Hello, everyone, I am a coffee-loving old forest, from July 23, 2019 to become a member of the minority for almost three years now. In the minority, I also wrote some articles about coffee, which got the attention and affirmation of some friends, and some friends said that they learned some coffee knowledge, which I was satisfied.
2021 was a special year for me, producing only 12 coffee-related videos and 15 coffee-related graphics. In addition to being published on a minority platform, these contents were also published on my WeChat public account "Coffee Square".
Station B channel: Old Lin is still young
I am personally very dissatisfied with the output of this year, but because some other factors really interfere with my rhythm and prevent me from concentrating on producing more content, which is something I regret. But the new year has begun, or to look forward, I hope that the new year can continue to learn coffee knowledge, output more easy to understand coffee content, continue to let more people know coffee, understand coffee, fall in love with coffee.
In 2021, I have experienced a lot of things, these things have impressed me, but also deeply felt, the real sense of the coffee is my life, through coffee to make my life more interesting, but also more meaningful.
This is a summary of my life in 2021, and I hope that friends who read this will find a throbbing touch of coffee in your heart.
For me, coffee is life and interest. If you don't drink a cup of coffee one day, then the day tastes like chewing wax, and you are not happy at all. After drinking coffee for so many years, I always want to share the delicious coffee with more people, but I see a lot of articles and videos about coffee, not systematic, and even errors, I think about whether I can talk about coffee face-to-face with consumers through offline, and even open some interest classes to let more people interested in coffee, and friends who want to make a good cup of coffee at home understand the correct coffee knowledge and brewing methods.
With this in mind, we began to look for partners to work with, and did not find a partner until March 2021. Thankfully, I didn't need to invest any money, just redesign the menu, choose the products, choose the coffee beans and go for business.
After getting these done, my offline business began.
Opening a café is a socializing
Many people may have a café dream of their own. I feel that owning a café can "lie flat". In fact, the café does not sell coffee, but sophistication. If you are "social phobia" and want to exercise out "social cow x syndrome", it is actually a good choice to open a store.
The cooperative store is in the village of Beijing, which has a company and a household, which can be called a "community store". In this short period of nine months, I have been exposed to all kinds of people, and I have more different stories in my memory.
The life of an actor
The characteristics of the village are that there are many film and television companies, MCN organizations, advertising companies and other cultural and entertainment industries. Therefore, at the turn of spring and summer, many film and television companies and crews are frequently interviewing actors. And these actors often come to the store before the interview, drink a cup of coffee, take out the script of the audition, and begin to review it silently. Some interviewed with a few friends and discussed with each other. Some people come to the store after the interview, as long as they see their eyebrows upturned and smiling, most of them are successful in the interview; and those who are expressionless, or who do not answer your love, prove that most of them are failures.
These people have a commonality, most of them are post-95, post-00 girls, the interview book is some dragon sets with a few lines and can show a face. Everyone came alone, and even some people had to pull a suitcase in order to be able to audition for different crews, and bring clothes, makeup, and so on that might be used for the audition. Order a coffee at my place, borrow the bathroom to change clothes, and then walk to the new audition scene.
I've had the pleasure of talking to some of these people. Most of them are not undergraduates in acting. Basically, they all belong to the scattered soldiers and have the desire to become famous, so they come to Beijing to break in, every time they are their own plays, if they can receive, then at least in a few months, accommodation, eating do not have to worry, but also make some money.
Most of them shared a room with a few little sisters, and then shared information, and everyone went to the running crew for an interview together, and they could face one by one. If there is no opportunity, they need to find other jobs to make a living, and they do more modeling jobs.
In short, it is very difficult for any industry to start from the bottom. In this environment that requires various "operations", unless you have a fate against the sky, it is really difficult to live.
Interestingly, these girls prefer to drink American. Lattes are relatively rare in this part of the group I have been exposed to, and I may think that drinking milk will make you fat.
The tip of the iceberg for advertising agencies
Another one in the village is a media company or an advertising agency. With the development of the self-media short video platform, the advertising form has also become diverse, and the short video advertisement on the B-end has become a popular shooting last year, especially in the insurance industry.
The reason why I was able to receive the work of shooting on a private set was actually due to the little sister who came to buy coffee, she was the person who did the shooting project in their company, and felt that the style in the store was very Fashionable, compared to the other shooting scenes they found in the village, it was simply a king fry. Therefore, we directly cooperated in the shooting of 8 scenes, including mobile phone advertisements, insurance advertisements, and some sitcom advertisements.
This kind of small production, 1 assistant, 1 lighting, 1 camera, 1 project leader formed such a shooting team. Male and female actors are also part-time, according to the relevant differences and even have a stage, this kind of commercial single shooting is very fast, scene switching, lighting arrangement, costume changes in one go, 2-3 hours can be done.
I also admire their whole process and the degree of tacit understanding. In order to create the benefits of the project team, it is not easy to even shoot 2 or 3 completely different commercial projects a day. But as a person who likes to shoot videos, I watched it with relish, and let me learn a lot of shooting techniques, lighting techniques and so on.
These advertisers are very fond of drinking lattes, and some photographers are very fond of drinking American. Completely different drinking preferences have been formed.
The life of musicians and the summer strategies of workers
At the beginning of the summer, I met 2 people, initially because they came to the store every day around 10 a.m., ordered 2 glasses of ice American, drank until noon, and then came 2 cups of ice American, chatted and left. Every day, it aroused my curiosity.
So when they came to the store again, I took the prepared hand-brewed coffee and talked to them. Therefore, it was learned that both of them are independent musicians, have their own studios and companies, and undertake some recording and record production work. They rented the whole small building in the village as a studio and accommodation, just drink a coffee or something, every time they use the time to drink coffee to come out to let the wind, find inspiration, before there is no decent café around, the coffee is not good, until I came here, I think the coffee is very delicious, so I will come every day. After getting acquainted with this, every time you come to chat about idle days, greet each other, but also become very casual, every time like a friend to meet easy-going, occasionally will chat about the parents short, every time can chat very happy. And the result of the happy chat is that every time they have an appointment with someone, or want to come out with friends for a drink, they will definitely think of me, sometimes the store is busy, can't take care of them, they also use self-help forms, self-sufficiency. So maintain your customers, your customers will bring you surprises, I think this is to invest in the peach, repay it with a lee.
Another interesting thing is that a decoration company rented the whole building, but the settlement was very hurried, the summer was very hot, the air conditioner was not installed, and a bunch of employees who did decoration design could not stand the heat, and came to us to rub the air conditioner, office, and interview customers. Later, I talked to a few designers, and one day, the leader of one of their departments said if he could come to work in the afternoon. Because the air conditioner was repairing it was too hot.
I said yes (mainly because business was not good in those days), and their addition significantly increased turnover. Just like that, 3 consecutive days, the turnover of these 3 days is very beautiful.
I just want to say that helping each other is not as good as close neighbors.
Making coffee can also contribute to society
As the old saying goes, "Daze also benefits the world". Although I have not yet had this ability, nor have I reached this realm, I also want to bring something to the society through my own knowledge, but unfortunately I have not succeeded, and I did not expect that after switching to coffee, the opportunity will quietly appear in front of you.
This opportunity was also because I signed up for the SCA Baker Course at the time. She has her own cafes and companies, and also has some government side business. Every year, the Beijing Disabled Persons' Federation gives a fund for the activities of the Disabled Persons' Federation of each district, so that the disabled can learn a craft, provide them with an opportunity to find employment or a social care action, so they will always look for teachers from various industries to teach.
There are a lot of places to start classes at the same time in 2021, and she doesn't have enough people on her own, so she thinks of me, and as soon as I hear that this is completely in line with my original intention of making coffee, I agreed to it. A total of 8 days of course, there are practical exercises, theories, and experiences. I also carefully prepared the course outline and the teaching PPT. That's how I started my 8-day course.
The project has helped to prepare the materials and equipment. From coffee machines, grinders, coffee beans, milk, siphon pots, hand punches, pressure pots and other equipment are readily available. I just had to prepare at my own pace.
I was still very impressed by the first day of the lecture, and more than 30 people came, including 2 street office staff and teachers. Among the disabled people who participated in the course were blind, slightly less intelligent, somewhat physically disabled, and some with poor ears, in short, they were different, which also gave me a deeper understanding of this form of teaching.
I basically divided the course into 2 parts, the first part is specialty coffee, and the second part is Italian coffee.
The specialty coffee part is the process from seed to cup, and the system shares all the links from planting to brewing, as well as commonly used brewing utensils.
After the theory is finished, it is interspersed with a demonstration of hand-brewing coffee, let them watch and learn, and then experience in groups.
In about 3 days, the students saw the production tools and production methods of specialty coffees such as siphon pots, pressure pots, and hand-brewed coffees, and also popularized the knowledge of coffee, so that everyone realized the sour, sweet and bitter in coffee. It also corrects the inaccurate or erroneous knowledge points that everyone has heard before.
In short, the students gained a lot and found it very interesting. And the street tutor communicated with me, let me talk less, don't let them get too tired, interact more, try it. Therefore, on the fourth day, the explanation of espresso made some adjustments, and it was necessary to master the production methods of 4 types of coffee and drinks, namely espresso, American coffee, milk coffee, and matcha latte.
Because the Italian machine operates with high-temperature steam, it is relatively dangerous, and there has been an emphasis on safety-related matters.
Many students in the teaching process is very active, there is also a desire to learn, each time will give them a detailed explanation, in order to facilitate their understanding, I also put for them some origin videos, coffee variety shows, and even competition videos, when watching videos to give them a key explanation, edutainment is the key to these special students.
2017 WBrC World Champion Wang Ce
The theoretical course was quickly completed, and the rest was for the students to practice on their own, and I was guiding next to it, because after 3 days, there would be a leader of the District Disabled Persons' Federation to inspect and there would be a demonstration of the results.
I mainly gave a simple training summary and report to the district leaders, and then went to the trainees to show their achievements.
After the results of this report, it is time to complete the course, in these 8 days of teaching life also recognized a new group, although they have their own inconveniences, but never gave up life, did not give up on themselves, are as far as possible to learn useful knowledge for them, whether it is to become a hobby, or the heart to want to be the future direction of employment, I hope, I help them open a window.
Group photo of graduation
In fact, in addition to teaching classes, I also chatted with these students, who were basically between 30-60+, spanning a relatively large span. Only 3 or 4 of these people drink coffee regularly, and most of the others are basically tea or drinks.
The Chinese coffee market still has a long way to go, and consumers have yet to be tapped. From these individual cases, it is also found that many people have some deviations in their understanding of coffee, most of which are caused by marketing.
My purpose is to hope that more people will correct the wrong concept and pass on the correct coffee knowledge. Lead everyone to a good cup of coffee.
My coffee life
My life and work revolve around coffee. Every morning, I can't move a cup of coffee to awaken the spiritual core of my day. As a coffee roaster, and the coffee manager in the village, in order to bring interesting and delicious coffee to more people. I am also constantly looking for green coffee beans, spring and summer is the new season of coffee beans every year, the day when imported beans arrive in Hong Kong, many green bean dealers will organize cup tests. In 2021, I ran a total of 8 cup tests, drank hundreds of beans from Africa, Central and South America, Asia and other places, and selected the green coffee beans I currently sell and use in the store.
In order to understand the status of the market and peers, I will go to the Beijing Coffee Exhibition every year, and from the situation of last year, the Coffee Exhibition in Beijing is more inclined to the link of independent cafes + coffee green beans. Some old coffee brands gradually withdrew from the exhibition, coffee maker agents than the brand owners themselves appeared in the exhibition and so on, feel that the exhibition in Beijing gradually faded professionalism, retain more commerciality, personally think it is not as good as the Shanghai exhibition.
But I can also do cup testing at the exhibition, I also participated in three rounds of cupping, I have not been able to drink the beans I like, but I found a good bean from another raw bean dealer, I told me that it was out of stock when I asked, and I was still very sorry at the time.
However, at the end of December, when the new product arrived, I bought some to try, hoping to let more people drink this one.
Another point is to pay attention to the dynamics of beijing counterparts, so I drank the café out of the exhibition and found that the special treatment method flooded the market, the flavor pointed to obvious, not sour, not bitter, sweet is the vane of the current market.
At the same time, I also saw if the contestants in the coffee competition had any new brewing ideas, which brought me some inspiration so that I could go back and launch some new products.
Although I was looking for beans everywhere, the cooperative operation of the café was not smooth, because the traffic in the village was really limited, and it was impossible to break even, so my partner also decided to withdraw and continue to operate in another place, but the coffee side did not continue to cooperate, and I quit the short-lived café operation in early December.
Although he quit the offline entity business, he always insisted on doing coffee roasting and bringing coffee beans and hanging ear coffee to friends who love to drink coffee.
At last
I still insist on doing coffee roasting and find delicious and interesting coffee. I am also ready to focus on our own coffee in Yunnan, one of which I have been making all year round, and in early January, I found a very interesting bean, and I am still adjusting the roasting plan, hoping to launch it as soon as possible to meet my friends.
In the new year, I found a new direction of work, and in the next year, I will be engaged in the brand operation and quality control of the newly established sub-brand of a green bean trader. At that time, you will play a different way of drinking coffee, if you are in Beijing, welcome to come and play with me.