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Sipping Coffee While Watching Tea Harvesting: Camping Coffee Business Booming by Tea Gardens!

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, "Tea or coffee, which would you choose?" "Only children make choices; adults want everything!" For most green teas like Longjing, tea harvested before the Qingming Festival is called "pre-Qingming tea," while tea harvested before the Grain Rain Festival is called "pre-Grain Rain tea." "Pre-Grain Rain tea is premium, pre-Qingming tea is a treasure." Recently is the best time for Longjing tea harvesting. In the tea fields...

Tea or Coffee: Which Would You Choose?

"Only children make choices. Adults want it all!"

The Perfect Timing for Longjing Tea

For most green teas like Longjing, tea picked before the Qingming Festival is called "pre-Qingming tea," while tea picked before the Guyu Festival is called "pre-Guyu tea." "Pre-Guyu is premium quality, pre-Qingming is a treasure." Recently marks the best time for picking Longjing tea. Tea fields are bustling with busy tea pickers, while tea field edges are filled with people buying coffee...

(Wait! Did the topic go astray?!) "No!"

A Unique Coffee Experience Amidst Tea Gardens

Longwu Town in Xihu District, Hangzhou, is renowned for producing Hangzhou Longjing tea, creating a unique tea garden landscape that attracts numerous tourists every year around Qingming Festival to experience the charm of nature and the tea-picking and making process.

With so many tourists, mobile coffee shop owners certainly wouldn't miss such a great opportunity! To let more people experience the charm brought by the 24 solar terms, a coffee truck recently parked beside a tea garden in Longwu Town, Xihu District, Hangzhou, starting a camping coffee business. Here, people can enjoy coffee while taking in the tea garden scenery and experiencing the charm of tea leaf picking.

Cultural Fusion Creates Unexpected Appeal

Image source: Shared by Xiaohongshu users

In a video released by Hangzhou Daily on March 26th, one can feel that many tourists who came for spring outings were also attracted to this "out-of-place" coffee truck. The combination of tea in the fields and coffee at the edge, the collision and fusion between cultures, made the coffee truck's business exceptionally popular.

Image source: Screenshot from Hangzhou Daily video

After buying coffee, everyone sat by the tea fields enjoying the tranquility of the countryside. As the breeze blew, they could smell the faint fragrance of fresh tea leaves.

Image source: Screenshot from Hangzhou Daily video

Netizens commented after watching: "One side is life, the other side is also life."

Some netizens asked why a mobile tea house wasn't opened by the tea fields instead of a mobile coffee shop. One netizen's answer was quite witty: "Because tea can be refilled, but it uses water."

However, more netizens expressed: "Mainly because tea is more expensive than coffee." According to netizens' responses, even ordinary Hangzhou Longjing tea picked during this season costs over 600 yuan per jin (500g). As for those with better quality, prices vary depending on the planting area. Cheaper ones might cost three to four thousand yuan per jin, while the expensive ones... well, we dare not ask.

The Economics and Experience Behind the Choice

Although coffee and tea are two different crops, and it's not entirely reasonable to measure them simply by price, consumers are still accustomed to measuring value through price. Compared to the pre-Qingming Longjing being harvested in the fields, coffee prices are more acceptable to the general consumer.

Secondly, consumers need fresh experiences. Drinking tea by the tea fields might be routine, but camping-style coffee drinking by the tea fields is completely different! This represents both a collision of tea and coffee cultures and features coffee trucks as one of the currently popular coffee shop operation methods, attracting people to come and check in.

Image source: Shared by Xiaohongshu users

Another factor is that the "new-style camping" approach aligns with young people's pursuit of "outdoor experiences." New-style camping differs from past camping methods. Compared to traditional "outdoor camping" known for being "extreme" and "arduous," "new-style camping" emphasizes aesthetics while getting closer to nature while still maximizing proximity to urban lifestyle.

Tea fields + coffee truck + camping, though simple in equipment, can greatly satisfy people's pursuit of ideal life. Although it may seem out of place, these brief moments of looking at tea fields while drinking coffee can bring busy people temporary relaxation.

The Tea Pickers' Perspective

The videographer left a question in the video: "Drinking coffee while watching tea picking, I wonder what the tea-picking aunties think?" At the end of this article, let's see netizens' imagination: