Where Coffee From Originally Meets a Shanghai Bus Stop Brew

Where Is Coffee From Originally, and Why Shanghai Cares

A Shanghai netizen set up camping gear under a bus shelter during the pandemic, brewing specialty coffee and playing vinyl records while shops offered takeout only. Passersby photographed the scene, and the story spread across Weibo. Some called the setup pretentious given the wind and rain; others defended it as personal freedom. The person involved later clarified their side, and opinion stayed split.

The episode reflects Shanghai's deep coffee culture, where shops appear on nearly every block. Coffee bean origin traces to Ethiopia, where Coffea arabica was first cultivated, before spreading to Yemen and beyond. The pandemic had already produced a viral "I want to buy coffee" moment in the city, showing how central daily brewing had become for residents.

Shanghai, an international metropolis hailed as the coffee capital, recently made trending searches because a netizen camped out at a bus stop drinking coffee and playing vinyl records. During the pandemic, coffee shops only offered takeout. This netizen took camping gear out of their car and enjoyed a special brew and vinyl music under a bus shelter. After being photographed by passersby, it sparked widespread discussion. Some questioned whether doing this in strong wind and heavy rain was too pretentious, while others considered it personal freedom. As the incident continued to escalate, the person involved came forward to clarify, and netizens' opinions were polarized. This article will present the whole incident and voices from all sides, while retaining related recommendations from Front Street Coffee.

Shanghai's most striking impression is that of an international metropolis with towering buildings, where you can encounter a coffee shop almost every few steps, and the whole city is filled with a small-bourgeois atmosphere. No matter how difficult reality is, one must still elegantly drink a cup of coffee. Just yesterday, a netizen sparked a large discussion among netizens because their coffee-drinking posture was too elegant.

Some time ago, COVID-19 reappeared in Shanghai. For everyone's safety, many people living in Shanghai had to isolate at home, and there was even a scene of "I want to buy coffee," letting the whole world see just how deep Shanghai people's obsession with coffee is.

The netizen who became a hot topic this time originally thought that under the current situation, not many people would go to coffee shops to consume, but upon arriving at the scene, they were shocked by everyone's enthusiasm for coffee. Due to the pandemic in Shanghai, coffee shops only provided takeout service and did not allow dine-in. In pursuit of comfort, this netizen took some camping gear out of the car, sat under a bus stop, and while tasting freshly bought special brew coffee, listened to vinyl records.

The version circulating on Weibo was that someone was brewing coffee and playing vinyl at a bus stop. It was precisely this elegant and leisurely attitude toward life that made some netizens uncomfortable.

Some netizens questioned: It was clearly windy and raining heavily that day. Under such circumstances, still having the leisure to brew coffee and play vinyl at a bus stop—wasn't that overdoing the act a bit?

Therefore, a Weibo blogger found the photos posted by the person involved on Xiaohongshu and compared them with the photos taken by passersby.

Some netizens commented that this kind of maneuver was no different from performance art.

Guo Degang and Zhou Libo once used the refined feel of coffee as material for jokes in programs, which shows that some people still hold an impression of coffee as "petty bourgeois" and "elegant." Some netizens commented that the "elegance" in this incident was more like that of a vagrant.