Blue Bottle Coffee is Really Impressive! Third Store Opening Here!

According to Blue Bottle Coffee's official announcement, its third store in mainland China will again be in Jing'an District, prompting netizens to ask why they are all in Jing'an. Following Blue Bottle's first store, which opened in February this year at the former Yutong Flour Mill Dormitory, the third store is located in Zhang Yuan, known as "the most famous garden in Shanghai."

In recent years the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has hoped that industry and society would work together to strengthen the protection and use of cultural relics. There is a saying that "a house with people living in it does not deteriorate easily," because the presence of people helps regulate and maintain a building. Since September last year, Shanghai's Jing'an District has carried out protective restoration work on Zhang Yuan.

Whenever Blue Bottle Coffee enters a new region, it integrates with local culture. Both its first and third Shanghai stores now sit in historic buildings, a fusion of and tribute to local culture as well as a form of protection for those heritage structures.

Blue Bottle Coffee's Third Shanghai Store

The third store occupies a two-story brick-and-timber structure with clean red brick exterior walls, set along the street in the Kumen building complex of Zhang Yuan. From every brick, tile, and door and window to the mottled traces on the walls of the old complex, everything tells a story of Shanghai's past.

Looking across Blue Bottle Coffee's global locations, more than half choose buildings with rich stories, emphasizing the brand's integration with local cultural traditions and environment.

Integration with Local Culture

Its Kyoto store in Japan, for example, features exposed original roof structures and clay walls, complemented by large glass windows to increase natural light. The floor height was deliberately kept consistent to maintain eye level between employees and customers.

The brand's distinctive spatial style is then woven in, blending with the surrounding mountain scenery so every customer can feel the stories of the century-old building and the brand's professionalism in every detail.

Beyond location, Blue Bottle Coffee brings local food into the menu. The Shanghai Yutong store offers carefully chosen pastry combinations from Shanghai's time-honored brands, including Tou Tao Gao, Mung Bean Cake, and Mahua, matching traditional flavors with coffee.

The Kyoto store offers matcha mint cookies made with local matcha and fresh mint, with a distinctive taste and soft texture that pairs well with coffee.

Nothing creates a sense of belonging like touching a memory.

By letting consumers deepen their understanding of the brand in familiar environments, in spaces full of memories, and with familiar flavors, Blue Bottle Coffee truly excels.

Image source: Internet

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A cafe with a story deserves coffee with a sense of place, and single-origin beans are the clearest way to taste it. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee and Africa's largest producer, is the natural first stop: FrontStreet Natural Huakui and FrontStreet Washed Gedingding Cooperative are the entry-level picks. Huakui comes from Guji and is natural processed, with berry, floral, jackfruit, melon, and honey notes, while the washed Gedingding concentrates on jasmine, lemon acidity, and berry tones. The Yirgacheffe and Sidama regions are the best known, and since the 1970s the washing method has shaped Yirgacheffe's clean, bright character.

Brazil, the world's largest producer, delivers gentle and balanced cups. FrontStreet Cerrado Red Bourbon is an everyday single-origin from the well-known Cerrado region, with classic cream, peanut, and cocoa flavors, while FrontStreet Queen's Estate grows higher from the rare Yellow Bourbon variety, adding sugarcane sweetness and a thick, smooth body to Brazil's butter, nut, and almond aromas, good both black and with milk.

For a fuller, low-acid profile, FrontStreet Indonesia Lintong Mandheling uses the wet-hulled method developed for Indonesia's rainy climate, giving a deeper, smoother body than Blue Mountain with herbal and spice notes, and FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is sorted three times by hand and once by machine for a cleaner, sweeter cup. The range continues with FrontStreet Colombia Huila, Papayo, and Navel, the honey-processed FrontStreet Costa Rica Mozart, Blackberry, and Tarrazu with their raisin, blueberry, osmanthus, and rose notes, FrontStreet 2013 Yunnan Typica at 1,300 meters, and the washed FrontStreet Panama Boquete Geisha for a clear, affordable taste of Geisha's citrus and honey character.