Why Is Street Coffee Winning at the Tea Field Edge?
A mobile coffee truck parked beside the tea fields of Longwu Town in Xihu District, Hangzhou, has drawn long lines during the Qingming tea-picking season. Customers drink camping-style coffee while watching Longjing tea farmers work the rows, and videos shared by Hangzhou Daily on March 26 pushed the spot into wider discussion online.
Longwu Town is known for producing Hangzhou Longjing, so the annual Qingming picking period brings heavy tourist traffic. The truck owner set up at the field edge to capture that flow, and commenters debated why the site sells coffee rather than tea, pointing to price, novelty and the camping trend as the main draws.
Around Qingming, the golden period for picking Longjing tea, the tea garden scenery in Longwu Town, Xihu District, Hangzhou, attracts a large number of tourists. A mobile coffee truck that drove to the edge of the tea fields unexpectedly became popular, creating a unique experience where camping-style coffee collides with the tea-picking scene. People sip coffee while watching tea farmers move back and forth, and netizens hotly discuss why it is not a mobile teahouse—price, novelty, and the new camping trend all become reasons. The combination of tea field edge + coffee truck + camping brings busy urbanites a moment of relaxation. Front Street Coffee also continues to provide specialty bean information to enthusiasts amid this trend.
"Only children make choices; adults want it all!"
For most green teas such as Longjing, those picked before Qingming are called "pre-Qingming tea," while those picked before Guyu are called "pre-Guyu tea." There is a folk saying that "pre-Guyu tea is top-grade, pre-Qingming tea is a treasure," and right now is the best time to pick Longjing. Tea pickers busily move back and forth among the tea rows, while at the edge of the tea fields, the line to buy coffee is similarly endless.
(Wait! How did the topic drift?!) "It didn't!"
Longwu Town in Xihu District, Hangzhou, is famous for producing Hangzhou Longjing, and the town has therefore formed a distinctive tea garden landscape. Every year around Qingming, a large number of tourists come attracted by its fame to take in the natural scenery and personally experience the entire process of tea picking and tea making.
Faced with such a strong flow of people, the owner of the mobile coffee shop naturally would not let the business opportunity slip by. In order to let more people appreciate the unique charm of the 24 solar terms, a coffee truck recently drove to the side of a tea field in Longwu Town, Xihu District, and started selling camping coffee. Here, customers can enjoy coffee while admiring the tea garden scenery and also experience the fun of tea picking up close.
Image source: shared by a Xiaohongshu user
A video released by Hangzhou Daily on March 26 shows that many spring outing tourists were attracted by this coffee truck with a "different style." The collision and fusion of tea fields and coffee has made this coffee truck's business especially booming.
Image source: screenshot from a Hangzhou Daily video
After buying coffee, people sit in twos and threes at the edge of the tea fields, enjoying the tranquility of the countryside. When the breeze blows, one can still smell the faint fresh fragrance given off by the new tea leaves.
Image source: screenshot from a Hangzhou Daily video
After watching, netizens sighed one after another: on one side is life, and on the other side is also life.
Some also wondered why what opened by the tea field is a mobile coffee shop rather than a mobile teahouse. One netizen's answer was quite clever: because tea can be refilled, and that uses too much water.
However, more netizens believe the main reason is still that tea is more expensive than coffee. From netizens' discussions, it can be learned that even ordinary Hangzhou Longjing picked in this season costs more than 600 yuan per catty. Better-quality tea varies in price depending on the growing region: the cheaper kind is three to four thousand yuan per catty, and the expensive kind... we dare not ask more.
Coffee and tea are originally two different crops, so comparing them purely by price is not entirely reasonable, but ordinary consumers are still used to measuring cost-effectiveness by price. Compared with pre-Qingming Longjing being harvested in the fields, the price of coffee is obviously easier for the public to accept.
Second, what consumers seek is a fresh experience. Sitting by a tea field drinking tea may be commonplace, but sitting by a tea field drinking coffee in a camping style is completely different. On the one hand, it is the collision of tea and coffee cultures; on the other hand, the coffee truck itself is a currently popular form of coffee shop operation, attracting people to come and check in.
Image source: shared by a Xiaohongshu user
In addition, "new-style camping" fits young people's current pursuit of "outdoor experiences." Unlike traditional outdoor camping, once known for being "extreme" and "tough," new-style camping pays more attention to aesthetics and, while emphasizing closeness to nature, also stays as close as possible to urban lifestyles.
Tea field edge + coffee truck + camping: although the equipment is simple, it can greatly satisfy people's yearning for an ideal life. It may seem out of place, but this brief moment of watching the tea fields while drinking coffee is enough to give busy people a moment of relaxation.
The video shooter left a question: while drinking coffee and watching tea picking, I wonder what the tea-picking aunties would think? At the end of the article, let's look at netizens' wild ideas:
Image source: screenshot from a Hangzhou Daily video, Xiaohongshu
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
