Chinese tea hub Puer branches into coffee as tastes change

At a mountainside cafe in southwestern China, Liao Shihao brews handfuls of locally grown beans into steaming cups of coffee, a modern twist on the region’s traditional drink.

For centuries, Puer in Yunnan province has given its name to a type of richly fermented tea – sometimes styled “pu-erh” – famous across East Asia and beyond.

But as younger Chinese cultivate a taste for punchy espressos, frothy lattes and flat whites, growers are increasingly branching out into tea’s historic rival.

“People are coming to try our hand-drip coffee … and more fully experience the flavours it brings,” said Liao, 25. “In the past, they mostly went for commercialised coffee, and wouldn’t dabble in the artisanal varieties.”

Liao’s family has run the Xiaowazi, or Little Hollow, coffee plantation for three generations.

Nestled in a shady valley, spindly coffee trees line its steep hillsides, their cherry-like fruit drying on wooden pallets outside.