For more and more people in China, coffee has become their cup of tea.

The Chinese coffee market used to be dominated by foreign brands such as Starbucks, Tim Hortons of Canada and Costa Coffee from Britain. But they face intensifying competition from Chinese coffee chains such as Luckin, Cotti and Manner, as well as local independent cafés in big cities like Beijing.

For coffee drinkers, that means more choice than ever, whether it’s a plain Americano or a latte infused with pork flavors or Chinese liquor.

Though tea remains foundational to Chinese culture, some young, middle-class consumers are finding coffee’s caffeine kick to be more suited to the pressures of a competitive job market and workplace.

Li Yizhe, 26, said in the past two years she had started drinking coffee every day as a way to boost her energy.“I used to drink milk tea, but now I’ve shifted to coffee,” Li, a government worker, said while sitting at an artisanal coffee shop in a Beijing hutong, or alley.

Zhang Jian, a 33-year-old freelancer, said he has about a cup of coffee a day, often at Luckin.“It’s convenient to buy because the stores are everywhere, and the prices are also budget-friendly,” he said.

He cited the high job stress and long hours workers face as reasons for coffee’s growing popularity, as well as the addictive nature of caffeine.“As colleagues start to pick up the habit, it gradually forms a coffee culture,” he said.

The rise in Western-style coffee consumption in China can be attributed to a shift in lifestyle preferences as more people have more disposable income, said Nirmit Limbachia, project lead for food and beverage at Mordor Intelligence, a market research firm based in India. Urbanization, globalization and the rapid expansion of both domestic and foreign coffee shops have also made international coffee culture “more accessible and familiar,” he said.