咖啡猎奇口味层出不穷

近日，咖啡品牌掀起奇特口味大战：话梅、奶酪、还有烤鸭……

今天你练听力了吗？

🤔️小作业：

1. Which of the following best captures the tone of the article?

A. Alarmist and skeptical

B. Humorous and inquisitive

C. Formal and academic

D. Critical and pessimistic

无注释原文：

Roasted Duck, Plums and Cheese: The Bizarre Brews Fueling China's Coffee War

From: The Wall Street Journal

A decade ago, Beijing filmmaker Guligo Jia drank Starbucks mochas to power through her workday.

Today she downs Americanos doused in pineapple juice and lattes blended with French butter.

Jia got swept up in China's coffee wars.

“My friend said it's fine, so I took a shot,” the 36-year-old said of her first pineapple Americano. “It tastes kind of juicy.”

A nation of tea drinkers has caught the coffee bug, thrusting coffee shops into a cutthroat competition for new customers that goes way beyond slashing prices. They are also dreaming up increasingly bizarre new brews, including lattes flavored with roasted duck, grapes or butter.

Luckin, the market leader, opened 6,000 new stores last year—roughly one every 90 minutes—and introduced 119 new products, including the apple fizzy Americano (made with 1.4 apples per drink) and the Little Butter Latte, which in some versions is made with a luxe New Zealand butter.

The insanity is widely traced back to the fall of 2022. That's when former Luckin executives—who left the company amid an accounting scandal—launched what has become one of the company's chief competitors, Cotti.

It began with a race to the bottom on prices. The two companies countered each other with deals that dropped the cost of a coffee to 9.9 yuan, or $1.40—roughly a third of a Starbucks latte—in what became known as the “9.9 yuan price war.”

Other fast-growing new entrants, like Lucky Cup, are pushing equally cheap offerings. 

Cotti has taken the fight to the flavor front, too, going all in on fruit like mangos, persimmons and bayberries, which it sources from around China. Last year it introduced a new line of purple slushy-like drinks that blend grapes and coffee. 

This is all relatively normal in China. Its hypercompetitive consumer market is known to breed peculiar innovation, as companies try anything and everything to stand out. Automakers, for instance, sell electric vehicles with built-in refrigerators and in-car karaoke systems.

But the competition for coffee supremacy is on another level, leading to experimentation that tests even the most adventurous consumers' taste buds. 

Meanwhile the innovation train keeps chugging. 

Felipe Cabrera, a coffee consultant from Colombia, helps Chinese cafes invent signature beverages. Among his latest efforts is a coffee combined with salted preserved plum, a popular Chinese snack.

To develop it he mixed the salted plums into a sauce, and added in soda water and ice, before pouring an espresso over the top. “We tried it with the coffee and were like ‘No, it tastes horrible,'” Cabrera said.

He kept at the idea, trying a sauce of sweet, preserved plums instead of the salty ones. It was much better—especially when paired with a high acidic coffee blend.

He thinks it could be a hit. 

“So many things we do here in China would be heresy to people back in Colombia,” Cabrera said.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为华尔街日报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Roasted Duck, Plums and Cheese: The Bizarre Brews Fueling China's Coffee War

From: The Wall Street Journal

A decade ago, Beijing filmmaker Guligo Jia drank Starbucks mochas to power through her workday.

十年前，北京电影导演贾雅楠每天要靠星巴克(Starbucks)的摩卡提神才能完成一天的工作。

Mocha‌是一个多义词，既可以指一种咖啡，也可以指一种颜色。‌摩卡咖啡是由意大利浓缩咖啡、巧克力酱、鲜奶油和牛奶混合而成的一种古老咖啡。其名字来源于也门的摩卡港，该港是早期咖啡贸易的中心之一。摩卡咖啡的历史可以追溯到十五世纪，当时咖啡主要集中在摩卡港输出，因此这些咖啡豆被称为摩卡咖啡豆‌。

Today she downs Americanos doused in pineapple juice and lattes blended with French butter.

现在她改喝菠萝美式和法式黄油拿铁了。

down /daʊn/ 作动词，熟词僻义，表示“一口气吃下；一口气喝下”，英文解释为“to eat or drink something quickly”举个🌰：He'd downed four beers before I'd finished one. 我一杯啤酒还没喝完，他就已经一口气喝下四杯了。

Americano /əˌmer.ɪˈkɑː.nəʊ/ 表示“美式咖啡（意式浓缩咖啡加入热水制成）”，英文解释为“a type of coffee drink made by adding hot water to espresso coffee”

douse /daʊs/ 1）表示“向…泼液体，朝…洒液体”，英文解释为“to make something or someone wet by throwing a lot of liquid over it, him, or her”

2）表示“灭（火）；熄灭；浇灭”，英文解释为“to stop a fire or light from burning or shining, especially by putting water on it or by covering it with something”如：to douse the fire with water. 用水将火浇灭。

latte /ˈlæteɪ/ 表示“热牛奶咖啡；拿铁咖啡”，英文解释为“a hot drink made from espresso (= strong coffee) and warm milk”

blend /blend/ 表示“（使）混合，（使）混杂;（使）交融”，英文解释为“to mix or combine together”举个🌰：Blend the ingredients into a smooth paste. 将这些原料混和成均匀的糊状。

Jia got swept up in China's coffee wars.

贾雅楠也被卷入了中国的咖啡大战。

“My friend said it's fine, so I took a shot,” the 36-year-old said of her first pineapple Americano. “It tastes kind of juicy.”

“我朋友说味道不错，我就试了一下，”这位36岁的电影导演在谈到她第一次喝菠萝美式时说。“尝起来有点像果汁。”

A nation of tea drinkers has caught the coffee bug, thrusting coffee shops into a cutthroat competition for new customers that goes way beyond slashing prices. They are also dreaming up increasingly bizarre new brews, including lattes flavored with roasted duck, grapes or butter.

中国这个茶饮大国爱上了咖啡，这让一家又一家咖啡店陷入了残酷的新客争夺战，其竞争方式远不止降价，还包括越来越奇特的新品创意，例如烤鸭，葡萄，或黄油口味的拿铁。

表示“突然对某事着迷”或“感染上一种热情/兴趣”，英文解释为“to become suddenly interested in something or to get a minor illness like a cold”

在这里，“thrust”的意思是“突然使处于某种状态”或“强行推入”，用来形容某人突然进入公众视野或成为焦点。“thrust her into the spotlight”可以翻译为“让她成为焦点”或“让她进入公众视野”。

thrust /θrʌst/ 作动词，表示“猛推；猛塞；猛刺”，英文解释为“If you thrust something or someone somewhere, you push or move them there quickly with a lot of force.”举个🌰：She thrust the money into his hand. 她把钱塞进他手中。

🎬电影《机械战警》（RoboCop）中的台词提到："Thrust into the spotlight, Clara Murphy won't talk.""被聚光灯包围 克莱拉·墨菲仍不愿开口"

thrust /θrʌst/ 作名词，1）表示“猛推；刺；戳；插 ”，英文解释为“a sudden strong movement that pushes sth/sb forward”举个🌰：He killed her with a thrust of the knife. 他把她一刀刺死了。

2）表示“要点，要旨，中心点”，英文解释为“the main idea, subject, or opinion that is discussed or written about”举个🌰：The main thrust of her argument was that women are compromised by the demands of childcare. 她的主要论点是妇女受到需要照看孩子的拖累。

cutthroat /ˈkʌt.θrəʊt/ 表示“激烈的；残酷无情的；不择手段的”，英文解释为“not involving considering or worrying about any harm caused to others”如：the cutthroat world of journalism 竞争激烈的新闻界。

slash /slæʃ/ 作名词，表示“斜线号，斜杠”，英文解释为“the symbol / used in writing to separate letters, numbers, or words”举个🌰：You often write a slash between alternatives, for example, "and/or". 通常在选择项之间会加斜线号，比如“和/或”。

作动词，1）表示“（用刀、剑等）猛削，劈，砍”，英文解释为“to cut or try to cut something violently with a knife, sword etc”举个🌰：Someone had slashed the tires. 有人把轮胎割破了。

2）表示“大幅削减，大幅减少（金钱、工作等）”，英文解释为“to very much reduce something, such as money or jobs”举个🌰：Prices have been slashed by 50 percent! 价格直降50%！

bizarre /bɪˈzɑː/ 表示“怪异的；罕见的；异乎寻常的”，英文解释为“Something that is bizarre is very odd and strange.”举个🌰：The game was also notable for the bizarre behaviour of the team's manager. 这场比赛另一值得注意的地方是该队经理人异乎寻常的表现。

brew /bruː/ 1）表示“一杯茶；一份啤酒”，英文解释为“a drink of tea or a drink of beer”举个🌰：Make us a brew. 给我们泡杯茶吧。

2）表示“混合物”，英文解释为“a mixture of several things”举个🌰：They gave her a strange brew to drink. 他们让她喝一种奇怪的混合饮料。

作动词，1）表示“（坏事或暴风雨）即将来临，酝酿”，英文解释为“If an unpleasant situation or a storm is brewing, you feel that it is about to happen.”举个🌰：It was too quiet - I felt that trouble was brewing. 太安静了——我觉得要出事了。 At home a crisis was brewing. 家里一场危机正在酝酿着。

2）表示“泡（茶）；煮（咖啡）；（茶）冲泡；（咖啡）煮”，英文解释为“If you brew tea or coffee, you add boiling water to it to make a hot drink, and if it brews, it gradually develops flavour in the container in which it was made.”举个🌰：He brewed us some coffee./He brewed some coffee for us. 他给我们煮了些咖啡。

Luckin, the market leader, opened 6,000 new stores last year—roughly one every 90 minutes—and introduced 119 new products, including the apple fizzy Americano (made with 1.4 apples per drink) and the Little Butter Latte, which in some versions is made with a luxe New Zealand butter.

中国咖啡市场领头羊瑞幸咖啡(Luckin)去年新开了6,000家门店，差不多每90分钟就有一家新店开张。不仅如此，瑞幸还推出了119款新品，包括苹果气泡美式（每杯含1.4个苹果）和小黄油拿铁，其中一些版本是用新西兰黄油制成的。

fizzy /ˈfɪz.i/ 表示“嘶嘶的，起泡的”，英文解释为“having a lot of bubbles”如：fizzy orange/mineral water 起泡橘子水/矿泉水

The insanity is widely traced back to the fall of 2022. That's when former Luckin executives—who left the company amid an accounting scandal—launched what has become one of the company's chief competitors, Cotti.

这种疯狂的景象可以追溯到2022年秋季。当时，瑞幸咖啡的多名前高管——他们在公司卷入会计丑闻后离职——创办了库迪咖啡(Cotti)，如今库迪已成为瑞幸主要的竞争对手之一。

表示“精神失常；精神错乱；精神病；疯狂”，英文解释为“the state of being insane”举个🌰：He was found not guilty, by reason of insanity. 他以精神失常为理由获判无罪。

It began with a race to the bottom on prices. The two companies countered each other with deals that dropped the cost of a coffee to 9.9 yuan, or $1.40—roughly a third of a Starbucks latte—in what became known as the “9.9 yuan price war.”

这场竞争始于价格战。瑞幸与库迪互相较劲，将一杯咖啡的价格压低到人民币9.9元（约合1.40美元），大约是星巴克拿铁价格的三分之一，这场竞争被称为“9.9元价格战”。

counter /ˈkaʊn.tər/ 作动词，表示“反驳；反对；对抗”，英文解释为“to react to something with an opposing opinion or action, or to defend yourself against something”举个🌰：When criticisms were made of the school's performance, the parents' group countered with details of its exam results. 当有人对学校的业绩提出批评时，家长团举出具体的考试成绩予以反驳。

作名词，表示“柜台”，英文解释为“a long, flat, narrow surface or table in a shop, bank, restaurant, etc. at which people are served”举个🌰：There was nobody behind/on the counter when I went into the bank, and I had to wait to be served. 我进银行时柜台后没人，我只得等候有人出来服务。

Other fast-growing new entrants, like Lucky Cup, are pushing equally cheap offerings. 

而其他快速增长的新入局者，例如幸运咖(Lucky Cup)，也在推销同样便宜的产品。

entrant /ˈen.trənt/ 1）表示“新成员；新会员；新职员”，英文解释为“a person who becomes a member of a group or organization”如：new entrants to the school/company 学校新生/公司新职员；

2）表示“首次销售某种产品（或服务）的公司；在某处首次开始经营的公司”，英文解释为“a company that starts selling a particular product or service, or selling in a particular place, for the first time”

Cotti has taken the fight to the flavor front, too, going all in on fruit like mangos, persimmons and bayberries, which it sources from around China. Last year it introduced a new line of purple slushy-like drinks that blend grapes and coffee. 

库迪咖啡还将战火烧到口味领域，全力主打芒果、柿子和杨梅等水果，这些水果来自中国各地。去年，库迪咖啡推出一系列新的紫色冰沙状饮品，将葡萄和咖啡混合在一起。

persimmon /pəˈsɪm.ən/ 表示“柿，柿子”，英文解释为“a very sweet orange tropical fruit”

表示“杨梅”，英文解释为“a bush with dark red round fruit covered in a substance like wax”

slushy /ˈslʌʃ.i/ 表示“（雪）半融的；满是雪泥的”，英文解释为“Slushy snow is partly melted.”

slushy在这里是指一种冰沙状、半融的饮料，通常由碎冰和果汁或其他饮品混合而成，口感类似于“沙冰”或“冰爽饮”。

This is all relatively normal in China. Its hypercompetitive consumer market is known to breed peculiar innovation, as companies try anything and everything to stand out. Automakers, for instance, sell electric vehicles with built-in refrigerators and in-car karaoke systems.

这一切在中国并不算反常。中国竞争激烈的消费市场以孕育奇特的创新而闻名，毕竟企业为了脱颖而出会尝试各种方法。例如，汽车制造商会销售内置冰箱和车载卡拉OK系统的电动汽车。

hyper-competitive /ˌhaɪ.pə.kəmˈpet.ɪ.tɪv/ 表示“极爱竞争的，极其好胜的”，英文解释为“extremely competitive or too competitive”举个🌰：Hyper-competitive parents are obsessed with making sure their children excel. 好胜心极强的父母痴迷于让他们的孩子出类拔萃。

peculiar /pɪˈkjuː.li.ər/ 1）表示“奇怪的，古怪的”，英文解释为“unusual and strange, sometimes in an unpleasant way”举个🌰：What a peculiar smell! 多么奇怪的气味！

2）表示“独特的，特有的”，英文解释为“belonging to, relating to, or found in only particular people or things”举个🌰：He gets on with things in his own peculiar way/manner/fashion. 他处理事情有自己独特的方法/方式。

But the competition for coffee supremacy is on another level, leading to experimentation that tests even the most adventurous consumers' taste buds. 

但咖啡霸主地位之争却更上层楼，有时候，各种“实验品”即使是最爱冒险的消费者也难以接受。

1）表示“支配地位；最高地位，至高无上”，英文解释为“If one group of people has supremacy over another group, they have more political or military power than the other group.”

2）表示“优势”，英文解释为“If someone or something has supremacy over another person or thing, they are better.”举个🌰：In the United States Open final, she retained overall supremacy. 在美国网球公开赛的决赛中，她保持着全面的优势。

taste buds /ˈteɪst ˌbʌdz/ 表示“味蕾”，英文解释为“a group of cells, found especially on the tongue, that allow different tastes to be recognized”

Meanwhile the innovation train keeps chugging. 

与此同时，咖啡产业的创新列车仍在疾驰。

chug /tʃʌɡ/ 表示“（发动机或电机转动）发出嘎嚓声；嘎嚓嘎嚓地行驶”，英文解释为“to make the sound of an engine or motor, or to move making this sound”

Felipe Cabrera, a coffee consultant from Colombia, helps Chinese cafes invent signature beverages. Among his latest efforts is a coffee combined with salted preserved plum, a popular Chinese snack.

来自哥伦比亚的咖啡顾问费利佩·卡布雷拉(Felipe Cabrera)帮助中国的咖啡馆研发招牌饮品。他最近的成果之一是将一种流行的中式零食——盐渍话梅与咖啡结合在一起。

signature /ˈsɪɡ.nə.tʃər/ 作名词，常见意思是“签名，署名”，也有“明显特征；鲜明特色；识别标志”的含义，英文解释为“a particular quality that makes sth different from other similar things and makes it easy to recognize”作形容词，解释为“标志性的，惯有的”如：signature product 招牌产品，举个🌰：Bright colours are his signature. 他总爱用亮丽的色彩。

📍金色头发变得花白文中提到：During the update on coronavirus vaccine development in the White House Rose Garden, many viewers were quick to notice one significant change in the president's signature appearance: his hair. 在白宫玫瑰园汇报冠状病毒疫苗研发进展情况时，许多观众很快就注意到总统标志性的外观有一个显著的变化：他的头发。

To develop it he mixed the salted plums into a sauce, and added in soda water and ice, before pouring an espresso over the top. “We tried it with the coffee and were like ‘No, it tastes horrible,'” Cabrera said.

为了研发这款饮品，他将盐渍话梅混合制成酱汁，加入苏打水和冰块，最后在上面浇上一份意式浓缩咖啡。“我们把它和咖啡混合在一起试了试，感觉‘实在不行，味道太可怕了’，”卡布雷拉说。

espresso /esˈpres.əʊ/ 表示“（用蒸汽加压煮出的）浓咖啡（饮用时不加奶）”，英文解释为“strong coffee, or a cup of this, made by forcing hot water through crushed coffee beans and served without milk”举个🌰：Do you like espresso? 你喜欢浓咖啡吗？

He kept at the idea, trying a sauce of sweet, preserved plums instead of the salty ones. It was much better—especially when paired with a high acidic coffee blend.

不过他坚持这个想法，尝试用偏甜味的梅子酱代替咸味的。结果效果好多了——尤其是搭配高酸度的混合咖啡豆时。

acidic /əˈsɪd.ɪk/ 表示“酸性的”，英文解释为“containing acid”如：acidic soil 酸性土壤；或表示“很酸的”，英文解释为“very sour”如：a slightly acidic taste 微酸的味道。

He thinks it could be a hit. 

他认为这款咖啡可能会大受欢迎。

“So many things we do here in China would be heresy to people back in Colombia,” Cabrera said.

“我们在中国研发的很多新品对哥伦比亚人来说简直就像异端邪说，”卡布雷拉说。

heresy /ˈher.ə.si/ 表示“（信奉）异端邪说；（持有）反面观点，悖论”，英文解释为“(the act of having) an opinion or belief that is the opposite of or against what is the official or popular opinion, or an action that shows that you have no respect for the official opinion”

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