85°C Bakery Cafe
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (November 2011) |
| TWSE: 2723 | |
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Taichung City, Taiwan |
Key people | Wu Cheng-Hsueh, President and Founder |
| Products | Bread, cake, coffee, tea |
| Website | www.85cafe.com |
85 °C Bakery Cafe (Chinese: 85度C; pinyin: 85 Dù C) is a Taiwanese chain of coffee shops and self-serve bakeries run by Gourmet Master Co., Ltd. The company, with an estimated yearly revenue of $200 million, was founded in 2004 by tea shop owner Wu Cheng-Hsueh and has over 800 branches located in Taiwan,[1] Australia, and the United States. Known as the "Starbucks of Taiwan", in 2009, the company opened its first US location in Irvine, California.[2][3]
History
When Wu Cheng-Hsueh was having coffee with his wife, the idea came to him that he could serve coffee and breads for customers at a low price. He used to have a barbershop, a shoe-material processing plant, a marble factory and bubble-tea and pizza chain stores.[4] Wu Cheng-Hsueh, president and founder of 85℃ Bakery Cafe, opened the first shop in Bao-Ping, Taipei County, in July 2004. The shop was soon serving around 2000 guests per day and selling over 2000 cups of coffee. He opened a second shop in Yuan Toun, Taipei County, in August 2004. Following the success of the two stores, a third store was opened in Goun Yi, in Taichung City, which marked the beginning of the franchising name 85℃ in November 2004. The name "85C" refers to Wu's belief that 85 °C (185 °F) is the optimal temperature to serve coffee.[5]
In 2006, they opened the first store in Sydney, Australia. A year later, the first store was built in Shanghai, China. With a rapid business expansion, the first store in US was opened in 2009 and Hong Kong in 2012.
It was listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in November 2010 with 3.85 million shares in its IPO.[6]
Type of restaurant
It is a self-serve bakery. The customers use a tray and tongs, and select the breads that they want. After that, the breads are paid for and bagged at the till.[7]
Products
85℃ Bakery Cafe sells breads, cakes, and drinks. The Irvine branch that opened on 26 September 2009, is the company's highest grossing store.
Breads
The store bases the majority of its sales on pastries. The breads incorporate European, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Danish styled flavors, in 80 varieties. The slogan of the store is "Fresh Bread". The two top sellers are Marble Taro and Brioche.[8]
Cakes
The regular size of cake is 8", with 10 styles ranging from the Italian Tiramisu to the German Black Forest to the Taiwanese Taro cake. The only 6’’ cake is the blueberry cheesecake. The full month size has five flavors.
They have twenty kinds of cake slices and cups with coffee, mango, strawberry, orange and chocolate flavors.[9]
Drinks
One of their products is the Sea Salt Coffee, made by sweetening their iced Americano and adding a sea salt whipped cream on the top. This coffee has been featured on TIME Magazine, CNN, and NPR.[10] The concept of this drink supposedly came from the Taiwanese habit of sprinkling salt on fruit to bring out the sweetness. In addition to tea and smoothies, 85 °C Bakery Cafe also sells regular coffee such as vanilla cafe latte, mocha, cappuccino, caramel latte, etc.
Fridge breads
85C have a category for breads needed to be kept in a cool temperature includes cheese bites, cream cheese custard tart, chocolate cream cheese slice, chocolate swirled, coconut custard and matcha red bean sponge roll. They have four kinds of half-moon sponge cakes: almond, coconut, blueberry, and strawberry.
Others
85C Bakery Cafe has toast such as rum raisin, multigrain, whole wheat, white and milk toast. For special occasions, they will have different kinds of breads and cakes.
Locations
- Taiwan: 478 stores
- 225 regular stores
- 74 Bakery
- 179 24-hrs stores
- China: 385 stores (63 in Shanghai)
- Hong Kong: 4 stores
- Australia: 5 stores
- United States: 17 stores
See also
References
- ^ Tso, Natalie (15 January 2009). "Some Salt with Your Coffee? Taiwan's Hot Drink". Time. Archived from the original on 16 February 2009. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Luna, Nancy (15 September 2008). "'Starbucks of Taiwan' set to open first U.S. cafe in O.C." OC Register. Archived from the original on 5 January 2009. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Luna, Nancy (25 September 2008). "Preview: Asian bakery giant debuts first U.S. cafe Friday in O.C." OC Register. Retrieved 11 February 2009.
- ^ young, J> (9 December 2010). "85℃: Wu Cheng-hsueh Takes the Temperature of Success". Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ "Taiwan's coffee chain challenger". Financial Times. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
- ^ "Gourmet Master shares skyrocket in bourse debut". Taipei Times. 23 November 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2011.
- ^ Lee, Wendy (29 January 2013). "'Starbucks of Taiwan' – 85 Degrees C – expands in Southern California (Photos)". Retrieved 20 February 2012.
- ^ "85C Bakery Cafe". Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ "Products". Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ Amos, Deborah (8 June 2010). "Sea Salt Latte: Is 85C The Next Coffee Craze?". NPR. Retrieved 8 November 2009.