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

Fierce competition in the coffee industry is nothing new. At some point, more and more unlikely players began entering the market, and the sight of a cafe inside a temple stopped being surprising.

The First Temple Cafe: Great Buddha Temple Coffee House

Back in 2018, before the coffee industry grew cutthroat, the Great Buddha Temple Coffee House was already operating inside the Great Buddha Temple in Guangzhou, at the temple exit. The shop was decorated in a Zen style, with a glowing lotus hanging at the entrance that suggested Buddha's light shining everywhere. A few red papers with handwritten characters served as the signboard, simple and unpretentious. It offered milk tea, freshly ground coffee, and wellness drinks to the temple's many visitors. The coffee shop has since closed.

Zen-Inspired Coffee: Yongfu Temple's Cibei Cafe

In September 2021, a cafe named "Cibei" quietly opened at the exit of Yongfu Temple in Hangzhou. Every drink carried its own Zen-inspired name, such as "Joy" for the mocha, "Zen Beginning" for the coconut latte, and "Ink White" for the caramel macchiato, drawing plenty of young people to visit and check in.

Vegetarian Coffee at Longhua Temple

Following the trend of drinking coffee in Buddhist sanctuaries, Shanghai's Longhua Temple, a historic site with 1,700 years of history, also began selling "vegetarian coffee." This time, though, the temple did not open a standalone cafe; it took a very down-to-earth approach and sold the coffee in its vegetarian restaurant.

As Shanghai's oldest and largest ancient temple, Longhua Temple differs from most temples in one notable way: where others open with the Heavenly King Hall, Longhua opens with the Maitreya Hall, reflecting its emphasis on Maitreya. Its vegetarian noodles and snacks are popular as well. Recently, the temple introduced "vegetarian coffee," opening a beverage window beside the one that serves vegetarian meals and offering fresh juice, lemon tea, and freshly ground coffee to visitors.

Because milk is an animal product, many people treat it as non-vegetarian, though strictly speaking milk counts as vegetarian. To spare people the agonizing over it, Longhua Temple's "vegetarian coffee" uses oat milk instead of dairy, making it suitable for vegetarian friends and for anyone who is lactose intolerant. The price is very affordable, extremely cheap in fact by downtown Shanghai standards. On the subject of ancient temples selling "vegetarian coffee," one netizen expressed surprise that coffee could even be classified as vegetarian or not.

Coffee Culture Meets Traditional Temples

The spread of coffee culture has turned coffee into a competitive business, drawing people from all kinds of fields to claim a slice 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 cafes or selling coffee in temples may be a way for temples to explore new development paths through different market segments, generate attention, and let more young people learn 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 remarked that hundreds or even thousands of years of history cannot attract young people as much as a foreign product, and wondered whether that is good or bad for the spread of history and culture.

Image source: Internet, News Morning video screenshot.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Milk-based coffee lives or dies by the beans you choose. Espresso machines and moka pots aim for the same thing, a concentrated base that becomes an Americano with water or a latte with milk, so the selection logic is identical. Most espresso blends use a medium-dark roast, which lets a latte show dense nut and chocolate flavors and a strong coffee backbone.

For a milk companion, FrontStreet Coffee recommends blends built on Brazilian coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Premium Blend and Black Cocoa blend are led by Brazil, so a latte tastes of complex nuts such as almond, apricot kernel, and walnut, with a silky, lingering finish. If you want a thick, golden crema, choose the Classic Blend or FrontStreet Coffee's Commercial Blend; both contain a touch of Robusta that adds foam and lifts the body and caramel aroma. For adding milk to a pour-over, where the brew is lighter and easier to drown out, a medium-dark single origin works better, such as the PWN Golden Mandheling, the Bird of Paradise, or the Queen Manor.