How does this fit the history of coffee in China?
Blue Bottle Coffee opened its first official airport store worldwide on January 11 at Terminal 2 of Shanghai Pudong Airport, near Gate D75 in the international departure area. The small, seat-free shop focuses on takeout, adds mobile ordering, and introduces vending machines in mainland China for the first time, selling instant espresso coffee and classic coffee beans.
The location was previously a Starbucks, and some customers objected online. Blue Bottle now runs six stores in Shanghai and appears elsewhere in China only as pop-ups. The airport move fits the brand's habit of choosing distinctive sites and reflects how specialty coffee retail keeps expanding into travel hubs. Coffee's wider history in China stretches back centuries before this opening, raising the question of when was coffee introduced to China.
Blue Bottle Coffee has always been known for its distinctive choice of locations, favoring old buildings with stories and integrating urban culture into its store designs. This time, however, the brand has turned its attention to the airport — its first official airport store worldwide opened on January 11 at Terminal 2 of Shanghai Pudong Airport. The store has no seating, focuses on takeout, and for the first time in mainland China, it has introduced vending machines. However, the new store is located exactly where a Starbucks used to be, prompting some netizens to cry out, "Give us back our Starbucks." Currently, Blue Bottle has 6 stores in Shanghai, while in other cities it still appears only in pop-up form.
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Friends familiar with Blue Bottle Coffee know that this brand has always taken an unconventional approach to store expansion, often avoiding bustling commercial districts and instead favoring old buildings with a sense of history. Each store's decor is also tailored to its city, incorporating local culture and character to create a unique brand experience. But recently, Blue Bottle has actually opened a "station" inside an airport.
On January 5, Blue Bottle Coffee announced on its official WeChat account that the brand had once again collaborated with Neri&Hu Design and Research Office to create its first official airport store worldwide, which officially opened on January 11 near Gate D75 in the international, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan departure area of Terminal 2 at Shanghai Pudong Airport.
Unlike other Blue Bottle branches, this airport store is small, with no seating inside, and coffee is mainly sold for takeaway. The store has also launched an online mobile ordering and self-pickup function, allowing customers to place orders in advance through the Blue Bottle Coffee mini-program.
On the large, minimalist white curved structure is painted the iconic blue bottle logo. Inside, there is only a curved bar counter and two vending machines, used to supply Blue Bottle's previously launched instant (espresso) coffee and classic coffee beans. This is also the first time Blue Bottle Coffee has introduced vending machines at a store in mainland China.
On the day the new store opened, although there was no long queue like at other locations, Blue Bottle's name recognition still attracted many hurried travelers to stop and buy a cup of coffee. But just at that moment, a sharp-eyed netizen noticed that this location seemed to have originally been a Starbucks. They thought the barrier was just for renovation, but unexpectedly it had simply been "replaced" by Blue Bottle.
In response, some netizens complained that the "empty" Pudong Airport already has very few dining options, so compared with Blue Bottle Coffee, which doesn't even have seating and is particularly expensive, they would rather choose Starbucks, which offers more options and at the same time provides comfortable seating. "I'd rather Starbucks stayed," "Give me back my Starbucks," "Even though Starbucks coffee is too hard to drink, at least I could originally still buy a sandwich, croissant, bottled water, and such."
In fact, as early as last October, some people noticed that the Starbucks store at Gate 73 of Pudong Airport had closed and was being replaced by a Blue Bottle Coffee under barrier renovation, which also drew considerable attention from netizens, who speculated about the real reason for the closure. But in reality, Starbucks had not withdrawn from Pudong Airport; it had simply relocated its store from the international departure area to the satellite hall of the terminal.
Since officially entering the mainland China market in 2022, Blue Bottle Coffee has opened a total of 5 official stores in the mainland, all located in Shanghai, namely the Yutong store, Panlong Tiandi store, Zhangjiayuan store, Qiantan store, and Grand Gateway 66 store. Now, with the opening of this first official airport store, Shanghai alone has 6 stores, but other regions have yet to see any openings. Looking at Blue Bottle's moves over the past two years, the brand has appeared in pop-up form (limited-time stores/coffee trucks) successively in Shenzhen, Beijing, Hangzhou, and other places. It seems that if you want to see official Blue Bottle stores in these cities, you will still have to wait a long time.
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
