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Cling
C Story & Photo / Taylor Wong. Illustration / Shuo_gi HongKong

Together

Coffee Confidential,
a local reality show, helped specialty
coffee to grow back in 2009.
Form A Neighborhood

The turn of the millennium brought a demand for high quality
coffee to Hong Kong. This new trend introduced the Arabica coffee
bean to a local audience who was previously only familiar with Ro-
busta, bringing large coffee chains such as Starbucks and Pacific
Coffee to set up shop on streets that used to be filled only with dim-
sum restaurants and tea shops. From 2009 to 2012, the first batch of
home-grown independent and boutique cafes sprouted gradually
across the city. Soon after, the Hong Kong Professional Coffee Asso-
ciation was established, and the city began hosting a slew of success-
ful coffee-related events while also breeding talent that rose through
the ranks to compete in worldwide barista tournaments... The pursuit
of high quality coffee eventually became a daily part of life for the
people of Hong Kong.
Today, there are nearly 2,500 coffee shops listed in Hong Kong’s
OpenRice restaurant guide. Now, it’s not just the usual commuters
from Central, Sheung Wan and Wan Chai who are holding a coffee on
their way to work; these days, as more and more specialty cafes open
up in residential neighborhoods, alongside the city’s famed dimsum
hotspots that the locals just can’t give up, there’s also leisure consum-
ers who enjoy a brew during all hours of the day.
These cafes are places of human connection, serving cold brew
to people on their lunch breaks who just need an extra jolt of afternoon
energy as well as to those night owls who go from office to happy hour,
enlisting the help of both caffeine and alcohol to build new friendships
and relationships.
Perhaps the reason why baristas here are so close to their cus-
tomers is because the streets are so narrow. Or that the community is
The collision of Chinese and British already so small. But whatever the reason is, these cafes are integral
culture gave birth to the unique dining
culture – cha chaan teng. to everyday life as it provides a place of connecting, healing, learning
and loving for all.

HongKong

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