Altitude differences and ethnic cleavages

At first glance, Yunnan province in southern China and Dak Lak province in Vietnam appear to have little in common. Nevertheless, the axis connecting these two provinces on the map (Figure 1) shows a continuum between the Himalayan foothills of Baoshan, situated at around 2000 m altitude, and the highlands of Buon Ma Thuot that dominate the South China Sea at an altitude of only 500 m. The different altitudes can be combined with their latitude: Buon Ma Thuot is quite close to the equator, whereas Pu'er is just above the Tropic of Cancer. Between Baoshan and Buon Ma Thuot, the Laotian coffee capital of Paksong and the provinces of Luang Phrabang and Son La act as intermediate places between these two extremes. The coffee cultivated here ranges from Arabica (and its varieties of Catimor, Bourbon, and Typica, to cite only the most famous) to Robusta. As Arabica prefers cooler temperatures, it grows in higher altitude zones, whereas Robusta, resistant in hot and humid climates, prospers in lower altitudes. For this reason, there is a gradient between the poles of the axis shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Altitudinal cross-section showing Baoshan and Buon Ma Thuot within the zomia.

The “zomia” zoning represented here is per James C. Scott (Reference Scott2013).

The altitudinal gradient is also sociocultural. Indeed, sociolinguistic groups categorised as minorities populate the mountainous zones of mainland Southeast Asia. In essence, these populations were progressively pushed back into the mountainous areas as pre- and post-colonial powers expanded their influence (Gainsborough Reference Gainsborough2009). Peoples of great ethnolinguistic diversity inhabit the mountains of this part of Southeast Asia, located along the axis shown in Figure 1, contrary to the plains, where the current political majority corresponds to the numerical majority. In 2010, minorities represented around 30% of the population in Yunnan and Tây Nguyen (UNFPA Reference Weiyi and Hong2011).

Through the notion of ‘zomia,’ James C. Scott analyses these foothills’ social dynamics and political contexts (Scott Reference Scott2013), from the Chinese Himalayan foothills to the provinces of Ratanakiri. The mountain range's name highlights its populations’ autonomy concerning their singularity and diversity. The zomia also recalls the specific status of these territories, which contested the central state's establishment. The local populations’ resistance to national political authorities is a striking feature of Scott's analysis. The zomia goes beyond purely state-centric approaches by splitting the analysis into multiple singularities in China and Vietnam. In both countries, colonial and national powers attempted to restrict the territories’ cultural and social diversity, often in an illusory manner, by ethnogenesis through forced acculturation (Michaud Reference Michaud2000). Moreover, these populations, which are culturally distinct from the majority groups, were the first to come into direct contact with coffee.

Routes of the establishment of plants

Coffee first arrived in Asia in the seventeenth century via the Ottomans in South India and Muslim traders in Sri Lanka (Tucker Reference Tucker2011). In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Western trading settlements and colonialism led to the introduction of coffee cultivation elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The Spanish in the Philippines, the Dutch in Java and then Malabar (India), the Portuguese in Timor, the French in Indochina, and the British in Myanmar and Thailand were the main vectors of coffee's expansion from its original Ethiopian source (Gervase Reference Gervase and Stephen2003; Gunder Franck Reference Gunder Frank1998; Reid Reference Reid and Reid1997).

Historical documents regarding the arrival of coffee in Vietnam point to its introduction from varieties found in present-day Indonesia, which French settlers then imported to Cochinchine, in 1857 (Fortunel Reference Fortunel2000). Therefore, the coffee in Vietnam is essentially the Robusta type of Southeast Asian origin, which today represents 97% of the nation's production. The remainder of production – Arabica – became established in the north of the country. In contrast, the cultivation of Arabica (Catimor) is much more widespread in nearby China, where the proportion of Robusta is the opposite of its Vietnamese neighbour. Aside from Taiwan in 1884 and Hainan in 1898, Yunnan's first coffee plants came from the district of Ruili in Myanmar in the first decade of the twentieth century before spreading around Dehong. Recent research successfully located the first coffee plantation in the province, established by a Frenchman in 1895 in the district of Pu'er (Lancang), where the local population still remembers the “old foreigner” (Chen Reference Chen2016). It is unknown whether he was the same French missionary who introduced coffee plants in 1902, according to Fu Jia (Reference Jia, Jonathan and Morgen2015). What is certain is that, whether via Myanmar or Vietnam, coffee plants in China logically spread from the south to the north, and their diffusion from one country to another possibly links to the railways that the two colonial powers built. The Hanoi-Kunming rail route potentially circulated Arabica coffee at the time from North Vietnam to this southern part of China. However, to our knowledge, academic studies on the subject have not yet confirmed this seductive hypothesis (Chang Reference Chang1942; Hulot Reference Hulot1990).

Coffee: A means of territorial appropriation by the state

Many state farms emerged in Yunnan from 1950 to 1970 and in Dak Lak from 1975 to 1985. They became the emblem of the new socialist social and economic game undertaken on a large scale on pioneer fronts (De Koninck Reference De Koninck1996; Duan Reference Duan2015). Following the model of border zones, state farms functioned in China and Vietnam as a twofold unit of agricultural and political production, serving as a material marker of a national political policy. Vietnam, more than China, used coffee as one of the main tools for this territorial affirmation.

At the height of Vietnamese collectivisation, Dak Lak founded over thirty state farms for coffee cultivation (Fortunel Reference Fortunel2003). In Yunnan, the first state farms, notably in the sensitive border area of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, date from 1955 (Donnithorne Reference Donnithorne2013: 110). At that time, forty Chinese state farms employed 290,000 workers (Duan Reference Duan2015) and cultivated primarily rubber and, secondarily, coffee. In the Dehong region, Carin (Reference Carin1962: 109) reported the plantation of 20,000 coffee plants and some projects with up to 600,000 plants; other unreliable sources estimate a total production area ranging from 1500 ha (Stessels Reference Stessels1986) to 3,600 ha (with 60% concentrated in the Dehong and Baoshan areas) in the 1960s (Chen Reference Chen2016).

In Vietnam after 1975, the popularity of the coffee plant took off with the massive arrival of migrants from the north following the petition of the central state with the avowed aim of socialising the zomia populations. Farms that became poles of excellence in coffee production employed them, and economic activity spread out towards the provincial borders (Hardy Reference Hardy2003). Beyond these farms, the migrants who spontaneously arrived around 1985 continued to expand the coffee plantations, which today occupy more than 300,000 ha in the entire Tây Nguyen province.

This migration strategy follows the Chinese model and philosophy. Mao helped make Yunnan a limes with hundreds of thousands of displaced young people in the service of the communist regime (Carin Reference Carin1962; Duan Reference Duan2015; Sturgeon Reference Sturgeon2013). In Yunnan, as elsewhere in China, the migration policy of “up to the mountains, down to the countryside” that existed from the mid-1950s until the mid-1970s drove this project (Bernstein Reference Bernstein1977; Weiyi, Reference Weiyi and Hongn.d.). Urban migrants established new agricultural land in Yunnan and worked in state farms, and those who decided to stay there attest to the movement's vigour. In Baoshan, people explain that “the priority was given to feeding people; coffee only came later” (fieldwork, 2018). In 1975, a quarter of the 400,000 urban youths sent to Yunnan were still on the farms (Bernstein Reference Bernstein1977). The remains of the former coffee plantations in the district of Dehong, which later became private companies, attest to this patriotic movement.

A colonial invention

The colonial history of introducing the coffee plant is closely linked to its consumption but in separate territories. In China and Vietnam, the culture of coffee consumption was initially limited to Western colonialists. Shanghai and Saigon recreated Europe's material and symbolic metropolitan landscapes in cafés (Peters Reference Peters2014). In both cities at the end of the nineteenth century, Westerners introduced this urban form of consumption while reserving tea for the rest of the native population. Thus, coffee became a means to distinguish the native inhabitants from the colonialists and, later, the Americans. Through acculturation, social distinction aroused a taste for the beverage among the Vietnamese upper class (Tanetsakulwatana Reference Tanetsakulwatana2009). However, the increasing popularity of Western tastes from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century rendered coffee as common a beverage as tea. The popular urban culture of masculine sociability, epitomised by men consuming coffee in cafés, is a striking feature in Vietnam: in the early 1900s, outside observers noted that even the modest local populations were milk coffee adepts (Ferreira and Ferreira, Reference Ferreira and Carlos2018; Peters Reference Peters2011).

Notably, in China, the relationship with foreigners was much more fleeting. The foreign enclaves in Shanghai from 1842 to 1945 were centres of interaction between Chinese and Western cultures (Shuo Win Reference Chen2016). Coffee entered China between 1796 and 1820, while the first café that Westerners frequented and managed did not open in Shanghai until 1886 (Chen Reference Chen2016; Wang Reference Wang and Felton2019). As a sign of the relatively high consumption of the beverage, the first Chinese coffee processing factory opened in Shanghai in 1935. As a place of culture and entertainment, the café heightened the attraction of the “Paris of the Orient,” the name given to the French concession at the time. Let us not forget that these foreign concessions also recruited Chinese coolies to work in colonial plantations throughout the empire and especially in the Vietnamese coffee plantations of Buon Ma Thuot (Fortunel Reference Fortunel2000).

The end of socialist agricultural experiments and the revival of coffee

In Vietnam and China, the enthusiasm for coffee plantations ended in failure in the late 1970s. Three common factors contributed to this situation.

Firstly, the geopolitical contexts were hostile to the development of coffee cultivation. The deterioration of diplomatic relations with the Soviet bloc and the American embargo limited China's trade until the mid-1970s. In Vietnam, the open war between its North and South territories decimated its agricultural production (from 25,000 ha in 1964 to only 7000 ha in 1971). Therefore, export markets dried up completely.

Secondly, changing agricultural policies favouring subsistence crops limited the interest in this stimulant plant, which found an insufficient local market in both countries. In China, Pu'er tea's anteriority and renown further limited the introduction of coffee in the region.

Thirdly, workers’ skills did not match people's perceptions of the plant or management capacities. China felt the effects of the Cultural Revolution throughout, viewing coffee as a “capitalist” product and thus detestable (Chen Reference Chen2016: 230; fieldwork 2018). Subsequently, cafés vanished from fields and cities alike (Wang Reference Wang and Felton2019). Vietnam's population highly regarded and appreciated coffee but lacked the necessary technical skills to cultivate it. As a result, multiple large-scale attempts at coffee production did not come to fruition, and agricultural engineers from the Red River Delta failed to find the appropriate techniques.

These factors demonstrate that in 1978, both countries had low levels of cultivated land surfaces. In Vietnam, the ravages of war were still evident, whereas China was beginning to open its doors to foreign countries. As the junction between points A and B in Figure 2 shows (FAO 2015), each had almost 8,000 ha of coffee production. If both countries were set at a base of 100 today, Vietnam would be 7659 and China 495!

Figure 2.

Evolution of land surfaces planted with coffee in Vietnam and China from 1961 to 2020.

The comparison is somewhat unflattering for China, as its surface scale is ten times smaller than its southern neighbour. Note the distinct temporal profiles in the two areas of coffee cultivation. Until the mid-1970s, both countries had small cultivation areas, mainly inherited from the former Vietnamese colonial plantations and the first Chinese state farms (A). Vietnam began to stand out in the 1990s following the country's economic reforms, whereas China had to wait until the 2000s to initiate a growth cycle (B). The final period (C) corresponds to the dynamics of the Vietnamese pioneer front, which peaked only recently. In parallel, mainland China's traditional production basins have densified and expanded. We should mention our strong concerns about the Chinese data in periods A and B, particularly in the 1980s. Indeed, when comparing surface and yield, an inconsistency emerges: the surfaces increase substantially, but production does not follow the same trend. We can assume that the statistics reflected the plans on paper more than reality or that plantations rapidly failed. Sources: FAO, AgriStat, 2021.

Thus, the 1980s initiated a new period when China's and Vietnam's production crossed paths. While the latter followed a steep upward curve, the former oscillated between growth and decline (-Figure 2). In reality, however, the sector stagnated due to difficulties finding new collaborations.

The (re)naissance of consumption

China's and Vietnam's consumption during the late 1970s and 1980s began a new era of modernising green coffee processing and developing a consumption culture. People no longer viewed coffee as the beverage of colonialists but of urbanised tea drinkers. Freeze-dried coffee – invented in 1881 but industrialised by Nestlé in the 1930s – was ideal for providing the product to consumers after the Second World War. On the outskirts of Hô Chi Minh City, a Frenchman opened the first soluble coffee factory in 1968 that was ready for the local market ten years later. By 1985, Vinacafé conquered the domestic market, filling supermarket aisles with three-in-one instant coffee.Footnote ² This new era of soluble coffee to be consumed at home complemented the traditional “phin”Footnote ³ coffee, which remained the preferred urban experience. Various coffee preparations were available, each with a specific social setting. Whether on a folding table in an alleyway or on the streets of Hanoi, Buon Ma Thuot, or even small rural towns, it was not uncommon to encounter different forms of coffee consumption. For example, a blend of coffee, egg, concentrated milk, and ice created an original local cultural blend (Featherstone Reference Featherstone2016).

China witnessed a double dynamic in the 1970s: the acceleration of consumption and the establishment of soluble coffee processing factories due to foreign influences. Even though China had imported Brazilian coffee (around 100,000 bags) since 1957, this relationship changed with the re-establishment of diplomatic relations in 1974. From the early 1970s until the mid-1980s, the state called on Brazilian and Colombian companies to set up soluble coffee production units, notably in Shanghai (Café, cacao, thé 1972, 1984), to process grains imported from Africa and South America (Café, cacao, thé 1973, 1984). The birth of the Chinese coffee industry took place via a joint venture with a Brazilian company to package and commercialise soluble coffee, with Chinese supermarkets featuring Brazilian “cacique” from 1985 (Café, cacao, thé 1985). Chinese soluble coffee also gained in popularity: in 1988, it inaugurated the first soluble coffee production unit in Hainan (Chen Reference Chen2016).

Meanwhile, eight years after its arrival in Guangdong, Nestlé established the first of twenty-one factories in the country (Fu Jia Reference Jia, Jonathan and Morgen2015). In 1988, Shanghai alone consumed 500 tonnes of coffee. The soluble market grew rapidly in China. By the late 1980s, Maxell House, Nestlé, and Lishen shared the domestic market for 3-in-1 instant coffee. Nestlé's marketing strategy in the early 1990s commercialised its instant coffee and contributed to its enormous popularity (Allen Reference Allen2009). Nescafé gained commercial success in China by presenting itself as a luxury object. Its red box, containing a golden spoon, two mugs, Coffee-Mate creamer, and a jar of soluble coffee, made – and continues to make –Nescafé prosperous in China. Moreover, it now accounts for three-quarters of the market. Wei recounts how coffee became fashionable in the mid-1990s thanks to well-orchestrated publicity campaigns, and Nescafé instilled its name and drink in urban consumers’ minds (He Reference He2021; Wei Reference Wei2018;) while democratising a mostly-imported product previously deemed too expensive.

The colonial legacy and the political struggle for territorial control meant coffee cultivation in Vietnam and China developed under external influences. Coffee as a foreign product was at the service of foreign projects and symbolised neither the local populations’ identity constructions nor their collective projects. As a result, the quality of coffee reflected that of the Western powers. Beyond the so-called vacant land it occupied, coffee was a material symbol, embodying the world powers of the time. The commercial ships transporting it from Ethiopia and the cups of colonial enclaves brought to light how coffee represented the domination of empires. The coolies recruited in Chinese ports to cultivate the plantations and the minorities expelled from their lands symbolise just one of the production system's many facets.

In contrast, the terraces of urban cafés highlighted the cheerful façade of consumption. Both production and consumption were hierarchical, reproducing the existing dominations and replicating social and spatial characteristics. Colonial-era coffee production exemplified domination, while drinking coffee illustrated distinction and social superiority.

China and coffee: Three prefectures and two systems

In China, 1981 represents year zero in coffee production in Yunnan, with statistics indicating a harvest of only 43 ha. In 1986, of the 39 state farms in Yunnan, 27 produced coffee (Stessels Reference Stessels1986), but on tiny surfaces. The values then increase rapidly since the same author indicates that the harvested surfaces in 1984 covered 1,500 ha in Yunnan (Stessels Reference Stessels1986), including zero output in Pu'er (Pu'er local government Reference Government2015). Hainan maintained another 1500 ha (Muller Reference Muller1996).

The late 1980s represented a strategic period on several levels. Globally, the system of coffee quotas ended, providing opportunities for new low-cost actors like China and Vietnam to enter the market. Nationally, the Chinese authorities initiated reforms that had positive effects. From the “open up to the West” policy (Goodman Reference Goodman2004) to the “Bridgehead” policy of the 2000s, coffee cultivation profited from a buoyant environment by setting new records. Between 1990 and 2000, China doubled its coffee production (from 6,000 to 12,000 tonnes) and then multiplied this figure by ten just fourteen years later (118,000 tonnes; FAO 2015).

Spatially, one may divide Yunnan's production system into two distinct types. Firstly, the production areas of Dehong and Pu'er are structured around large companies that bring together local producers, often for their benefit (- Figure 3). Such is the case with the Chinese company Hogood and the Swiss company Nestlé, which arrived in the first half of the 1990s. Both companies have similar territorial and commercial strategies (a production basin regrouping most of their resources and a multisector position ranging from freeze-dried to premium coffee). However, they diverge substantially in their internal organisation. Hogood has a complete production monopoly, while Nestlé shares its network of producers via an open market with competitors. Despite being competitors in the national market, the companies have vastly different impacts. Nescafé represents 72% of the market share of coffee (mainly instant coffee) compared to less than 3% for Hogood (Nan Reference Nan2014; Neilson Reference Neilson and Wang2019).

Figure 3.

Two basins of coffee production in Yunnan: Pu'er and Baoshan-Dehong in 2017.

The importance of the Pu'er production basin for Nestlé is evident, while Dehong and Baoshan are secondary places of production.

Secondly, the prefecture of Baoshan, on the margins of the two main production basins of Dehong and Pu'er, is distinctive for its geography and structure. Unlike in Pu'er, the absence of a major industry in Baoshan contributes to its harmonious and integrated ecosystem.Footnote ⁴ Coffee spread throughout the area at the village level, where small harvesting and processing companies developed with varying degrees of success to ensure the sale of local coffee brands. Baoshan coffee also partly contributes to Starbucks and Nestlé's harvesting networks sold for export or on social media networks in coastal cities (Galtier and Jacquet Reference Galtier and Jacquet2011).

Vietnamese coffee and the expansion of the “limitless” pioneer front

Significant differences characterise the organisation of coffee cultivation in Vietnam and China, and not only because of their different sizes. Unlike China, the construction of Vietnam's coffee production zones is in continuity with the past without any major ruptures, with a specific organisation now managing the sector from the national capital. The state farms later transformed into private companies that invest, harvest, and export on a massive scale. These companies feed into the networks of independent producers and traders who travel throughout the country searching for a few kilograms of coffee to sell on the market. Overall, 88% of green coffee is transported to Ho Chi Minh City for export (versus 62% for China in 2019).

Coffee cultivation gradually spread throughout every province in Tây Nguyen (Figure 4) and developed its production basin within the territory's history of political and social construction. The pattern is always identical: private companies locate themselves at the centre, with myriad farmers gravitating around them. The province of Dak Lak undoubtedly lies at the core of the national coffee policy, as it represented 90% of the national coffee production in 2019 and houses the only coffee research institute in the southern part of the country. The provinces of Gia Lai and Kon Tum, which are agriculturally more diverse, extend the main coffee production basin.

Figure 4.

Coffee production basin in the Tây Nguyen in 2017.

The province of Dak Lak regroups 90% of the national coffee production. Dak Nong and Lam Dong are extensions of this main basin. The first Vietnamese geographical indication appeared in Dak Lak, with a desire to protect the territory's coffee on the international market, unlike in other localities primarily oriented towards the domestic consumption of speciality coffee.

Moving southwards, the province of Lam Dong is unique. In some respects, it resembles the coffee cultivation in the north of the country: Arabica is more common, allowing differentiation strategies, notably concerning coffee specialities.Footnote ⁵ The entire production basin corresponded to 571,000 ha in 2011. Such is the paradox with Vietnam: as the second global producer of coffee driven by low-cost Robusta cultivation, the country has focussed on the volume produced and the expansion of cultivated areas without considering associated environmental issues and its products’ value enhancement. In many ways, the construction of quality is not even a subject of consideration.

Constructing a collective destiny around the identity of coffee

The commercial logos and labels that private companies developed exist in both countries: UTZ, Rainforest Alliance, and Fairtrade (Nguyen and Sarker Reference Nguyen and Sarker2018; Rainforest alliance Reference Rainforest2021). Additionally, Nestlé and Starbucks use the labels 4CFootnote ⁶ and C.A.F.E., respectively.Footnote ⁷ The broad and consensual eligibility criteria to obtain these labels sufficiently encompass diverse realities on the ground. Moreover, they satisfy most social demands relating to ethics (i.e., a fair economic return for farmers), respect for the environment, and grain quality control. Independent bodies certify the specifications without endorsements from public authorities. This certification method has been quite successful with consumers, who secure product traceability and guaranteed standards, with producers who benefit from (admittedly unsystematic) training, monitoring, and somewhat high prices, and with the brands that position themselves as indispensable intermediaries concerned about their products.

The territorial definition of quality as a form of professional recognition

Geographical indications – inspired by the French IGP (indication géographique protegée) and now recognised in European law – are certification programmes that the World Trade Organisation adopted in 2005 within the framework of intellectual property agreements that public authorities administer (Rastoin Reference Rastoin, Augustin-Jean, Ilbert and Saavedra-Rivano2012). The number of geographical indications relating to coffee around the world currently stands at 129, with 42% in Asia. Most are in Indonesia (31), followed by Thailand (7) and, secondarily, China (5), Vietnam (4), Laos (1), and Malaysia (1) (Origin-gi 2021). These indications must first enter a national register before they achieve international registration (Figure 3 and 4). The two most emblematic geographical indications – Buon Ma Thuot (recognised nationally in 2005) and Baoshan (2005) – encounter the same problem: neither consumers nor producers appreciate their value. Consumers more easily identify large companies’ brands in retail outlets, bolstered by major publicity campaigns, while geographical indications benefit from only small promotional budgets. For producers, public authorities weakly support geographical indications given the absence of organised collective efforts to increase the products’ financial value. According to the Prefectural Bureau of Agriculture, Baoshan's geographical indication was a self-promotional strategy responding to provincial demands to add value to a sector competing against the Prefecture of Pu'er for the title of “coffee capital” in Yunnan (fieldwork 2018). Baoshan has a long history of coffee: in the 1950s, its coffee won a prize in London that the area still stresses today to illustrate its longstanding tradition of local coffee (Etherington Reference Etherington and Keith1993). Indeed, Baoshan's Arabica coffee has had a geographical indication since 2005, whereas Pu'er did not obtain its label until 2020 before receiving state protection in 2021. The Prefectural Bureau of Agriculture in Baoshan's objective as the co-manager of the geographical indicationFootnote ⁸ was, in its words, to “standardise technical approaches, increase production, and create local employment.” This modernising vision is also evident in Vietnam and Indonesia (Durand and Fournier Reference Durand and Fournier2017; Pick Reference Pick, Marie-Vivien, Kim, Calboli and Ng-Loy2017), where coffee with a protected geographical indication is mainly destined for domestic markets (Hoang and Nguyen Reference Hoang, An, Arfini and Bellassen2019). Beyond the primary purpose of formalising and modernising technical approaches, these two geographical indications are essentially marketing tools targeting the national public and instruments for international protection, as in the case of Buôn Ma Thuot's geographical indication when it appeared in China (People Army Newspaper 2011).

Our fieldwork in both countries confirms that marketing is fundamental to territorial constructions of quality. Their collective constructions of quality are inadequate because Chinese and Vietnamese coffee is essentially an export product destined for Europe and North America. Between the territory's brand and the distributor/roaster's brand, the latter usually predominates, given its proximity to the end consumer. Thus, the Chinese Shangri-La and the ethnic minorities of the Vietnamese highlands are much more evocative than the names of their respective cities. Significantly, territorial perceptions of the product explain why Westerners did not develop an image of Asia as a coffee producer, contrary to South America.

Consequently, increasing the value of these territories in foreign markets is challenging if their differentiating features are unimportant: such is the paradox of coffee (Ponte and Daviron Reference Ponte and Daviron2007). For example, as Vietnamese Robusta coffee generally features in low-cost blends, there is little value in promoting its territorialisation to Westerners. However, doing so would help decommodify the product while supporting its sustainability (Galtier et al. Reference Galtier, Giovanni and Andrea2013). China promotes organoleptically superior Arabica internationally through global distribution channels such as Starbucks.