Guangzhou Cafe Exploration | Can You Drink Coffee Beans Grown in Guangdong at 'Yi Coffee'?!

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What makes you remember a coffee shop?

The decor style, the quality of the drinks, the handsome baristas, the beautiful waitresses (hey, you're getting off track!)

One particular shop caught my attention with a single "Guangdong Washed Coffee Bean."

The quality of the drinks in this shop is also quite impressive,

and the astronaut-themed decor is truly memorable.

"Yi Coffee"

The shop is predominantly white, with an astronaut holding a coffee as he walks through space. The roughly 12-person space, with dynamic lighting flowing across pristine white walls, creates a pressure-free atmosphere for everyone who enters.

The open pour-over bar and espresso bar sit in the center of the shop, with seating designed around the central bar so customers can watch baristas prepare each drink from any of 360 degrees.

The shop offers a wide selection of single-origin coffees, all roasted in-house. Among the many beans, one "Guangdong Washed Coffee Bean" caught my eye.

Guangdong, after all, has no places that meet the conditions coffee needs to grow, such as altitude. So out of curiosity, I ordered a cup of hand-poured coffee made with Guangdong washed beans to try.

The barista first let me smell the dry aroma of the ground beans, which had a faint genmai rice fragrance, and during the brewing she patiently introduced this Guangdong coffee. The bean comes from Haifeng, Shanwei, and the founder of the cultivation base is a coffee grower from Taiwan.

Because Guangdong lacks altitude, the coffee tastes plain and thin when hot. As the temperature drops slightly, it becomes smoother, with genmai tea and melon seed kernel aromas and a slight acidity.

I had planned to order another cup of pour-over, but sitting by the windowsill and feeling the 26°C heat Guangzhou brings in January, I gave up the idea while my mind kept flashing: Dirty, Dirty, Dirty.

Alright, let's order a Dirty and experience the sensation of ice and fire in the mouth.

(Just look outside and you'll know how enthusiastic the sun is in Guangzhou.)

The shop uses an espresso blend of sun-dried Yirgacheffe combined with Brazil and Colombia for its Dirty. The entry presents a soft berry acidity and a nutty aftertaste from the espresso, with no burnt or astringent flavors. At the transition between espresso and iced milk, the lactose sweetness of fresh milk collides with the berry acidity of the espresso, creating a strawberry milkshake sensation.

After drinking too much coffee, naturally one gets hungry. I had planned to try the almond boat made by the shop, but it happened to be sold out, so I settled for a matcha cookie instead.

Small Interview

Don't scroll away just yet; there's still a short interview.

Regarding the shop's astronaut-holding-coffee theme, I interviewed one of the owners.

"I'd like to ask, why did you decide to use an astronaut holding coffee as the shop's theme?"

(The text is pixelated to protect the interviewee's privacy.)

Answer: "Because of dreams."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

This interview was truly short.

From the shop's style, you can see the owners' love of exploring the unknown and of freedom. From the quality of the coffee, you can see their dedication and pursuit. In this bustling metropolis, the shop achieves "drink one coffee, warm a city."

Business Hours: Monday to Sunday 09:00-20:00

Address: South, Guangda Garden Phase 4, Shuirong Road, Nansayuan, Haizhu District, Guangzhou

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For pour-over, when an experienced coffee person recommends something practical, easy to master, and good-looking, the V60 is usually the answer. Hario, the company behind it, was founded in Tokyo in 1921 and began as a maker of heat-resistant glass instruments for research institutions; its glass server is a popular pour-over companion. In 2004, Hario redesigned the V60 prototype, naming it for its distinctive 60-degree cone and V shape, and put it on sale a year later.

The conical 60-degree design channels water to the center before it drips into the server, lengthening contact between water and grounds so aroma and flavor extract fully. The single large hole lets water flow freely, so the flow rate depends on the brewer's control and shows directly in the cup. FrontStreet Coffee favors the resin Hario V60 because resin blocks heat loss and holds the tightest tolerances in mass production.

Several FrontStreet coffees pair especially well with a V60. The Yirgacheffe Gedingding and Ethiopia Huakui shine for their bright floral and tropical-fruit character, the Strawberry Candy brings a Geisha-like floral profile, and the Mozart offers raisin sweetness.

Among FrontStreet's pour-over single origins, the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gedingding is a classic first step into specialty coffee, with vivid citrus, berry, and floral notes and a green-tea sweetness, its acidity soft and bright rather than sharp. The Ethiopia Huakui delivers an intense tropical-fruit aroma of strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, and even lychee, with a sweet, low-bitterness, juice-like body. The Panama Emerald Estate Red Label Geisha is elegant and transparent, with jasmine, citrus, bergamot, and black-tea finesse. The Kenya Little Tomato, from Kenya's Sica region at 1,550-1,750 meters and made from SL28 and SL34 with the country's signature 72-hour double washed fermentation, brings cherry tomato, smoked plum, pear, and black plum flavors with a clean, long finish, while the Papua New Guinea Bird of Paradise, grown at 1,600 to 1,800 meters on volcanic soil as an AA-grade Typica with a triple-washed process, offers a clean, sweet cup at a friendly price.