Chinese Tea Hub Branches Into Coffee As Tastes Change

Source: International Business Times

A worker raking coffee beans during the drying process at the Xiaowazi, or Little Hollow, coffee plantation in Pu’er AFP At a mountainside cafe in southwestern China, Liao Shihao brews handfuls of locally grown beans into steaming cups of coffee, a modern twist on the region's traditional drink. For centuries, Pu'er in Yunnan province has given its name to a type of richly fermented tea -- sometimes styled "pu-erh" -- famous across East Asia and beyond. But as younger Chinese cultivate a taste for punchy espressos, frothy lattes and flat whites, growers are increasingly branching out into tea's historic rival.