Dormitory Cafes Becoming a "Thriving Industry"?? And Students Paying Tuition to Become Apprentices?!

The Rise of Dorm Room Coffee Shops

"College life is wonderful and free." Generation Z students enter university with visions of the future, move into their dormitories, and start dorm room coffee shops. Riding the coffee obsession among Gen Z students, some operators are earning their first pot of gold before they even enter society. Yet with instant coffee costing over ten yuan per cup, would not a milk tea from Mixue Bingcheng or a freshly ground coffee from Luckin Coffee be more appealing?

Still, many universities have adopted closed-campus management for the health and safety of students and faculty, making it hard to leave campus freely for a coffee shop. With demand for coffee among students so high, a coffee industry chain has been incubated inside campus dormitories.

The Business Opportunity and Social Media Influence

On the Xiaohongshu platform, shares related to "dorm room coffee" keep growing. Some netizens report earning nearly 10,000 yuan per month by setting up a "dorm room coffee shop" in their dormitory. Such tempting sums have even surprised people who run coffee shops, who exclaim "so coffee can be this profitable," and some netizens now see a business opportunity.

One blogger created entrepreneurship Q&A posts about dorm room coffee shops on Xiaohongshu, acting as a consultant for would-be dorm shop owners and charging students a fee. Despite the fee, many netizens still leave comments asking about pricing, eager to obtain this business wisdom.

The blogger who started the dorm room coffee shop training program later shared follow-ups on their students on Xiaohongshu. Some posts enlarged text such as "nearly 1,000 in revenue in 3 days," "business was so good I directly opened a studio," "materials ran out in two days of opening," and "200+ in revenue on the first day of opening." The whole series constantly urges netizens to boldly start their businesses.

Controversies and Concerns

While the idea of entrepreneurship is appealing, the practice of operating dorm room coffee shops has sparked controversy. Some netizens suspect this is marketing accounts "harvesting leeks," that is, exploiting naive entrepreneurs.

Other netizens point out that the pricing is unreasonably high. On Xiaohongshu, instant coffee from various brands can be seen in many shared posts, from Hougu Coffee to Sumida River to Coffee Box.

Some netizens also point out that dorm room coffee shops lack food safety guarantees, and their staff do not hold health certificates.

Coffee Workshop has previously reported on dorm room coffee shops and noted that profiting from self-made beverages and engaging in monetary transactions constitutes unlicensed business operation, which is illegal.

For any food business establishment, having the relevant permits and qualifications is the most basic standard. If food safety issues occur, since most unlicensed operators are students whose finances come from their families, problems involving compensation claims may be difficult to resolve.

Furthermore, catering staff face extremely strict requirements for hand hygiene. Long fingernails, nail polish, and the like, even in properly licensed coffee shops, would result in fines if found during an inspection.

Reflections on the Coffee Culture

College students' passion and creativity for coffee have brought new blood and vitality to the coffee industry, which is a positive development. In the pursuit of profit, however, standards have been lowered again and again: selling instant coffee at freshly ground prices, not teaching coffee knowledge but instead selling recipes and charging tuition.

Many coffee lovers probably fell into the deep abyss of coffee starting with instant coffee. Many coffee professionals progressed from instant coffee to freshly ground coffee, from learning about Arabica and the differences between instant and freeze-dried, to eventually teaching others about coffee.

Are these people really making coffee? Can these dorm room coffee shops truly be called coffee shops?

Image source: Douban, Xiaohongshu, Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If dorm room coffee has left you curious about what freshly ground coffee actually tastes like, the entry level is a good place to begin, and it does not have to cost much. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Washed Coffee, from a cooperative in the Yirgacheffe region, is the classic representative of washed Yirgacheffe and a typical first stop into specialty coffee, with jasmine florals, lemon acidity, and berry notes that stay bright but gentle rather than sharp.

For an even more fruit-forward cup, FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui uses a traditional sun-dried process in Sidamo; tropical fruit and fermented aromas come to the fore, with berry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey notes. And if you prefer a lush, balanced Brazilian profile, FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon delivers cream, peanut, and cocoa at a wallet-friendly price, proving that a real cup of coffee need not be expensive.