咖啡与酒的无限可能

不知不觉，咖啡厅和酒吧之间的界限越发不那么清晰了。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

macchiato 玛奇朵[,mækɪ'ɑːtəʊ]

brewery 啤酒厂['brʊərɪ]

entice 诱使；怂恿[ɪn'taɪs; en-]

filter coffee 过滤式咖啡

hipster 赶时髦的人[hɪpstə]

tangential 扯远的[tæn'dʒenʃ(ə)l]

franchise 特权；经销权['fræn(t)ʃaɪz]

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Pub groups wake up and smell the coffee （541words）

By Paul McClean and Aliya Ram

* * *

A man walks into a bar and asks for a latte macchiato.

That might have been a joke in the past. But, faced with high rents, falling alcohol consumption and competition from supermarkets, pub groups and breweries are increasingly relying on alternative revenue streams — such as quality coffee — to entice customers through their doors.

Fuller’s, the independent brewery, opened its first standalone coffee shop in 2014 and now sells almost 2m hot drinks a year. Wetherspoons, the pub chain, began serving filter coffee with free refills for 99p last year, and says it now sells more than 1m cups every week.

“We are clearly seeing that the purpose of visiting a Fuller’s pub is as likely to be for food or a coffee as it is for an alcoholic drink,” says chief executive Simon Emeny. “The smoking ban was the catalyst for pubs to broaden their potential market, and we now take coffee incredibly seriously. Sales are growing by double digits every year.”

The trend is also working in reverse, as UK mass market and independent coffee shop chains fire back by introducing alcoholic drinks.

“Coffee shops and pubs are moving into each other’s territory because they’re both under pressure,” says Jeffrey Young, chief executive of research group Allegra. “Coffee shops are doing it because growth is slowing, and pubs are doing it to survive.”

One factor, according to people in the industry, is that “hipster” consumers are making the same demands — for organic ingredients and local sourcing — whatever they are drinking.

Nick Tolley, founder of independent London-based coffee house Taylor St. Baristas, says one motivation behind the move into alcohol is “to make use of dead rent, to exploit a different part of the day and to get more bang for your buck”.

But he adds: “The other is that it’s a tangential alignment of values — we’re not selling Kronenbourg or Stella, the wines and beers we’re stocking are from small wineries and breweries, and they’re organic and green, much like our coffee.”

BrewDog, the Scottish craft brewer that this month bought a 33 per cent stake in Edinburgh-based upmarket coffee chain Third Wave, says “the people who appreciate craft beer often also have a taste for speciality coffee”.

Big coffee chains Starbucks and Pret-a-Manger are also embracing the trend for craft beer, introducing it alongside wine in certain stores to accompany hot evening meals.

Starbucks, which already sells alcohol in 300 US stores, says a successful trial in Stansted airport led it to introduce menus “for the late afternoon and evening” in three other franchises at airports and train stations in the UK.

It says it intends to expand the scheme as it looks to respond to changing consumer habits.

Analysts say that particularly for the bigger coffee sellers, the move into alcohol is motivated by a slowdown in the growth of coffee sales.

“There’s been so much growth in coffee that for ages the big players didn’t need to do much else — they were struggling to deal with the demand for coffee as it was, and were focused on keeping a clear brand identity,” says Mr Young at Allegra. “But now, with growth slowing, and under increasing pressure from small independents, they’ve had to act.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1. Which one is not mentioned as the reason of the change of pub groups?

a. falling costs within the coffee industry

b. high rents

c. falling alcohol consumption

d. competition from supermarkets

2. What was the catalyst for pubs to broaden potential market as the CEO of Fuller’s said?

a. high rents

b. smoking ban

c. filter coffee

d. growing trend

3. Who has already sold alcohol in 300 US stores as the coffee chain brand?

a. Pret-a-Manger

b. Costa Coffee

c. Wetherspoons

d. Starbucks

4. What did bigger coffee sellers do in the past from analysts said (in the last paragraph)?

a. sold alcohol

b. kept a clear brand identity

c. made use of dead rent

d. competed with small independents

[1] 答案a. falling costs within the coffee industry

解释：文章并没有提到咖啡行业的成本下降。

[2] 答案b. smoking ban

解释：首席执行官Simon Emeny表示，室内禁烟令曾是他们拓宽潜在市场的催化剂。

[3] 答案d. Starbucks

解释：一些大型的咖啡连锁公司已经尝试跨界销售酒精饮品。

[4] 答案b. kept a clear brand identity

解释：在过去的很长一段时间，那些大型咖啡经销商几乎没有什么销售压力，只需要处理订单需求，集中精力塑造品牌辨识度。而现在要面对更多独立小咖啡店的竞争而不得不做出行动。