For the expats living in Shanghai, it is a new experience to taste a cup of “Consul Coffee”.

Located at No.28 West Jinling Road, the Consul Coffee store provides two kinds of coffee -- Italian style coffee (including black coffee and coffee with milk) and pour-over (filter) coffee.

(The Consul Coffee store in Shanghai)

Speaking of the opening of the store, Gu Zhe, Secretary General of the Chamber of International Commerce Shanghai, said that last year when participating in the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), officials from many countries’ consulates in Shanghai and heads of non-government economic and trade organizations expressed their wish that the Chamber of International Commerce Shanghai could help them to promote coffee from their countries.

In cooperation with the consulates in Shanghai and the Foreign Coffee Industry Association, the chamber began to actively introduce famous coffee products from all over the world. “Interested in the cafe project, some of the Consuls promised to provide their national specialty coffee for the long run, some contact with the coffee exporters from their countries and some free coffee to the store. On the opening day of the cafe, many of them attended to celebrate,” said Gu.

(Consuls in Shanghai attending the opening ceremony of the store.)

In Gu’s words, they hope to provide a platform to display, experience and promote coffees from various countries. Due to the Consul’s introduction, compared with the ordinary coffee shops, Consul Coffee has more varieties of coffee beans. The coffee beans it sells are mainly from 8 countries, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Indonesia, Kenya and Panama. If customers are interested, they can even make a reservation to book quality coffee products they are fond of.

(Coffee beans from various countries are on display in the store.)

An in-house barista introduced that due to the different market positioning, the baking of coffee beans in the store aims to create the original coffee taste of the products origin so as to bring the taste of hometown to foreign guests who are away from home.

Moreover, the store provides coffee enthusiasts with the pouring over experience. “We often invite foreigners to pour over coffee from their own countries in their own ways, so as to involve the customers to experience different cultures,” said Gu.