the highest rank in his-
tory for Chinese baristas. Jeremy is
seen by many Chinese baristas as the
person to take China specialty coffee
to the world.
These three coffee experts are all highly recognized and respected
within the industry, they are worshipped across regions and people. However,
when it comes to the mass public where specialty coffee is a niche, their names
disappear in the crowd. Therefore, generally speaking, they should not be
crowned as an idol for the strictly limited pool of audience.
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