1700-Year-Old Longhua Temple in Shanghai Sells "Vegan Coffee"! Ancient Temple Offers Oat Milk Lattes

The fierce competition in the coffee industry is nothing new. It's unclear when exactly, but more and more diverse players have been entering the coffee market. It's no longer surprising to see cafés opening in temples.

The First Temple Café: Great Buddha Temple Coffee House

In 2018, before the coffee industry became fiercely competitive, the "Great Buddha Temple Coffee House" was already established inside the Great Buddha Temple in Guangzhou, located at the temple exit. The coffee shop was decorated in a Zen style, with a glowing lotus hanging at the entrance, creating a sense of Buddha's light shining everywhere. A few red papers with handwritten characters served as the signboard—simple, direct, and unpretentious. The shop offered milk tea, freshly ground coffee, and wellness beverages, meeting the needs of the various visitors to the temple. (The coffee shop has since closed.)

Zen-Inspired Coffee: Yongfu Temple's Cibei Café

In September 2021, a café named "Cibei" quietly opened in Yongfu Temple in Hangzhou, also located at the temple exit. The coffee beverages in the shop all had their own Zen-inspired names, such as "Joy" for mocha, "Zen Beginning" for coconut latte, and "Ink White" for caramel macchiato, attracting many young people to visit and check in.

Vegetarian Coffee at Longhua Temple

Following the popular trend of "drinking coffee in Buddhist sanctuaries, without discussing others' coffee preferences," Shanghai's Longhua Temple—a historic temple with 1,700 years of history—also began selling "vegetarian coffee." However, this time the temple didn't open an independent café but chose a very down-to-earth approach to sell it—in their vegetarian restaurant.

As Shanghai's oldest and largest ancient temple, Longhua Temple not only differs from other temples where the first hall is typically the Heavenly King Hall—at Longhua, the first hall is the Maitreya Hall, highlighting the temple's emphasis on Maitreya—but its vegetarian noodles and snacks are also quite popular. Recently, Longhua Temple has introduced "vegetarian coffee," opening a beverage window next to the window that provides vegetarian meals, offering fresh juices, lemon tea, and freshly ground coffee to visitors.

Since milk is an animal product, many people consider it non-vegetarian, but in fact, milk is considered vegetarian. However, to avoid people纠结 over whether milk is vegetarian or not, Longhua Temple's "vegetarian coffee" uses oat milk instead of dairy milk, making it suitable not only for vegetarian friends but also for those with lactose intolerance. The price is also very affordable—extremely cheap, in fact! (Considering consumption standards in downtown Shanghai). Regarding ancient temples selling "vegetarian coffee," one netizen expressed their amazement, saying they didn't realize coffee could even be categorized as vegetarian or non-vegetarian.

Coffee Culture Meets Traditional Temples

The popularization of coffee culture has turned coffee into a competitive business, attracting people from different fields and industries to get a piece of the "coffee pie." In today's diverse market, as long as you have enough creativity, anything can cross boundaries, and temples are no exception.

Opening cafés/selling coffee in temples might be a way for temples to explore new development channels through different market areas, generate high levels of attention, and allow more young people to learn more about the history of these temples and cities while checking in on these seemingly unrelated combinations.

Cultural Controversy

Seeing temples start selling coffee, many netizens have expressed: Hundreds or even thousands of years of history can't attract young people as much as a foreign product. Is this good or bad for the dissemination of history and culture?

Image source: Internet, News Morning Video Screenshot

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