With so many viral coffees, why has only Dirty remained on the permanent menu?

The Rise of Dirty Coffee: From Internet Sensation to Coffee Shop Staple

Once hailed as an "internet-famous coffee," Dirty has not lost its popularity but continues to frequently appear on social media platforms, serving as a perfect "photo prop."

If you search for "Dirty" on Xiaohongshu (a Chinese social media platform), you can find over 200,000 posts. Most content consists of check-in records, along with numerous educational posts about home preparation, ingredients, and drinking methods. Each related tag has over 5 million views.

Beyond its online popularity, the offline market also reflects its important position. We can notice that many cafes serving espresso drinks have kept Dirty on their permanent menus, alongside lattes. This shows that it has become a "favorite" representative in today's local specialty coffee market.

In China, many people first encountered coffee named "Dirty" around 2018-2019, when it was a popular trend under the "dirty culture" movement. Hot espresso poured over white iced milk creates beautiful layering effects and a unique taste experience from the contrast between hot and cold, leaving a deep impression on consumers.

The earliest appearance of this "layered coffee" in China was at a Beijing cafe in 2014, inspired by Hong Kong baristas' techniques. At that time, it was still a niche beverage. Later, as independent specialty cafes gradually became popular in major Chinese cities, the practice of pouring espresso over milk began to spread widely among baristas, and it was given various Chinese names such as "Amber," "Stain," "White Night," and "Dirty Coffee."

The Origins and Innovation of Dirty Coffee

Actually, the original creator of Dirty is Katsuyuki Tanaka from Japan. In 2009, he opened a cafe called Bear Pond Espresso in Kitazawa, Tokyo. Dirty was a specialty product he created when he opened, listed on the menu as B.P Dirty.

The most distinctive feature of Katsuyuki Tanaka's B.P Dirty is his unique espresso—"Angel Stain." He specifically uses a bottomless portafilter for extraction, observing and judging the espresso extraction with his eyes. The espresso leaves traces on the cup wall similar to teardrops.

With the combination of dark roast, large coffee dose, ultra-high concentration, and low extraction rate, the double "Angel Stain" allows the B.P Dirty's coffee liquid to sink slowly, eliminating the need to pre-chill the glass while maintaining persistent layering. However, B.P Dirty did not become widely popular in Japan but was learned and adopted by some cafes in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The Evolution and Popularization of Dirty Coffee

When discussing Dirty's "breakout moment," we must mention frozen purified milk technology. "Ice Bock Dirty" directly promoted its popularity and普及 in the coffee market. For those who love rich milk coffee, the emergence of Dirty provides great satisfaction to both taste and sight, while Dirty made with Ice Bock elevates the richness of both coffee and milk to another level. Thus, Ice Bock and Dirty are always mentioned together.

Although creative specialty coffees frequently appear on the market, it's not difficult to see that most are developed using the "milk coffee+" approach. That is, adding flavored syrups to latte bases or increasing "eye-catching" elements without achieving a synergy where one plus one equals more than two, sometimes even masking the coffee itself. Instead, Dirty makes coffee more pure. The simple combination of coffee + milk reflects the public's higher requirements for ingredient quality.

Never before has a coffee like Dirty accompanied the vigorous development of China's specialty cafes, growing from nothing to becoming a classic on every cafe menu, reflecting the coffee taste preferences of Chinese consumers.

Image source: Internet

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