A cup that connects cultures

Soundbites

Yang Hongjian, owner of Coffee Plantation of River Valley in Dakaihe village, Pu'er city, Yunnan province

"We uphold biodiversity conservation, protect the lucid waters and lush mountains, and turn them into 'mountains of gold and silver'. We also inherit traditions while pursuing innovation through perseverance. This is the unwavering ideal of us second — and third-generation coffee farmers. By developing coffee study tours, parent-child experiences, coffee volunteer programs and other initiatives, our coffee plantation has forged a diversified 'coffee+' development path that integrates agriculture, culture and tourism with ecological sustainability. Our coffee plantation welcomes foreign visitors almost every week for a Pu'er coffee experience, and it's expected that we will be visited by at least 2,000 foreign individual tourists each year."

Alan He, deputy general manager of Greater China at Trung Nguyen Legend Group Corporation, a coffee producer from Vietnam

"Step inside the World Coffee Museum in Buon Ma Thuot, Vietnam, and you will smell the original aroma of beans from Ethiopia, trace the patterns on Turkish copper pots, and hear the story of the invention of steam-powered espresso machines in Italy. We plan to source specialty green coffee beans from Yunnan and deepen cooperation with Yunnan coffee through the coffee museum and our global chain of coffee shops. This will enable quality Yunnan coffee to be featured in the museum and leave a prominent mark on the history of world coffee. This is not a one-way purchase, but a mutual commitment. Yunnan's arabica and Vietnam's robusta beans will shine side by side on the global coffee map."

Hendy Yuniarto, an Indonesian lecturer at Beijing Foreign Studies University

"China's coffee culture has become deeply localized, with innovative new coffee drinks emerging all the time. These include tea-coffee fusions such as black tea lattes, Longjing and Pu'er tea lattes, coconut milk-based lattes, fruity Americanos with orange juice, and even special blends infused with baijiu liquor. Such creative coffee drinks offer consumers a richer and more diverse coffee experience. I experienced the unique charm of Pu'er coffee. It has a mild mouthfeel, full body, and gentle bitterness, with nutty and fruity sweet-acidic notes."

Xu Li, wife of the Greek ambassador to China, Evgenios Kalpyris

"China's coffee industry has developed at an extraordinary pace. Back in the 1990s, coffee was mainly available in star-rated hotels. Today, coffee shops can be found almost everywhere in first-and second-tier cities. Once relying heavily on imported coffee, China now boasts well-known domestic coffee produced in Yunnan. Previously dominated by a handful of international coffee chains, the country now has various domestic chain brands and niche specialty coffee shops across the nation. The rich variety of products, the extensive consumer base and the rapid pace of development have far exceeded expectations."

Tu Weicheng, CEO of Shanghai-based MQ Coffee

"Today, coffee farmers in Gaixin village, Pu'er city, Yunnan, have secured stable sales channels and guaranteed prices for their coffee beans (due to MQ Coffee's project there through a collaboration between Shanghai and Yunnan). Our new coffee production factory in Gaixin village has created numerous local jobs, allowing villagers to work close to home. In a village where the average annual income per person was less than 20,000 yuan ($2,933.42), we have doubled local salaries or raised them even higher … The development of Yunnan's coffee industry represents not only the upgrading of coffee beans themselves but also the improvement of the quality of life for countless villagers. It has become a vivid reflection of rural vitalization."