(Shanghai Scenery) A century-old brand uses coffee as a medium to inherit the memory of traditional pastries

　　China News Service, Shanghai, March 23: Title: A century-old brand uses coffee as a medium to pass on the memory of traditional pastries

　　Author Xie Mengyuan

　　Four glutinous rice balls with sesame fillings are made with espresso as the soup base. Put them into a mug and sprinkle with dried osmanthus flowers. After eating, add water to the "soup base" and you can enjoy a cup of Americano coffee. Recently, this American-style glutinous rice dumpling, which combines Chinese desserts and Western drinks, has attracted attention. In Shanghai, which is jokingly known as "coffee flows from the tap", it has "blazed a trail" and "out of the circle" with a unique mix and match method. ".

　　Braised pork coffee, beef flat noodles coffee, aged vinegar coffee... In Shanghai, the city with the most coffee shops in the world, there are endless innovations in various coffee flavors, but not every one can arouse the interest of coffee lovers. Why did American-style glutinous rice balls arouse heated discussions and once made it to the hot search list of a certain domestic social software? In fact, it has a connection with the store behind it, Qiao Coffee, that cannot be ignored.

American-style glutinous rice balls at Joe's Coffee Shop in Shanghai. Photo by Xie Mengyuan

　　Qiao Coffee is a creative cross-border brand launched by Qiaojiazha, a century-old brand in Shanghai, in 2019. It mainly promotes the way of eating traditional Chinese pastries with coffee. Recently, the reporter walked into the Qiao Coffee store located at No. 1314 Huaihai Middle Road, Shanghai, and saw that the cashier was filled with packaged Qiaojiazha traditional pastries, which were different from ordinary coffee shops with bread and cakes. Also on display are shortbread, steamed buns and other foods.

　　At the time of the Spring Equinox, Qingtuan, as a must-eat pastry for Shanghainese people during the season, occupies a place in this store. Two elderly grannies walked into the store and carefully selected two boxes of green dumplings. “Qiaojiazha is an old store that has been with us for many years, and we are very familiar with their taste. I definitely want the classic bean paste-flavored green dumplings. Eat, this is my habit every year, buy another box of Malantou flavor, I haven’t tried it before, give it a try.”

　　As a traditional pastry shop in Shanghai founded in 1909, Qiaojiazha has undoubtedly left many memories for Shanghai people. Mr. Wu, a "post-60s generation", is an out-and-out "Old Koehler" (Shanghai dialect: a metaphor for an old white-collar worker with both modern consciousness and gentlemanly demeanor, who is usually well-dressed and pursues leisure life). He is wearing dark green Wearing a coat with socks of the same color and a brown plaid scarf, with headphones plugged in, he sat behind the window of Qiao Coffee and slowly tasted a "bite of cake" with mocha coffee on his hand. .'One-bite cake' was not called this name a long time ago, but the taste reminds me of the past time and the times I used to eat this kind of pastry."

　　As for the launch of coffee by a time-honored brand, Mr. Wu said that he is completely able to accept it. “Coffee is more fashionable and young people like to drink it. Other coffee shops seem to be visited more by young people, and older people prefer to come to this shop. But I usually see young people or foreigners here too.”

　　Attracting young people is the original intention of Qiaojiazha to launch Qiao Coffee. In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service, Qiao Coffee Manager Mao Yining said that at the beginning, an intangible cultural heritage pastry training base was established at 1314 Huaihai Middle Road, where corporate experience courses were offered to teach the skills of making various traditional pastries such as siomai, qingtuan, and zongzi. " As the courses become more and more popular, we are also thinking about what foods can be paired with our dim sum and how to let more people know about the intangible cultural heritage craftsmanship."

　　Therefore, the brand launched coffee, hoping to attract more young people with this modern drink. “Chinese pastries are basically sweet and soft, and when paired with the bitter taste of coffee, they can relieve tiredness.” The effect. In fact, it is to use coffee as a medium to introduce Qiaojiazha’s traditional pastries.”

　　According to Mao Yining, Qiao Coffee will launch seasonal innovative products every quarter, such as cherry blossom cakes, cherry blossom coffee in spring, and American-style glutinous rice balls in winter. “In fact, we will launch new products every month at the beginning, but later we found that they are the most popular in the market. The products are still traditional products, so we don’t do research and development for the sake of deliberate innovation. We are still rooted in the hand-made skills we are good at, hoping to retain customers through excellent products.”

　　As a new Shanghainese born in the 1990s, Mr. Zhu didn’t know Qiaojiazha before, but after accidentally walking into Qiao Coffee, he noticed the craftsmanship of handmade snacks. “Coffee can meet my social needs, but compared to sandwiches, , the hot buns can satisfy my 'Chinese stomach' better, and I saw the chefs making pastries here, and I felt that the movements were smooth and beautiful, which impressed me very much, and I even wanted to make some myself." (End)