When I was studying abroad in Beijing during the Fall of 2006, a couple of my fun-loving friends and I were approached by the Peking University HipHop club to join them. Long story short, we ended up starting our own branch of the club… and then actually doing a performance in a club. The semester after I left that branch ended up performing with a Chinese HipHop star during a TV performance.

Here is a short clip from the night at the club, a longer more complete version will follow soon once I get the time to edit it. I’m in the red and white jacket:

Go Beijingrs!

“It takes a certain type of mind to see beauty in a hamburger.” Ray Croc, famous for building McDonald’s into the most successful fast food operation in the world

This all depends on your perspective of course. If you’re American like me, the burger and fries are in, the milk tea is out. If you’re Taiwanese however, like my girlfriend, you might’ve started drooling at the thought of a nice warm glass of milk tea.

She and I were eating a fast food lunch earlier today and we had neglected to purchase anything to drink (alright, so I already had some Coke at home). This led to an interesting conversation about differences of taste, namely, I’ve always wondered why so many Asians in my life love their tea while I feel like most of what I ever taste is lukewarm water. I especially can’t stand barley tea, on my tongue it tastes like dirt.

Talk to an Asian friend however, and they’ll probably tell you that not only are there so many delicious tea flavors, but each one also has some sort of healthy side effect. I think this plays to a fundamental difference between Americans and at least the Chinese in how we choose what we drink: in China and Taiwan they drink to be healthy, here in the States we choose either what we feel is most ‘refreshing’ or simply for the ‘energy’. We don’t even drink to stay hydrated (which really is the whole point), think about all the salt, sugar and caffeine in soda and coffee - all things that actually dehydrate you.

For us, a steaming glass of mildly flavored water is most definitely not refreshing. For the Chinese, drinking cold beverages is bad for your body, while hot liquids are good, especially for women, especially on their periods. You could argue that the Chinese were boiling water to sanitize it anyway, so why not drop in a little flavor? Yet, even when they’re not drinking for the health benefits we can see the dichotomy play out - while studying in Beijing I was often greeted with a glass of lukewarm beer and in Los Angeles I can even order so that the mug comes frozen.

So where did this American preference for icy drinks originate from? It could be from the fact that we fought a revolutionary war against the British, who are avid tea drinkers. It also might stem from our differing views about health, health care and the importance of natural remedies. I am under the impression, however, that like many instances of American tradition and indulgence (think 5 car families), this particular tradition might have its roots in the American highway system. I’ll show you why in 6 steps.

The abridged history goes something like this:

1. Americans come back from WWII with (government) money and buy cars
2. Increasing number of cars jams local roads shared by trains and trolleys (especially in Los Angeles)
3. governments build ever-expanding network of roads and highways to alleviate traffic issues by providing alternate routes to get to destinations without passing through traditional city centers (car culture is born)
4. businesses located at important off-ramps become very profitable as commerce starts to become distributed instead of focused in the city centers
5. the most profitable businesses soon came to be fast food restaurants like McDonalds and Carls Jr. who soon transformed into fast food chains who could quickly satiate their travelling patrons
6. the partners of these fast food chains were big soda companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi who liked to serve their drinks on ice

And thusly, the inseparable link between America, cars, freedom, fast food and icy cold refreshing beverages was born. So why didn’t this happen in Taiwan and China? It might still happen, but probably in a different manner. Neither China or Taiwan quite has the roadway system of the United States, nor the car culture. And while they both have an abundance of fast food restaurants, they don’t have the variety or distribution of burger joints we enjoy here in the States - not to mention there’s no such thing as a free refill over there.

Which brings us back to the conversation with my girlfriend over a hamburger and french fries. Since we’ve been together we’ve started to adjust to each other’s habits and preferences, so occasionally I’ll share some tea with her and occasionally she’ll drink some soda. Obviously, tastes can change, but how can we analyze this from a marketing perspective?

At first blush, it would seem that ‘energy’ teas would be logical choice here in the States, and indeed if you go to a 7-11 these days you’ll find all kinds of so-called teas with ginseng and taurine and all kinds of metabolic pick-me-ups that are gaining in popularity. Conversely, in China, soda companies might be well off marketing versions of their product lines with specific health benefits - a quick google search dug up an ACNeilson report which stated:

“Taiwanese consumers prefer functional drinks than foods. Taiwanese regular buyers of healthy drinks ranks top 3 of the surveyed drink types. However, 52% consumers don’t like the taste of ‘Yoghurts with Acidophilus cultures / probiotics’.”

Beat yogurt in a taste test? Coca-Cola seems up to the challenge and it would be nice if those fast food drinks had a little more nutritional value to them. Let’s see, I’ll have a #11, with a Tazo-Monster Green Tea blend… no ice.