Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is unfazed by China's slowing economy. 
 
 Even with China growing at its slowest pace in 25 years, Starbucks is planning to open more than one new store a day for the next five years in the world's second largest economy. 
 
 "I think if you look at the 45 year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz told CNN in an interview in Shanghai on Wednesday. 
 
 By 2021, Starbucks (SBUX) aims to have nearly 5,000 stores across China. 
 
 Related: China's economy holds steady -- but for how long? 
 
 It's been a long road already for the coffee giant in the world's most populous nation, where it opened its first store 17 years ago. 
 
 "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was -- the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." 
 
 His critics on Wall Street and elsewhere said Starbucks "was never going to succeed in China," he recalled. 
 
 But his patience paid off. 
 
 "If you look five years ago, most of our business, believe it or not, was expats and tourists in China," he said. "Today, it's mostly Chinese." 
 
 Related: Hillary Clinton will win U.S. election, says Starbucks CEO 
 
 Schultz expects China to eventually overtake the U.S. as the company's largest market, although he hasn't said exactly when. (It's already No. 2.) 
 
 "One of things I think we've done very well is we've invested significantly ahead of the growth curve -- in people, in systems," he told CNN. "We just finished a fantastic year in China where the results are as strong as they've ever been." 
 
 Such talk is enviable for huge U.S. firms that have failed to get into China -- like Facebook (FB) and Netflix (NFLX) -- or been pushed out -- like Uber and Google (GOOG). 
 
 Schultz says it helps that Starbucks is selling coffee, and not active in a more sensitive market. 
 
 "We're not in a high tech business, so we're not trying to change behavior in terms of technology," he said. 
 
 Related: Billionaire says Chinese real estate is 'biggest bubble in history' 
 
 Other big American brands that had enjoyed years of success selling food and drink in China are now faring less well. 
 
 KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands (YUM), is spinning off its China business and bringing in outside investors. McDonalds (MCD) is also looking for a partner to take over the franchise of its China stores. 
 
 "They have other challenges ... I can't speak for them," Schultz said, ruling out the possibility of Starbucks following a similar path. 
 
 "Whether we're in a small city or a large city, we think that the way in which we can be successful is if the stores are operated by Starbucks people," he said. "We believe that the future of Starbucks in China is still very early." 
 
 -- Reed Alexander contributed to this report. ||||| Starbucks Corp. sees China surpassing the U.S. as its largest market within a decade as it counts on the country’s affluent consumers to offset stagnant growth in the rest of the world. 
 
 Ramping up its focus on China, Starbucks is opening its biggest cafe in the world in Shanghai on Wednesday. The 30,000 square-feet store -- about half the size of a soccer pitch -- is part of upscale moves championed by founder and Chairman Howard Schultz. Customers at the cavernous new outlet on the West Nanjing Road shopping strip can watch beans being roasted, sample high-end brews and use a Starbucks augmented-reality digital app to interact with the store. 
 
 The roaster also plans to roll out mobile ordering and delivery of drinks and store goods in China, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson said in an interview in Shanghai. The company will team up with a strategic partner to help it with the service, he said. 
 
 Starbucks Roastery in Shanghai. Source: Starbucks Corp. 
 
 The Seattle-based company is homing in on its fastest-growing market as it searches for ways to kick-start sluggish global sales after saturating the U.S. with lattes and cappuccinos. Three years after the company opened its first Roastery on its home turf, Starbucks is testing the larger, upmarket store concept overseas for the first time in China, where it currently has 3,000 sites. 
 
 “It’s obvious to us that the holding power of China for Starbucks is going to be much more significant than the holding power of the U.S.,” Schultz said Tuesday at a briefing to unveil the new cafe. China is on course to be the company’s largest market in less than a decade, he added. 
 
 To read more about Schultz’s upscale push, click here 
 
 China is becoming crucial for Starbucks. Same-store sales gained 8 percent in the country during the most recent quarter, compared with 2 percent globally. Revenue from the Asia-Pacific region accounted for almost 15 percent of Starbucks’ revenue for the fiscal year ended in October. That’s up from 5.5 percent five years earlier. 
 
 The coffee chain would be the latest to jump onto the delivery bandwagon in a country where everything from fresh produce to forklifts can be purchased online and delivered the same day. Starbucks is exploring “a range of options” for delivery, said Johnson, who declined to specify when the service might begin. 
 
 “Having mobile ordering where you can either do a mobile order for pickup in the store or a mobile order to be delivered to you is the next frontier for us,” he said. “The innovation that I see in China is going faster and will be more comprehensive than anything we see in other parts of the world.” 
 
 Separately, the company could team up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on projects beyond mobile payment services, Schultz said in an interview. 
 
 “Jack and I have spoken about a lot of different things,” he said referring to Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, when asked whether the partnership could extend beyond mobile payment services. “The friendship and the shared values we have and their reach, our brand -- there are things that we could do together.” 
 
 Customers in China can pay for Starbucks purchases using the mobile payment service from Alibaba-affiliate Alipay, which the roaster began accepting in September. 
 
 Starbucks expanded its investment in China in July, when it announced plans to buy out the partners in its East China joint venture. The company agreed to acquire the remaining 50 percent of the business in a $1.3 billion transaction, giving it ownership of about 1,300 cafes in Shanghai and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Starbucks, which says it is opening a store every 15 hours in China, plans to have 5,000 cafes on the mainland by 2021. 
 
 Starbucks Roastery in Shanghai. Source: Starbucks Corp. 
 
 Starbucks is betting China’s hunger for luxury goods is transferable to coffee. A standard latte at the coffee chain is already pricier than fresh brews at many local cafes in Shanghai. The demand for premium products -- from autos to yogurt -- is gaining traction as an increasing number of Chinese families cross the income threshold to become affluent. 
 
 “Chinese consumers, especially the younger generation, are looking for things more quality-driven, more unique, that speaks to who they are,” said Jack Chuang, a Shanghai-based partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants who has studied the Chinese coffee market. “For coffee, there’s a certain kind of ‘in-the-know’ from consumers who seek out these good boutique shops.’’ 
 
 Starbucks has said it plans other Roastery cafes in New York, Tokyo and Italy. The concept is part of a broad push upmarket that includes a line of premium coffee called Reserve and cafes to showcase the new brand. Still, rollout has been slowed by high construction costs and trouble finding suitable real estate. 
 
 — With assistance by Angus Whitley, and Rachel Chang ||||| The latest front in what the business press likes to call the Coffee Wars is clearly more a battle about frothed milk, whipped cream and syrup than about coffee. McDonald’s is rolling out its McCafé line of espresso-based (OK, milk-based) beverages with a national advertising assault of old-fashioned scale and intensity, while Starbucks, the Chain that Brought the Caffè Latte to Main Street (plus strip malls, high-rise lobbies, et al) has retaliated with full-page ads in the The New York Times, ads of the reasonable-sounding, text-heavy type that non-profit organizations run to set the record straight on political, social and economic issues of great importance to the Republic. 
 
 The business press calls winners on the basis of the bottom line, and generally appears to be of the opinion that the Arches will wreak considerable havoc on the Mermaid. The battle front that seems to have escaped much comment so far, however, is how the beverages themselves stack up. Frothed milk can be frothed in different ways, some syrups are better than other syrups, and the drinks can be assembled differently. Finally, coffee is buried in the drink somewhere, and its character and quality does have an impact on how much pleasure we take in all of the milk and the syrups. 
 
 The Test 
 
 Hence our McDonald’s/Starbucks espresso beverage taste test: one skirmish observed in the Great War. 
 
 We sampled four different hot, espresso-based beverages in two McDonald’s Northern California locations offering the new McCafé menu, and the analogous four beverages at two nearby Starbucks locations. 
 
 Our choices: A cappuccino, caffè latte, caffè mocha (espresso, frothed milk and chocolate syrup) and caramel latte. (Note that Starbucks retains the traditional “caffè” in “caffè latte” and “caffè mocha,” whereas McDonald’s reflects current vernacular by shortening the names to “latte” and “mocha.”) We bought the modest, twelve-ounce size of each of the four beverages (“tall” at Starbucks, “small” at McDonald’s). Our assumption was that by attentively sampling the four we could get a general idea of how the programs generally match up from a sensory perspective. 
 
 In reporting our evaluations, we decided against deploying the usual Coffee Review 100-point rating system as too recondite when applied to what are essentially coffee-powered versions of fountain beverages. Instead we used the familiar schoolroom A through F scale. 
 
 Big Menu, Small Menu 
 
 A pure taste comparison of two sets of similar beverages overlooks other major differences between the two programs, of course. For example, the potential number of variations available to the consumer (in syrups, in milks, etc.) is much larger at Starbucks than at McDonald’s. McDonald’s offers a choice of five syrups. The local Starbucks offered twelve. McDonald’s offers two milk options, Starbucks five, including soy (for 40 cents more). The Starbucks website claims that if one considers “our milk options, number of shots, various syrups and the choice of whip or no-whip, we have up to 87,000 different drink combinations.” You can squeeze a lot of options out of the much simpler McDonald’s menu too, but nowhere near that daunting number. 
 
 Then there is the “we know coffee” angle pushed by the Starbucks New York Times ads. An ordinary straight espresso without milk was not a menu option at the two McDonald’s we visited, for instance. When I asked whether I could order one, the counter person consulted a manager who indicated that this was possible, but even after a button-poking run through the cash register data base she could not tell me how much that simple drink might cost. Admittedly a pure shot of espresso is not a frequent order at Starbucks either, but it is on the menu. In fact, if you look unhappy or Italian enough, the staff may even rummage in a cabinet in back of the cash register and produce a properly scaled, ceramic demitasse for your straight shot. Both programs are heavily automated, but McDonald’s is more so. Starbucks uses what are called automatic espresso machines, devices that grind the beans and brew the coffee at the touch of a button. But at Starbucks the barista still froths the milk and combines it with the coffee, a step that is automated as well at McDonald’s. 
 
 The trade-off, presumably, is price. McDonald’s is cheaper: about 17% to 18% less for the cappuccinos and caffè lattes we sampled in our part of California, 26% less for the caffè mocha. 
 
 So on to the test: Are you likely to find 17% to 26% more pleasure in your beverages at Starbucks than you would in the less expensive versions at McDonald’s? 
 
 The Cappuccino 
 
 For the record, neither Starbucks nor McDonald’s produced anything like a classic Italian cappuccino, in which milk brought to a dense-textured, soupy froth is poured into a single serving of espresso. In the classic cappuccino the densely bubbled milk draws the espresso up into its heart, and the two settle out deliciously into liquid as one drinks. Instead Starbucks served us a “dry” cappuccino, a Seattle-inspired version of the beverage in which a stiff, fluffy head of froth floats atop a short, strong mixture of coffee and milk. The McDonald’s cappuccino, on the other hand, consisted of a more coffee-heavy version of a caffè latte, ten ounces of milk and coffee topped by a thinnish head of big-bubbled froth. In our ratings, by the way, we did not punish any of these beverages for straying from their classic antecedents. We simply asked ourselves how generally pleasing a combination of coffee, milk and (when relevant) syrups they represented. 
 
 The Starbucks Tall (12-ounce) Cappuccino 
 
 The drink: Two servings of espresso topped by about the same volume of 2% milk plus a head of fluffy, meringue-like froth that reached the top of the twelve-ounce cup. The milk and coffee together supply about five to six ounces of powerfully coffee-influenced liquid under the cup-filling white fluff. 
 
 The price (at our Northern California Starbucks): $2.65, tax included. 
 
 The quality: Starbucks’ sharp, dark-roasted coffee dominated the small volume of milk, with little tendency to display the rounder chocolate and caramel notes that milk can coax out of a darker roasted coffee like Starbucks’. Nevertheless, we found the rough, slightly burned, roasty notes bracing, the mouthfeel naturally full and syrupy, the finish dry but with a hint of chocolate. The white fluff was irrelevant, aside from the threat it posed to one’s nose during the initial attempt to get down to the liquid underneath. Grade B-. 
 
 The McDonald’s Small (12-ounce) Cappuccino 
 
 The drink: Considerably milkier than the Starbucks version. Two servings of espresso in about ten ounces of hot whole milk with a thin layer of coarse-bubbled froth topping the mix of coffee and milk. Essentially a caffè latte with emphasis on the caffè. 
 
 The price: $1.99, or $2.19 with tax. 
 
 The quality: A pleasant beverage, with a good balance of coffee and milk flavors. Unfortunately, the coffee contribution seemed woody and inert, sparing us the slightly burned sharpness of the Starbucks coffee but without replacing it with anything livelier or more interesting. Grade: B-. 
 
 The Cappuccino Challenge: Slight edge to Starbucks, though some may prefer the more coffee-muted McDonald’s version with its larger proportion of milk to coffee. 
 
 The Caffè Latte 
 
 Both McDonald’s and Starbucks served very similar versions of the caffè latte, a rather simple beverage involving a lot of hot milk topped by a thin layer of froth with just enough espresso (in the case of our samples, one serving) to make the milk taste vaguely coffee-flavored. 
 
 The Starbucks Tall (12-ounce) Caffè Latte 
 
 The drink: See above. Made with the Starbucks default 2% reduced fat milk. 
 
 The price (at our Northern California Starbucks): $2.65, tax included. 
 
 The quality: The coffee presence was muted but pleasing: the sharp, slightly burned coffee flavor dominant in the Starbucks cappuccino softened here to chocolate and caramel, with even a hint of mint in the finish. One of our two sample drinks was flatter than the other, with less chocolate suggestion. Nevertheless, a good version of the beverage. Grade: B-. 
 
 The McDonald’s Small (12-ounce) Caffè Latte 
 
 The drink: See above. Made with the McDonald’s default 3% whole milk. 
 
 The price: $1.99, or $2.19 with tax. 
 
 The quality: The milk seemed to intensify the flat woody character of the coffee without promoting much in the way of compensating flavor. The coffee imparted no natural chocolate or caramel suggestions to the milk that I could detect. Grade: C+. 
 
 The Caffè Latte Challenge: Definite edge to Starbucks, which was similar to the McDonald’s but with a livelier coffee flavor. 
 
 The Caffè Mocha 
 
 The mocha is a sweet-tooth favorite in American espresso cuisine. Contemporary versions put a serving of espresso plus chocolate syrup into a caffè-latte quantity of hot milk, topped by a thin layer of froth and, at the customer’s discretion, a modest mound of whipped cream. This was clearly the featured beverage at the McCafé locations we visited, where banners and signs pictured it in creamy splendor, the whipped cream topping crisscrossed with a golden-arches grid of chocolate syrup dribbles. 
 
 The Starbucks Tall (12-ounce) Mocha 
 
 The drink: About ten ounces of milk flavored by one serving of espresso and a discreet shot of sweetened chocolate syrup, topped with whipped cream (whipping cream from a dairy supplier with vanilla and propellant but no other ingredients added). 
 
 The price (at our Northern California Starbucks): $2.95, tax included. 
 
 The quality: The milk was sweetly but subtly flavored with what seemed to be good quality chocolate syrup. The coffee flavor was difficult to clearly pick out behind the chocolate, milk and whipped cream residue; nevertheless it made its presence felt, giving the chocolate sweetness a pleasingly bittersweet, grown-up edge. Grade: B. 
 
 The McDonald’s Small (12-ounce) Mocha 
 
 The drink: A caffè latte with a lot of added chocolate and sugar, topped with Reddi-wip Original (canned whipped cream with significant additional ingredients). 
 
 The price: $1.99, or $2.19 with tax. 
 
 The quality: Sugar and cheap-tasting chocolate syrup dominated both milk and coffee. Distinctly oily, chemical-tasting finish. Better when ordered without the Reddi-wip. Essentially came across as a not-very-good hot chocolate with bonus caffeine. Grade: D-. 
 
 The Mocha Challenge: Edge to Starbucks big-time, although the Starbucks version costs 76 cents more than the McDonald’s. 
 
 The Caramel Latte 
 
 I am told that vanilla and caramel syrups reign as the public’s favorite additions to milk-based espresso beverages (following chocolate, of course). A caramel latte does not appear on either McDonald’s or Starbucks menus, but is one of the favorites among the 87,000 beverage variations Starbucks boasts about, and the counter person at McDonald’s certainly knew what I was asking for: A caffè latte with an added shot of caramel syrup. At both McDonald’s and Starbucks the caramel latte is not served with whipped cream unless the customer requests it. We tried it without. 
 
 The Starbucks Tall (12-ounce) Caramel Latte 
 
 The drink: A caffè latte made with the default 2% reduced fat milk with a generous squeeze of either caramel sauce (the kind that is added to sundaes) or caramel syrup. We chose caramel sauce. 
 
 The price (at our Northern California Starbucks): $2.95, tax included. 
 
 The quality: A very distinct, heavy-bodied caramel flavor dominates the drink, though without excessive or cloying sweetness. Only the remotest hint of the presence of coffee. Grade: B-. 
 
 The McDonald’s Small (12-ounce) Caramel Latte 
 
 The drink: A caffè latte made with the default whole milk with added caramel syrup. 
 
 The price: $2.29, or $2.51 with tax. 
 
 The quality: The caramel presence is less dominating than the chocolate added to the McDonald’s mocha; nevertheless it is cloyingly sweet, shallow in sensation and distinctly metallic-tasting, especially in the finish. Grade: D. 
 
 The Caramel Latte Challenge: Chalk up another one for Starbucks. 
 
 The Bottom Line 
 
 It appears that at this front of the war you get what you pay for, particularly when it comes to drinks that include syrups and whipped cream. 
 
 Although we preferred the more intense Starbucks cappuccino to the milkier McDonald’s version, many consumers understandably may prefer the McDonald’s. The difference in caffè lattes was subtle, perhaps not worth fussing over for most palates, although we found the Starbucks version livelier and more nuanced. 
 
 However, the superiority of the Starbucks versions of caffè mocha and caramel latte was dramatic, and significant, given consumer preference for espresso beverages involving added syrups. From what we could tell, Starbucks simply used considerably better quality syrups and whipped cream and added them with a subtler, more controlled hand. 
 
 Finally, it appeared to us that the darker roasted, sharper and more pungent Starbucks espresso blend, although much derided by coffee insiders (“Charbucks”), nevertheless contributed a livelier and more complex coffee flavor to the milk and flavorings than did the apparently rather woody and flat McDonald’s blend. 
 
 Readers of Coffee Review know that I am not a Starbucks basher of the kind typical in the specialty coffee industry. On the other hand, it should be clear from the pattern of our review ratings that we do not cut any slack for Starbucks either. And I am certainly not a McDonald’s basher, harboring as I do considerable gratification at the success of the McDonald’s premium drip program in revealing that many Americans prefer a classic traditional drip coffee to the dark-roasted Starbucks style. 
 
 In other words, with this article we are not taking sides in some vaguely ideological conflict between corporate styles and customer demographics. We are simply doing our best to describe what you are likely to taste at the point you pry the plastic top off your logo-adorned cup of milk, coffee and syrup.
– How many black forest lattes can the Chinese drink? Starbucks is hoping the answer is a lot. CEO Howard Schultz tells CNNMoney the coffee giant is planning to open more than one new store each day in China over the next five years. The projection to have almost 5,000 stores across the country by 2021 comes despite the fact that growth in China has slowed to its lowest levels in a quarter-century. Unphased by that economic forecast, Schultz says Starbucks is looking far into the future. "I think if you look at the 45-year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz says. He adds that tourists and expats made up the majority of Starbucks customers in China only five years ago. "Today," he says, "it's mostly Chinese. " China is the chain's second-largest market, after the US. Schultz says he expects that standing to flip as more Chinese discover menu items like cranberry white chocolate mochas. When the first Starbucks opened 17 years ago in China, the locals had no idea the addictive value of a cup of Joe—or how much better one could be topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was—the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." Other businesses like KFC and McDonald's haven't fared as well in recent times in the world's second-largest economy, and both have sought outside investors, per CNNMoney. (A class-action lawsuit says Starbucks lattes lack milk.)