Global Village

Starbucks beans 'plain awful'

The latest plank in Starbucks' ongoing campaign to win over China's tea-drinking masses has made many expats see red - and green. The global coffee brand has again tweaked its menu in a bid to seduce local palates. It's a marketing strategy used to soften Starbucks' far-reaching march through the Middle Kingdom, which is slated to become the company's biggest overseas market.

Starbucks has dubbed its latest Chinese promoti -red bean-flavored beverages and sweets - "summer daydream". But the new menu additions have not been popular with some expats who turn to Starbucks, dreaming of a little taste of home. One Shenzhen blogger described "gagging" on the bean-themed food, which includes cakes, scones and creamy iced drinks.

Meanwhile, Starbucks' other funky flavor, green tea, has failed to impress the likes of Shanghai's Adam Minter. The American devoted a good chunk of his blog to the curiously hued green tea clair. His post, complete with photograph of the offending pastry, described it as possibly, "the most vile dessert ever made. As bad as it looks. Maybe even worse. Bitter as coal dust. Just. Plain. Awful".

Love rat exposes letter

Remember the days when young lovers would exchange sappy poems on scented paper, before curt emails and brief text messages replaced conversation? Okay, so maybe the perfumed notes were reserved for wholesome movies like Grease, but it's nice to know romance is not dead.

Greg of Shanghai obviously thought so. On receiving a "great love letter" last month, the French speaker was spurred to share it with anyone who stumbled upon his blog. The love rat clearly had no problem exposing what purports to be a woman's secret anguish.

"Every day you are the very man I want to see. I feel nervous and exciting at the moment you appear [sic]," the letter says.

"Probably you will think how silly and foolish I am. But I don't care. I just want to express my feeling. I feel I am ill. I can't stop thinking of you.

"Everyday I see your back and I like the smell of your smoking when you pass by me. Though I hate people smoking."

Greg claimed his "friend" received the letter in June from an assistant, whose name is deleted from the blog post. Though curiously, when a netizen says she hopes the amorous lady's desires were met, Greg responds: "sadly I don't think she was very happy with the result of her letter I did not go for it."

AND ANOTHER THING...

Staying legal

China's laws for expats can be daunting - the visa requirements, residence registration, and on and on. If you've ever had any problems or know something now you wish you'd known earlier, let us know. Life/Expad will be doing a feature on "Staying out of Trouble in China".

Please contact: amyfjstone@gmail.com

(China Daily 07/13/2007 page20)