Make yourself a cup of handmade coffee and take a deep breath in life

Original by Wu Ge/Wu Shuo Catering

In the afternoon, I often use a filter and a sharing cup to make a cup of handmade coffee for myself. The coffee powder is pre-ground, medium-fine powder, 20 grams, 120 to 140 ml of 90-degree hot water, 1:6, between Italian espresso and American coffee, a little sugar, no milk, slightly sour and bitter, this is my favorite taste. If you add 200 ml to 250 ml of water, add milk and sugar, it will taste like freshly ground American coffee from Starbucks or KFC. If you have enough time, you can also grind the coffee beans and use a manual grinder to shake them for a while. It is not only fun, but also feels like a deep breath in your busy life.

Make a cup of handmade coffee and take a deep breath in life

In between work, taking a break, making a cup of coffee and enjoying a little leisure has become a habit of life. The scenery outside the window changes with the seasons, the ginkgo tree with tender green in spring, lush green in summer, golden yellow in autumn and bleak in winter, the ordinary and busy life, the trivial affairs of all sizes, the new and old friends near and far, are all filled with poetry in the fragrance of a cup of coffee. Although I go to a cafe from time to time, I have also sat in cafes on the streets of Paris, Florence, and Venice, but they are only temporary and occasional. It is not as intimate, casual and calm as this cup of handmade coffee made by myself.

It turns out that I, like most Chinese people, don't drink coffee, but only tea. I had no chance to study after finishing junior high school when I was 15 years old. At that time, after finishing junior high school, I became an educated youth and was required to go to the countryside to receive re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants. Fortunately, the local economy has been developing very well. During the Cultural Revolution, there was a sudden shortage of labor. A military representative decided that the junior high school students of those years should go to factories to work as workers. So I went to a steel rolling mill and followed a little old master who was a sixth-level fitter. The master made a cup of tea every day. He used the enamel teacup issued by the factory, put a lot of tea leaves, filled it with water, found a hot steel billet, put it in for a few minutes, and the teacup boiled. I was responsible for making tea every day. After it boiled, I brought it back and drank a few sips quietly. Gradually, I fell in love with drinking tea.

In the past, people didn’t pay much attention to drinking tea. At first, they used large enamel teapots, and later they used glass cups. The cups with lids that were small at both ends and bulging in the middle were usually called travel cups, which were suitable for carrying. Tea leaves were usually stir-fried green tea or Yixing black tea. At that time, there was a foreign trade tea factory in Yixing, which was state-owned. Most of the black tea exported from Jiangsu Province came from there. The black tea I usually drink is also from this factory, and I can only buy it through a note approved by an acquaintance. This habit of drinking tea did not stop until the college entrance examination was resumed in the late 1970s. After I was admitted to university, I felt that it was not appropriate for me to bring a cup to make tea every day during my study period. Unlike the cadre classes that were turbulent later, many male students brought a cup of tea and drank tea while listening to the class, as if they were listening to a book in a bookstore. It was so fun.

A coffee shop away from the hustle and bustle

I don't drink coffee because I don't like it, but it was hard to get it in those days. In the memory of Beijingers, there was a Moscow restaurant where you could eat Western food and drink coffee. In Shanghai, there were International Hotel and Red House Western Restaurant where you could drink coffee. However, there were almost no coffee shops in prefecture-level cities. At that time, there were very few beverage shops in Wuxi. I remember there was only one upstairs in the First Food Store and one next to Zhongbaiyi Store. They sold cold drinks in summer and hot drinks on weekdays, such as red bean soup, malted milk, cocoa drinks, etc. Coffee was not sold. Maybe a few foreign-related hotels had it, but it was not supplied to ordinary people. Coffee powder and coffee beans were also sold in almost no stores. Occasionally, you could buy a kind of instant coffee, which was square, with a layer of white sugar on the outside and a cup of coffee inside. Then you had to ask a few close friends to share it. Coffee is a drink with Western imprints. In the era when the East Wind was advocated to overwhelm the West Wind, it was a symbol of the bourgeois lifestyle. Enemies or spies in movies and bourgeois characters often drank red wine and coffee. How could I, who was determined to be a successor, have anything to do with coffee! We must draw the line. Only tea!

The first time I drank coffee was at a New Charlie Western Restaurant in Liyuan Township, Wuxi. A student from Liyuan Township invited me to try Western food. This Western restaurant was located at the southeast corner of the current Chinese Medicine Hospital, at the turn of the road. The township built a row of simple houses and opened shops and restaurants. This was in the mid-1980s, and the spring breeze of reform and opening up had already blown. Several Wuxi elderly people who retired from Shanghai Western restaurants returned to their hometown to open Western restaurants with the support of the township. It was a township-run business. New Charlie's Western food is very authentic, and the coffee is intoxicating. After eating Western food, I had a cup of coffee. The mellow aroma was very different from tea, which made my tongue, which had tasted borscht and fried steak, enjoy the mellow and bitter stimulation. At that time, I often added a lot of sugar. I was young and liked the sweet taste of milk.

After that, many people began to try coffee, a new drink. Later, coffee shops such as Shangdao Coffee appeared, becoming the first choice for many people to experience Western food and taste coffee, and also a place for some successful people to discuss or relax. Coffee shops were once the subject of writing for literary young women, and they should also be the place where they experience life and get inspiration. I remember sitting on Shangdao with a young boss who did 100 to 200 million yuan in business every year in the late 1990s. The young man seemed to say casually: I eat breakfast on Shangdao every day, the coffee here is good. At that time, the monthly income of corporate employees was about 1,000 to 2,000 yuan, and a cup of Shangdao coffee cost 20 to 30 yuan. This small boss spent about a day's income on his employees for a breakfast, which was undoubtedly showing off.

Nestle coffee is sold in almost all supermarkets in China

For most Chinese people, their coffee enlightenment was promoted by "Nestle". Nestle is the first Swiss coffee company to enter China. Other brands of coffee such as Maxwell House in the United States entered China after Nestle. The numerous Chinese local brands now also started to produce instant coffee under the enlightenment of Nestle. In 1989, CCTV broadcast the advertisement of Nestle coffee: "Nestle coffee, tastes great!" This plain and simple sentence is still fresh in the memory of people who have come through that era. It has almost become an irreplaceable coffee cognition. Many people will think of "tastes great" when they pick up a cup of coffee. Even if they are sitting in a crowded Starbucks and smelling the mellow aroma of coffee, they think of this Nestle slogan. There is also Maxwell House coffee that followed Nestle: "Every drop is fragrant and you can't get enough." Domestic coffee is now everywhere, but can you remember the slogan of which coffee? The first memory is always the most profound, which is why people can't forget their first love and the secret of their original intention.

Coffee and tea are the two most influential beverages in the world. Coffee represents the West, and tea represents the East. Although the British afternoon tea is very famous, and the British-style milk tea is very popular, the annual sales revenue of the British tea brand Lipton exceeds the annual sales of Chinese tea, but it was not until the 18th century that tea developed rapidly after the trade with China. The best black tea in the UK is produced in India, and Indian black tea was first introduced from China. The history of drinking coffee in the West is similar to the introduction of Chinese tea, which gradually emerged after the great geographical discoveries. Coffee originated in Ethiopia, Africa, and later spread to the Arabian Peninsula. The locals initially used coffee to make food. Coffee beans and coffee powder were boiled and eaten or added to flour to bake bread. Later, a doctor discovered that the juice boiled from coffee could cure diseases, recorded it in his medical book, and became popular. Later, people occasionally discovered that the juice boiled from roasted coffee was more exciting, and the history of coffee as a beverage began. Europeans not only introduced coffee as a beverage to the West, but also tried to plant coffee trees in the Caribbean and South America and achieved success, meeting the growing demand for coffee consumption in Western society. At this time, the sugar industry created by industrialization was well developed, which played a huge role in promoting the popularity of black tea and coffee. The Arabian port of Mocha, which was the first to engage in coffee trading, and Jamaica, which was the first to successfully grow coffee, became the names of two famous coffee varieties: Mocha and Blue Mountain.

Nestle coffee is actually an innovation of traditional coffee. Traditional coffee beans and coffee powder are limited by shelf life. In the late 1930s, the Wall Street stock market crash caused the collapse of coffee prices, and a large amount of coffee was piled up in warehouses. In order to solve this problem, Nestle's technical personnel worked hard for several years and created a new type of instant coffee, which quickly became popular in Britain and the United States. Nestle instant coffee has a long shelf life and is easy to brew. It became a portable drink for the US military during World War II. Nestle coffee has entered China for more than 30 years, opened three coffee factories, and cultivated Yunnan into an important coffee production base. In recent years, Yunnan small-grain coffee and Blue Mountain flavored coffee have been sold all over the country, which has a lot to do with the early promoters of Nestle coffee. The emergence of Nestle instant coffee is not only a symbol of industrial civilization in the coffee industry, but also promotes the full popularization of coffee drinking.

Maxwell House is another instant coffee giant

I have been drinking instant coffee for more than ten years, including Nestle, Maxwell House and domestic brands, mainly because of its convenience. Original, espresso, mocha, latte, Blue Mountain, iced coffee, white coffee, pure black, cappuccino, all kinds of flavors to choose from, coffee, milk sugar three-in-one, one pack per cup, ready to drink, no delay. Since the mid-to-late 1990s, some white-collar workers have started to put instant coffee on their desks. Brewing a cup in the lounge can refresh the mind, and the withered inspiration and tired body will be revived in an instant. I was invited to conduct research in Singapore Air and several listed companies in Hong Kong. I saw that their office areas all provide free coffee, but Coca-Cola has to be bought with money. For a few years, I was in charge of the work of a unit and tried to put free instant coffee in the tea room. It was very popular. The trouble was that no matter how much was put, it would all be used up after lunch. Some people not only brewed and drank it, but also secretly took a few packs home to drink. After about twenty days of experimentation, the embarrassing situation did not change, so I had to withdraw.

After drinking enough instant coffee, I started to drink freshly brewed coffee. I first went to a coffee shop to drink it. I found it tasty and gradually became addicted. I bought a coffee machine to brew it myself. It was a bit like returning to nature. Going to a coffee shop to drink is about drinking an atmosphere. Whether you are with a few friends or alone, you are in that specific atmosphere, with exquisite utensils, exquisite decorations, elegant background music, and some wonderful snacks. If you sit by the window, you may see a vivid street scene or a quiet and beautiful lake and mountain scenery. You will inevitably feel a little emotional in your heart, and at the same time try to behave like a gentleman. Brewing coffee yourself is about drinking a mood. Make it slowly and drink it slowly. You can also play some music, use a stereo, or a mobile phone. You can feel comfortable and unrestrained, enjoy the freedom of the process, and taste the essence of coffee.

I have used drip coffee machines and Italian pressurized coffee machines. The first coffee machine was a drip coffee machine, which I bought in the late 1990s. It has not broken down yet, but it has been "retired". I admire the American spirit of reform in coffee. The invention of the drip coffee machine has made brewing coffee a convenient and quick thing. Moreover, the drip coffee machine is cheap, easy to operate, and more suitable for the public. Changing a small cup of Italian espresso to a large cup of American coffee has also made coffee a more popular and daily drink. Currently, the most popular coffee in China, Starbucks, KFC, and Luckin Coffee, are all American coffee. I once wanted to buy a fully automatic coffee machine that integrates grinding, powder feeding, pressurized extraction, and milk foaming. After trying it, I gave up the idea. The fully automatic coffee machine is too industrialized. It feels a bit "pretentious" to put it at home, and it takes up space. It is better to learn to brew it by hand, which has a more traditional sense of ritual.

Italian street cafe

In addition to being bitter, coffee is also slightly sour. Italians like to drink coffee with a slightly sour bitter taste, while Americans don't like sourness so much. Starbucks coffee rarely tastes sour. There are three varieties of coffee on the earth: Arabica, Robusta and Liberica. Arabica accounts for 60 to 70% of the market share, Robusta accounts for 30 to 40%, and Liberica is negligible. The coffee beans and coffee powder available in the domestic market are mainly Arabica coffee. Robusta rarely sells coffee beans and coffee powder alone because of its bitterness and peculiar smell. Indonesia and Vietnam are the main planting areas of Robusta coffee. The three-in-one instant coffee they produce mainly uses Robusta coffee beans. The caffeine content of Robusta is much higher than that of Arabica, which is suitable for making instant coffee, and a large amount of sugar and creamer can cover up its peculiar smell. Roasting is crucial to the taste and mouthfeel of coffee. Deeply roasted coffee is more bitter, while medium roasted coffee is bitter with a slight acidity. I usually choose medium-roasted coffee, both imported Italian coffee and domestic Yunnan coffee, and sometimes mix them together. I think it has the tone of cocktail coffee, but the taste is not that surprising. I just enjoy it.

There are more and more handmade coffee utensils available on the market: hanging ear type, filter cup type, siphon pot, French press pot, mocha pot, etc. This shows that the way of handmade coffee is accelerating in popularity, and more and more people like to make a cup of handmade coffee by themselves. The siphon pot is the most interesting one. During the process of brewing coffee, you can carefully watch the interaction between water flow, flame and coffee powder, fully enjoy the process, and then taste the beauty of coffee, but it makes me feel cumbersome and not suitable for a fast-paced life. The characteristics of the mocha pot are that it is more convenient to brew espresso than a siphon pot, but it must be equipped with a heating furnace. The French press can fully enjoy the oil overflowing during the coffee brewing process, and can also make milk foam, but if you are not careful, coffee grounds will come out. I prefer to use the filter cup brewing method. In terms of the way of drinking coffee, most Chinese people prefer the American style. First prepare a pot of boiling water, preheat the metal filter and glass sharing cup, then add the coffee powder to the filter, add a little 95-degree hot water to simmer, after a dozen seconds, add 60 ml of 90-degree hot water to completely cover the coffee powder, wait for the water to filter out, then add more than 60 ml of hot water, wait a while, pour into the coffee cup, add a little sugar, no milk, and a cup of coffee for one person is ready, you can slowly enjoy the mellow and delicious coffee. One of the great benefits of handmade coffee is that the brewing process is a relaxing and leisurely period, which is very important for coffee, at least it is a brief liberation of the body and mind.

Brewing Coffee with a French Press

In the past, coffee was not popular because it was blocked as a Western thing. Now, many people do not drink coffee because they are not used to it or think it is expensive. They are mainly middle-aged and elderly people. Young people like to drink coffee. I know people born in the 80s, 90s, and 00s. Some of them have Starbucks membership cards, and some drink Starbucks or Luckin Coffee every day. Starbucks is often full of young people. Luckin Coffee has opened in office buildings. Even KFC and McDonald's have opened new varieties of freshly ground coffee. Starbucks costs more than 30 yuan a cup, and KFC and McDonald's cost more than 20 yuan a cup. Those young people who don't have time to sit in the coffee shop sit at their desks and order takeout. A large cup of Luckin Coffee is 30% off or 55% off. At the beginning, they often drink it for free. Young people who are a little older have started to play with handmade coffee. Compared with tea, coffee is not expensive now. The mid-range coffee beans and coffee powder imported from Italy cost about 150 yuan for 500 grams, and the general ones cost about 100 yuan for 500 grams. Domestic Yunnan coffee is even cheaper. 500 grams of coffee beans or powder can make more than 30 cups of handmade coffee, which only costs a few yuan per cup, much cheaper than takeaway coffee. E-commerce merchants sell a wide variety of coffee brands, but choosing really good coffee still requires a keen eye.

This short article took me two afternoons to write. I drank four cups of coffee, two more than usual, which refreshed me. Suddenly I thought of Balzac. It is said that he drank 40 cups of coffee every day. Black coffee, no sugar, strong stimulation, can maintain vigorous creative thinking. How many cups of black coffee should be poured into his great "Human Comedy" consisting of 91 novellas and novels? I also remembered a Vietnamese coffee cup I have seen. It is made of stainless steel. It has both the characteristics of a filter cup and the function of pressure. It looks very convenient. Vietnam did not grow coffee in the past, but now it is vigorously developing the coffee industry. This kind of coffee cup should be a legacy left by the previous war: coffee is the daily drink of French and American soldiers. It is natural to be equipped with this kind of coffee cup. As long as there is hot water and coffee powder, you can drink a cup at any time. This kind of coffee cup can be bought everywhere in Vietnam's tourist spots. I will get one to play with it someday - drinking handmade coffee is originally a pursuit of relaxation and leisure. The word "play" is appropriate!

Yunnan and Hainan in China have become important coffee production bases

Jiangnan does not produce coffee. China's coffee is mainly produced in Yunnan, followed by Hainan. Coffee is a plant that loves sunlight and temperature. But the sunny Jiangnan is now China's largest coffee market, just like Italy and France do not produce coffee but are world-famous coffee drinking countries. A search on the Internet shows that there are more than 1,280 coffee shops and coffee-related stores in Wuxi, which is more than 160 more than the local teahouses and tea rooms; there are more than 2,800 coffee shops in Suzhou, which is more than 600 more than the teahouses; there are more than 740 coffee shops in Changzhou, which is almost the same as the teahouses and teahouses; there are more than 2,000 coffee shops in Nanjing, which is more than 900 more than the teahouses. There are more than 2,800 coffee shops in Hangzhou and more than 1,600 teahouses. There are more than 7,700 coffee shops in Shanghai and only more than 3,300 teahouses. Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which are economically and culturally developed, have more than 4,000 coffee shops each, while Yangzhou, a historical and cultural city, has only more than 400 coffee shops. It can be seen that coffee is popular and popular in Jiangnan. In the 18th century, there were more than 3,000 coffee houses in London, England, which was roughly synchronized with the progress of the Industrial Revolution. The annual output of the world's top Blue Mountain coffee is less than 1,000 tons, 85% of which is sold to the Japanese market, 5% to the US market, 5% to the European market, and 5% to other countries. China's imports of Blue Mountain coffee from various countries account for 15%. China's coffee production ranks 13th in the world and 4th in Asia. Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Shanghai rank first and third in the country in terms of the amount of imported coffee. Jiangnan, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places are all places with full openness, developed economy, and prosperous culture. It is not difficult to foresee that with the further development of social economy and culture, coffee will become more popular and become another major drink for the Chinese people.

More than 300 years ago, tea went abroad from China and became a favorite drink in many countries, and became the national drink of the United Kingdom. At the same time, coffee went abroad from Arabia and gradually became a popular drink in many countries. In recent decades, coffee has entered China more quickly, and it is expected that it will also become a favorite and very popular drink of the Chinese people. The world is open, culture is circulating, and deliciousness is shared.

Friends, do you want to drink a cup of handmade coffee? Make it yourself, it tastes great!

More and more young Chinese people are falling in love with coffee shops

Wu Ge is a scholar of literature and history, a scholar of brand strategy, a senior media person, an associate professor, a columnist on humanities and catering, and the author of works such as "ABC of Corporate Culture" and "Many Events in Ancient and Modern Times". He is striving to become a "foodie" with humanistic feelings and aesthetic ideals.