Shanghai Coffee Shop Recommendations: Why Has Bear Paw Coffee Become So Popular? What Industries Can People with Hearing and Speech Impairments Work In?

A Coffee Shop Worth Remembering: Bear Claw Coffee

Remember Bear Claw Coffee? A "broken" wall, a single lamp, a claw, minimalist decor, and a unique business model. When it opened, it immediately drew crowds lining up to take photos.

Bear Claw Coffee began as a way to help solve employment problems for people with disabilities. Most of the baristas it hires are deaf or mute, and some have facial burn injuries. To better protect these baristas, the management used walls to seal off the entire bar counter, then chiseled out a 10x30cm opening and served drinks through a furry bear claw, allowing good interaction with customers even without speech.

Bear Claw Coffee has now been operating for over a year. As the number of stores has grown, so has the number of Bear Claw baristas. Recently, the baristas decided to "break down the wall," hoping to interact face to face with customers and break the barrier that exists between the deaf and mute community and the general public.

The First "Broken Wall Store" Opens

Today the first Bear Claw Coffee "Broken Wall Store" opened. While it keeps the tradition of serving through the wall opening, it has chiseled out an external production space and serving counter on the adjacent wall. Customers can interact with the "claw" while watching baristas in cute ear hats make their coffee nearby, and the baristas interact enthusiastically with customers too.

The most prominent spot in the store holds a lovely sign explaining that baristas with black ears are "vocal" baristas, while those with white ears are "silent" baristas.

Breaking Barriers and Building Confidence

On opening day, Yingying, a silent barista who served as store manager at the first Bear Claw Coffee, came to share her feelings in sign language: "Breaking down this wall was a very serious decision for all of us Bear Claw Coffee partners. We really wanted to communicate face to face with customers, but some of our friends were quite shy. After this period of working and growing together, everyone feels more confident and at ease, and hopes to communicate more directly with everyone."

Yingying is now a coffee trainer, training more Bear Claw baristas at a dedicated training base. She hopes more deaf and mute people can gradually gain confidence through coffee, rediscover meaning in life, and better integrate into society.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A cafe that changes how people connect over coffee deserves beans that reward a moment of attention. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, is a fitting place to start: FrontStreet Natural Huakui and FrontStreet Washed Gedingding Cooperative are the entry-level picks. Huakui comes from Guji and is natural processed with vivid berry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey notes, while the washed Gedingding keeps to jasmine, lemon acidity, and berry tones. The Yirgacheffe and Sidama regions are the most famous, and since the 1970s the washing method has shaped Yirgacheffe's clean, bright character.

Brazil, the world's largest producer, offers gentle, balanced cups. FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is an everyday single-origin from the well-known Cerrado region with classic cream, peanut, and cocoa flavors, while FrontStreet Queen's Estate grows higher from the rare Yellow Bourbon variety, adding sugarcane sweetness and a thick, smooth body to Brazil's butter, nut, and almond aromas, good both black and with milk.

For a fuller, low-acid cup, FrontStreet Indonesia Lintong Mandheling uses the wet-hulled method developed for Indonesia's rainy climate, giving a deeper, smoother body than Blue Mountain with herbal and spice notes, and FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is sorted three times by hand and once by machine for a cleaner, sweeter cup. The range also spans FrontStreet Colombia Huila, Papayo, and Navel, the honey-processed FrontStreet Costa Rica Mozart, Blackberry, and Tarrazu with their raisin, blueberry, osmanthus, and rose notes, FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Typica at 1,300 meters, and the washed FrontStreet Panama Boquete Geisha for a clear, accessible taste of Geisha's citrus and honey character.