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"From Germany to the United Arab Emirates to China you can visit the same shops, buy the same furniture, eat the same food, watch the same programmes and listen

"From Germany to the United Arab Emirates to China you can visit the same shops, buy the same furniture, eat the same food, watch the same programmes and listen to the same music." A few years back I was on a geology expedition in western Tibet, and we left the unpopulated valley we'd been in for several weeks and headed a few hours farther west for supplies, where our Dongfeng driver thought there was a town. There was, sort of, so we went to the little store to get some coffee and any other nonperishables. At the market, they had never heard of coffee. But they had Redbull, so we got that instead.

peteretep 10y ago
Red Bull and other Thai energy drinks are popular because they're cheaper than coffee in Thailand. That said, Thai Red Bull is a pretty different beast from what you'll find abroad -- it's thick, sweet, and flat, like cough syrup. When you drink it in the quantity that I do, it's easy to forget coffee tastes terrible, and that we acquire a taste for it over time because caffeine is addictive. To enter new markets, it needs to be the only caffeine source or needs to have fashionable connotations. Red Bull tastes like candy, and has universal appeal.
- halestock 10y ago
  That coffee is an acquired taste only because of its caffeine content sounds pretty specious to me. Do you have a source for that claim? I'm willing to bet you could still come to appreciate the taste of coffee only drinking decaf.
  - peteretep 10y ago
    > Do you have a source for that claim No. :-) I am going off the basis that people come to enjoy the taste of specific brands of cigarettes they smoke a lot, as a result of nicotine addiction. I also don't have a source for that, but when I read it ... somewhere ... it was presented as well-sourced. > I'm willing to bet you could > still come to appreciate the > taste of coffee only drinking > decaf Perhaps. I'd be just as willing to bet that most people don't because they never drink enough of it to get to that point, on account of it not having psychoactive chemicals in it.
- greggman 10y ago
  Coffee doesn't taste terrible to me, even as a kid I liked coffee's flavor but more as an ingredient. Pure chocolate is similar. Too much for me but mixed with other things both are delicious. Lots of things in their pure form alone would be considered terrible tasting. Lemons for example few people can eat straight up

peteretep 10y ago

Red Bull and other Thai energy drinks are popular because they're cheaper than coffee in Thailand. That said, Thai Red Bull is a pretty different beast from what you'll find abroad -- it's thick, sweet, and flat, like cough syrup. When you drink it in the quantity that I do, it's easy to forget coffee tastes terrible, and that we acquire a taste for it over time because caffeine is addictive. To enter new markets, it needs to be the only caffeine source or needs to have fashionable connotations. Red Bull tastes like candy, and has universal appeal.

halestock 10y ago
That coffee is an acquired taste only because of its caffeine content sounds pretty specious to me. Do you have a source for that claim? I'm willing to bet you could still come to appreciate the taste of coffee only drinking decaf.
- peteretep 10y ago
  > Do you have a source for that claim No. :-) I am going off the basis that people come to enjoy the taste of specific brands of cigarettes they smoke a lot, as a result of nicotine addiction. I also don't have a source for that, but when I read it ... somewhere ... it was presented as well-sourced. > I'm willing to bet you could > still come to appreciate the > taste of coffee only drinking > decaf Perhaps. I'd be just as willing to bet that most people don't because they never drink enough of it to get to that point, on account of it not having psychoactive chemicals in it.
greggman 10y ago
Coffee doesn't taste terrible to me, even as a kid I liked coffee's flavor but more as an ingredient. Pure chocolate is similar. Too much for me but mixed with other things both are delicious. Lots of things in their pure form alone would be considered terrible tasting. Lemons for example few people can eat straight up