Coffee, another face of Pengjiang

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A foreigner came to Pengjiang, Jiangmen, drank Heytea and Buweiji at Jiuzhong Street, drank Shao Ning and Neighbors at Diwang, and then Sigh: Jiangmen is indeed the capital of milk tea! As everyone knows, I only saw its young side.

Coffee, like an undercurrent, has gradually become a deep-seated face of Jiangmen.

Last year, Jiangmen City held the first Coffee Culture Week at Wuyi Overseas Chinese Plaza; Pengjiang District was no different, as were the Coffee Charity Meeting on Chaolian Island and the Coffee Music Festival in Binjiang Art Park. The house was full of distinguished guests, and there were clouds of victorious friends. The rapid development of coffee culture is due to the spark of new cafes. Since the 3M Cafe became popular in East Lake Park in 2019, the number of cafes in the three districts of Jiangmen has increased from a few hundred to 2,700 in the past few years. On Jianghua Road in Pengjiang alone, more than ten cafes were opened.

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When it comes to coffee shops, you can’t avoid those time-honored brands. In Pengjiang, there are only a handful of old shops that have stood for more than ten years, and all of them have their own unique skills. For example, the first coffee shop in Jiangmen City – Gitzo Coffee in 1998, is located on Hengling Road in Pengjiang, close to the old bus terminal and Hengling Market. It was the most densely populated place at the end of the last century; in addition, it imported Macau Dacheng The company\’s coffee beans are exclusively supplied to large hotels such as Qiaodu and Le Palace, and have a stable sales market. Coffee City, which opened in the early 21st century, caught up with the trend of logistics development and became the first professional coffee beverage distribution store in Jiangmen.

Image provided by Ancient Ship Coffee.

If the above companies have captured the market and convenience, and practicality is king, then the next company possesses pragmatic dragon-slaying skills, but achieves great use with \”uselessness\”.

The Ancient Ship Cafe on Fengle Road pursues situational aesthetics and focuses on nautical retro-themed decoration. The buttresses on the outer wall are made into the tip of the ship\’s bow; the screen at the entrance is a huge compass; the floor paving at the entrance is the patterned step board for boarding the ship; the walls are pasted with mottled and holed ship wood, old ones from Xijiang Wharf. Boat. The anchor-shaped chandelier and the lifebuoy-shaped wall clock are all in paulownia color. The skylight leaking from the second floor portholes casts on the guests\’ faces, forming a Rembrandt light and darkness. Order a cup of Brazilian Sandos and smell the aroma of medium-roasted coffee beans from South America. The bitterness of the smoke is slightly salty, as if the Pacific sea breeze has condensed. All this is deep yet warm, antique yet romantic, reminiscent of the cruise ship bound for Buenos Aires in Wong Kar-Wai\’s \”Happy Together\”.

Image provided by Gu Ship Coffee.

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The success of Ancient Ship Coffee has far-reaching influence, and the pursuit of the environment has become popular among young people. With the extension of asphalt roads and the popularity of private cars, newly opened cafes are gradually moving away from the busy city and focusing on the beautiful scenery. For example, the Research Space by the Xijiang River and Hanhai Coffee on the embankment of Chaotou Park.

Picture provided by Hanhai Coffee.

The forest coffee next to the Daxikeng Reservoir is surrounded by lakes and mountains. The large floor-to-ceiling windows are facing the green waves of boats and oars, and white catalpa trees and wild awns are swaying by the lake. Natural and quiet, you feel like you are in Walden Pond, enjoyThoreauian detachment and peace.

Image provided by Forest Coffee.

Other shops rely on historical and cultural buildings, integrating the trendy style of overseas Chinese hometowns, letting green moss grow on the pavilions, scraping away dirt and polishing them. In Qimingli, there are more than 10 overseas Chinese residences with a history of more than a hundred years. They were once dilapidated and deserted. In recent years, 10 cafes have been installed, and they are full of life again.

Shixian Coffee moved into Qiming Lane four years ago. The owner, a native of Pengjiang, worked hard in Chengdu and brought back the trendy toys and classical elements of Sichuan and Chongqing – pendants of Sichuan opera masks, accessories of the burger thief at the bar, and installations made of Coke cans. brick wall and ebony rafters, Liu Shu\’s back wave traveled to Lingnan in the Republic of China; when exposed to it, the diverse and interesting flavors stirred the imagination, just like savoring a cup of Ethiopian Sidamo, with multi-layered flavors, intertwined with sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty.

As for the taste, the hand-brewed coffee in the store is often paired with a cup of water. The shop owner said that if you take a sip of hand-brewed coffee and then a sip of water, you will feel a slight sweetness in your mouth. If you drink a lot, you can taste the freshness and sweetness from the sourness and bitterness of the coffee without water, which is similar to the taste of grapefruit. Listening to what he said, I tried many times, but it was always bitter and burnt. The shop owner laughed and said that people\’s tolerance for sourness and bitterness is one thousandth of that of sweetness, so if it\’s high in sugar, you won\’t feel it\’s too much, but if it\’s a little bit bitter, you\’ll get stressed. \”You just graduated from college, drink little, have no experience, and are particularly sensitive to sourness and bitterness. You should start with slightly sweet milk coffee.\”

Picture provided by Shixian Coffee.

The shop owner has traveled extensively, from Guangzhou to Chengdu, and has had five or six jobs; after being away for many years, he returned to Jiangmen and is now the father of two children. He said he drinks coffeeOver the past few years, I have become desensitized to sourness and bitterness, and I can tolerate bitterness as well as sweetness.

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The rise of coffee sometimes contains the power of dreams.

Picture provided by Hanhai Coffee.

The foreman of Hanhai Coffee is from Jianghai, Jiangmen. He was born in the 2000s and started middle school. He drank the three-in-one instant coffee from Jiuzhong Street and the freeze-dried powder brought back by overseas Chinese in Kuala Lumpur. He also liked to follow his father to Gangkang Road. Eat steak at Wheatfield Coffee and sigh at a glass of iced Americano extracted from a teardrop machine. These beauties that paved the way for coffee nourished life and accompanied him to university. At the International Coffee Exhibition in Guangzhou, they blended with the graceful images of masters shaking hands and brewing pots, becoming a halo of dreams and illuminating the path of career. .

Pictures provided by Yue Café.

There is a girl who has returned from overseas. In her childhood, she often went to the Changdi Scenic Area to eat Shiwan dim sum and visit the Water Street Market. There is a dazzling array of products, but unfortunately there is no place to drink coffee. The old arcades nearby have been eroded by the wind and the sun, and are gradually sparsely populated – they have not yet welcomed An Xin and Gao Qiqiang. Later, she went to Columbia University in New York to study urban design. The course on old city renovation made her miss the rotten wood and decaying walls of the old arcades, as well as the missing smell of coffee.

After returning to China, I rented an old tiled house with rafters on Shiwanzhi Street and named it \”Yue Cafe\”. I designed and renovated it myself, and built it into a coffee shop that combines Chinese and Western styles – Xinhui\’s Fish Lantern , looking at the film camera on the decorative cabinet of the fireplace; the pop art mural is hung next to the crabapple glass of the Manchurian window; in my spare time, I made postcards of the scenery taken overseas for customers to write inscriptions on; when the Spring Festival is approaching, I am also hanging in LotusRed lanterns are hung on the patterned tiles.

Pictures provided by Yue Café.

Jiangmen, the capital of overseas Chinese in China, has made overseas Chinese feel more friendly with its openness and tolerance, and more and more overseas Chinese have returned. One day, a returned overseas Chinese from San Francisco walked into the Cafe and ordered a glass of Colombian water. He looked down at the postcard of the Golden Gate Bridge on the table and smiled calmly: \”Oh, that\’s Bob Dylan singing \”Gone with the Wind.\” Place. ”

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Taste can sometimes trigger memories. Proust smelled the madeleine in the black tea and began to reminisce about the past. When a certain smell floats in the streets and alleys all year round and blends into the lives of residents, it will easily lead to nostalgia.

Coffee, with its strong bitterness and dark color, reminds people of the ancient taste and low mood. When the Turkish novelist Pamuk went to his country to miss his hometown, he talked about the role of coffee to the locals, and mentioned \”Hüzün\” – coffeehouses in Istanbul, which are scattered among the ancient ruins and old sites. There are long lines between buildings, waiting for a cup of coffee. The incompleteness left by time and the earthy smell mixed with coffee, the long queues, the decaying street scene, and the seemingly lively but stagnant flow of people give people an inexplicable melancholy, which condenses into a low mood shared by most residents. Similarly, when the girl who returned from overseas smells the aroma of coffee in Manhattan, New York, she will think of the young man sitting in front of the cafe on Yude Street in Pengjiang, under the tall banyan tree.

However, unlike the melancholy of the Turks, the homesickness of the returned girls is scented with flowers and rice. Pengjiang, which strangles the throat of the Xijiang River, is the gateway for people from western Guangdong to enter the Pearl River Delta and for people from Siyi to go north to Guangfo. Huazhou\’s noodles and beef brisket noodles, Taishan\’s mudworm porridge, and Xinhui people\’s flower baskets and potted plants are all gathered on Yude Street. The teenagers who play cards, board games, and chat in front of the cafe sometimes pick up coffee and walk on the promenade. of Wandering under the shade of the banyan tree, like a wanderer in the arcades of Paris, or going to a flower shop to pick up a loose rose and wait at a certain street corner; goods. They are the smart notes surrounding the aroma of coffee, curious, free and undisciplined. Such leisurely and aimless play is called \”HEA\” in Cantonese.

If street coffee induces hüzün to Turks, then to Pengjiang people it means \”HEA\”.

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When it comes to the \”HEA\” of Pengjiang Coffee, the wandering teenagers are just the tip of the iceberg, and the more typical ones are wandering Coffee and open-air tea stalls

A few motorcycle-style young people boarded Haojue motorcycles and carried guitars to enjoy the vast scenery and feel relaxed and happy. The villages, such as Rainbow Road in Shangxiang Lane, Tiansha River on Huasheng Road, and Bagua Mountain behind Wuyi Old Street, put up curtains, hung star lights, put storage boxes, lined up camping chairs, and put out siphon pots and grinders. . The entire coffee stall is filled with blues and folk songs, not for the sake of rice, but for casual encounters with leisurely and leisurely tourists, and the fragrance of coffee fills the starry night.

There is a long-haired man who is a hip-hop coach. In his free time, he likes to go to Bagua Mountain to set up a stall and make coffee. There is a Deyi Boxing Gym in Wuyi Old Street at the foot of the mountain. Apprentices often go to the mountain to do horse walking. , drinking coffee during the break.

During the Mid-Autumn Festival the year before last, several friends including Zihong, A Lei, Baodian and I went up the mountain to enjoy the moon. It happened to be that the Foshan boxer Le Shao came to Deyi. The second master of the boxing gym, Ayu, is a Northeastern woman who has been teaching Muay Thai in Pengjiang for more than ten years. She fights against the heroes of Le Shao Bagua Mountain in person, which is reminiscent of \”The Grandmaster.\” \”Gong Er and Ip Man in \”At that time, the punches were like dragons, the palms were moving like wind, and the figures were coming and going for hundreds of rounds.

The apprentices in the boxing gym sat on the ground and surrounded the two of them. The camping chairs at the coffee stall were also full of customers. They all raised their glasses and stared in amazement. The long-haired man cooked a large pot of instant pot and distributed it to the empty hands. Audience. Zhao Lei in the speaker suddenly changed toIn the theme song \”Youthful Heart\” of \”Fang Shiyu\”, at the climax, a long-haired man dances to add to the fun, turning his limbs in the air, as gracefully as the wind blowing into the snow.

The scene that night left a deep impression on us, so that long after, Wei Ge, who loves Gulong novels, could not help but talk about the Mid-Autumn Night in Bagua Mountain – seeing Ximen Chuixue During the decisive battle with Ye Gucheng at the top of the Forbidden City, the instant coffee handed over by Luo Shen also tasted like wine!

The author of this article: Chen Nianxin, a selected student of Shitou Village in Tangxia Town

Arranged by: Nandu reporter Luo Zhongming and correspondent Wang Jing