By Lu Chang China Daily October 12, 2012 A Starbucks sign is seen in Qianmen, Beijing. The increasing interest of the Chinese consumers for coffee has created huge opportunities for coffee chains and equipment makers. Jason Lee / Reuters At home and in cafes, China is waking up and smelling the coffee When Diego Panucci left home for his first trip to China in 2000, there was one very important thing he forgot in his weeks of preparation - his coffee maker. The young Italian, who came to study Chinese, was facing a year without caffeine as precious few coffee shops existed in China back then, when the growing middle classes had yet to begin developing a taste for arabica and robusta beans. "It was really killing me, and when I told the taxi driver to find a cafe, he didn't have the faintest idea what I was talking about," says Panucci, who can't begin a day without having his espresso. "I found instant coffee instead. It wasn...