How Much Do Shanghai Residents Love Coffee? Exchanging a Bottle of Coffee for Canned Meat!

According to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, from 0:00 to 24:00 on April 6, Shanghai reported 322 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases and 19,660 asymptomatic infections. Among them, 15 confirmed cases were previously asymptomatic infections, and 12 confirmed cases plus 19,027 asymptomatic infections were discovered during quarantine; the rest were found through screening of at-risk populations. An additional 7 imported COVID-19 cases and 1 asymptomatic infection were reported, all identified within closed-loop management.

As of press time, from 0:00 to 15:52 on April 7, Shanghai had reported 322 new local cases and 19,661 asymptomatic infections, plus 7 imported cases.

The outbreak left Shanghai facing serious supply shortages. To buy groceries, residents attacked grocery apps with the same speed and luck they once used to snatch up popular college courses, hammering the payment button... Those whose thumbs couldn't keep up even resorted to massage guns... And even after paying, there was no guarantee the order would arrive — many had to wait and see what actually showed up, then request refunds for everything else.

Government Response to Supply Shortages

Addressing the shortage, Shanghai's Vice Mayor said at the day's press conference: reserves of rice, flour, grain, oil, and meat are relatively sufficient. But pandemic-control measures have made it difficult for daily necessities to reach people's doorsteps. Authorities are pushing support efforts forward at full speed, working to fix inefficient procurement and distribution and to ensure vegetable packages achieve full coverage across all districts.

When some people successfully secure supplies, others inevitably miss out — especially when it comes to meat. Which brings us to a post a blogger made today:

The blogger then approached a neighbor to ask whether they had any food to spare. Of course, you can't just "take" someone's food without offering something in return — but all the blogger had to trade was coffee... Expecting little, he was stunned by the result.

An Unexpected Trade

Who would have guessed that in such tense times, a bottle of coffee could be exchanged for desperately craved food? One netizen reacted:

Then another chimed in: ...So you can trade coffee beans for meat and vegetables in your residential community? And posted this image:

Reflection and a Call to Action

Because the pandemic so badly exceeded expectations, nobody had stocked up enough supplies for a lockdown of this scale. Some may wonder: is a trade like this really worth it at a time like this? As long as both parties think so, it is — one missed meat, the other missed coffee.

That said, it's not something we'd recommend! At a time like this, everyone should stay quietly at home, minimize contact, cooperate with prevention work, follow official arrangements, and help bring the outbreak under control as quickly as possible — so the virus can be dispersed soon!

Stay strong, Shanghai!

Stay strong, every city!

Image source: Weibo

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Ethiopia: FrontStreet Natural Guji Huakui, FrontStreet Washed Guodingding Cooperative. Ethiopia is Africa's largest coffee-producing country and the widely recognized birthplace of coffee, home to an enormous range of varieties — most beans are named after their region or cooperative. The most famous regions are Yirgacheffe and Sidama. In the 1970s, to improve green coffee quality, the government introduced washed processing, and since then Yirgacheffe beans have been predominantly washed, with production further organized around individual processing cooperatives. FrontStreet's washed Guodingding Cooperative lot is a classic Yirgacheffe expression: jasmine florals, lemony acidity, and berry notes. Sidama beans, by contrast, are best known as naturals, with more pronounced tropical fruit and fermented aromas — FrontStreet's Sidama Huakui uses traditional natural processing, with flavors of berries, florals, jackfruit, melon, and honey.

Brazil: FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon, FrontStreet Queen Estate. Brazil is the world's number-one coffee producer, and while most of its output is commercial grade, plenty of high-quality Brazilian coffee exists. Because Brazilian farms largely use sun-exposed planting, the cherries ripen quickly, giving a softer bean with gentle acidity, excellent sweetness, a delicate and smooth entry, and an overall balanced cup. FrontStreet's Brazil everyday bean is an entry-level single origin from the famous Cerrado region — the definition of great taste at a great price, with classic cream, peanut, and cocoa flavors in the cup. FrontStreet's Queen Estate is grown at higher elevation and carries the rare Yellow Bourbon variety: alongside the buttery, nutty (macadamia, almond) complexity typical of Brazil, it offers a sugarcane-like sweetness and a viscous, silky mouthfeel whether brewed black or with milk.

Indonesia: FrontStreet Lintong Mandheling, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling. Indonesia is famous for more than just Kopi Luwak — its Mandheling is equally iconic. FrontStreet's Mandheling uses the wet-hulled (giling basah) process, a technique born of local conditions: unpredictable rain and limited resources mean producers strip the parchment off semi-dried beans by machine to speed up drying, creating the one-of-a-kind Mandheling profile. The result is a cup even richer and smoother than FrontStreet's Blue Mountain, with herbal and spice notes — ideal for anyone who dislikes acidity. If you want a higher grade, choose FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling: it passes through three rounds of hand-sorting plus one machine-sorting to drive the defect rate down to a minimum, producing a cleaner, smoother cup with clearer woody aromatics and caramel sweetness.

Colombia: FrontStreet Huila, FrontStreet Sidra, FrontStreet Big Navel. Colombian coffee is one of the few single origins sold under a country's name. The climate is mild and humid, and its diversity keeps Colombia in harvest mode all year as different varieties and regions ripen in turn. The coffee is distinctive — full-bodied with a long finish — and largely qualifies as specialty. FrontStreet's everyday Colombian comes from Huila, the country's most renowned specialty region: ringed by mountains, planted at elevations above 1,500 meters, and fed by the confluence of Colombia's most important rivers, which bring abundant moisture and water resources. Colombian coffee tends toward soft florals and gentle fruit acidity — try FrontStreet Colombia Sidra or FrontStreet Colombia Big Navel.

Costa Rica: FrontStreet Mozart, FrontStreet Blackberry, FrontStreet Tarrazu. Costa Rica grows coffee at high elevations with large day-night temperature swings and rich volcanic soil everywhere, producing strictly hard beans (SHB grade) full of elegant aromatics. The country is best known for honey processing: the beans dry with their mucilage still attached, giving intense sweetness and clarity of flavor — especially appealing to many women drinkers. For Costa Rican specialty coffee, start with FrontStreet Blackberry (black honey process) or FrontStreet Mozart (raisin honey process): expect raisin and blueberry sweetness with osmanthus and rose fragrance, and a bright sweetness that shines in pour-over, cold brew, Americano, or latte.

Yunnan, China: FrontStreet Yunnan Catimor, FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Typica. No specialty coffee conversation is complete without China's own origin. Yunnan coffee has steadily entered the spotlight, and many drinkers have fallen for its nut, brown sugar, and black tea notes. China actually has two growing regions — Hainan and Yunnan — but Hainan's hot, low-elevation coastal climate can't support Arabica. China's specialty coffee is concentrated in Yunnan. FrontStreet's Yunnan everyday bean comes from Baoshan and is washed, delivering classic nut and chocolate flavors in a soft, balanced cup; FrontStreet's 2013 Yunnan Typica is an ancient Arabica variety grown at 1,300 meters, with a cleaner cup that suits medium roasting — expect layered aromas of hazelnut, dried apricot, black tea, caramel, and ripe plum.

Panama: FrontStreet Boquete Washed Geisha. Panama is famous above all for the Geisha variety, and none more so than Hacienda Esmeralda — citrus, berries, and florals in a balanced, silky cup, like an entirely non-bitter floral fruit tea. But for beginners, Esmeralda can be a stretch, so baristas recommend the entry-level FrontStreet Boquete Geisha. It comes from Panama's most representative specialty region with pure Geisha genetics and is washed processed, so you can clearly taste the orange-blossom sweetness and honeyed finish that define Geisha — and at such a strong price-to-quality ratio, you can explore Panama Geisha through many different brewing methods.