The taste of a cup of coffee

"Coffee is like life, black, white and gray, balanced; the taste of coffee is sweet in bitterness, and the taste is varied." Zheng Yiyun, a girl in Haikou, has a unique understanding of coffee. for her, coffee is a soul mate to filter noise and impetuosity and keep quiet.

Because of his fondness for coffee beans, Zheng Yiyun is affectionately called "Doudou" by his friends. When she was a girl, she liked to taste the strong aroma of coffee and developed the habit of drinking every day; after graduating from college, she used a cup of coffee every day as her companion to read and think about life; and then, unwilling to face the heavy life, she chose to give up her job and devote all her body and mind to opening a coffee shop and forming a bond coffee, so that her heart would be at peace.

The smell of 11-year-old coffee can't go away.

At the age of 11, Zheng Yiyun, who grew up in Haikou, was first exposed to coffee. "at that time, my mother would occasionally prepare Hainan's purest hand-made black coffee in the morning, with milk and sugar, served with Youtiao or steamed buns. It was a very big breakfast as I remember it." Zheng Yiyun said that every time I tasted it, I seemed to feel the rich and unique aroma in the air.

The influence of her family made Zheng Yiyun love coffee since childhood, and when she was a teenager, she also formed a habit and even some dependence on drinking coffee. "my family likes to drink it, and sometimes my father always brings back some coffee and local coffee from Xinglong when he goes on business trips. The family and friends often sit around and drink coffee." When she went to college, she set aside money from her monthly living expenses to buy coffee. "have a drink with a snack in the morning and have another drink when you take a nap. If you don't have two drinks a day, you feel as if you are missing something during the day. "

After graduating from college, Zheng Yiyun went to work in a government office with a steady income. Instead of spending on shopping for clothes and cosmetics like other girls, she spent all her salary on looking for different quality coffee. "for example, when I came into contact with black coffee without sugar and milk, I fell in love with this kind of rich, mellow and sweet coffee."

Elegant music, bookish thumbs and a slow life are her ideals. Unlike the busy thoughts of the people around her, she regards enjoying coffee as fun, and opening a slow cafe has become a dream. She thinks, "it's handsome and romantic for a woman to open a cafe."

Later, Zheng Yiyun resigned from the government and went to a foreign enterprise, and then moved to a state-owned enterprise from a foreign enterprise. Wherever I go, my heart is still my coffee dream.

In her view, coffee, only need to be packed in such a small glass container, in lonely time, a person quietly taste, you can regain hope after loneliness. Coffee may not make people passionate, but it can make people know the fun of contemplation.

Resign resolutely to build a dream

Zheng Yiyun likes to read while drinking coffee. There are more than a dozen books in her study.

The shelves are full of books, and the bedside of the bedroom is full of books, totaling thousands of books.

In 2008, after reading a book called Wealth and Freedom, Zheng Yiyun suddenly felt an impulse to quit his current job and get his former coffee dream back. Busy in the enterprise, she completely unloaded her mental burden, left her existing job, and began to draw a blueprint for a cafe of her own.

She searched all the books about coffee and bought professional hand-brewing equipment. Warm cup, grinding beans, combination utensils, transfer bean powder, warm pot, steaming, brewing, filling cup …... After trying all the steps again and again, she began to invite friends to the house for hand-brewed coffee.

Just looking for high-quality coffee raw materials has kept Zheng Yiyun busy for several years. "it was a simple love when I was a child. Once I put it into practice, I found that I was not so proficient. I had to keep practicing and trying." From the general public's cappuccino and latte to the hand-brewed items that coffee professionals like, she has been looking for the best coffee, taking the high-end coffee route, and has dealt with suppliers all over the country and even around the world.

"first squeeze it with your hands to feel whether it is solid, then get close to your nose and smell the fragrance, and finally grab one or two and chew them in your mouth. If you have a crisp voice and a fragrant tooth and cheek, it is the top grade. When buying individual coffee beans, you should pay attention to whether the color, size, shape and defects of each bean are similar. The beans are uniform in size and the proportion of defective beans is low. " Her experience of searching for quality coffee is still fresh in her memory.

Except for good ingredients. In her mind, a good cup of coffee is half the taste, the other half is the feeling. She felt that the taste and feeling became more and more fragrant only after being cooked by hand and making different styles according to her mood, accompanied by the leisurely afternoon taste of the warm summer sun.

Opportunities are always left to those who are prepared. After three years of obsessive training in coffee skills, a coffee shop in Xinbu Island, Haikou, changed hands, and Zheng Yiyun immediately took over. "as long as you don't lose money, it's enough to learn how to make coffee and get to know a group of friends who love coffee."

The coffee shop is located in a remote location, and when it first took over, there were few guests. In order to save costs, she worked as both a dispenser and a waitress. "I only want to make professional handmade coffee. When I have no business, I draw pictures, read books, and surf the Internet. The most important thing is to be able to make a cup of coffee for myself."

Go halfway around China for inspiration

Zheng Yiyun likes to make friends from various industries, and she often exchanges knowledge of coffee beans with her guests. Put coffee beans from different places in the store and let guests observe their differences in "bean appearance" and color. Shallow baking is sour, deep is bitter, secondary baking can get rid of sour and bitter. She took her friends to give away gifts with small sips and explained the different flavor of each style.

Friends also like the design of the literary style in the store, the tea table under the colorful shell background, a variety of coffee cups and mugs with different shapes, jazz, English classics, blues, book time and other theme music designed according to the age and identity of the guests. She has always thought that "the cafe that guests like, not only like coffee, but also love the unique precipitated culture of the cafe."

The early cafe was the place of literature. in her mind, she wanted to turn her cafe into a culture in Haikou, with coffee as the main line, music, painting, reading and other cultural elements as the auxiliary line. let more people come to the cafe to enjoy this leisurely coffee exchange culture.

Last year, she shared her thoughts with three close old classmates, who did not hesitate and like-minded, and immediately decided to work with her to build a new coffee "kingdom" that they had agreed upon. And with great trust, she took full responsibility for the management and operation of the new cafe.

Her dream of building a brand new cafe started, and she began to explore high-quality cafes all over China, including specialty cafes in Zhejiang, Shanghai, Yunnan, Beijing, Harbin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Fujian. She spent two months running almost half of China, sometimes alone in six cafes a day. When she came back, she set out to open a new cafe on Haidian Island, with more stringent details. "beans are the most fragrant three to five days after baking. Be sure to share the coffee made at the best time with your friends."

As a native of Hainan, Zheng Yiyun often wants to present Hainan's local coffee culture to customers from other places through cafes. "now we will also deliberately go to places like Xinglong and Fushan to look for high-quality coffee that belongs to Hainan."

Elegant and leisurely in coffee

"physical and mental health is the most important. For this reason, I have studied psychology. My greatest talent is to decompress myself." In any case, Zheng Yiyun can keep calm and look at everything in life with a smile.

In his spare time, his enthusiasm for public welfare also makes Zheng Yiyun's mind more and more purified. Many years ago, she began to work as a volunteer and went to leprosy villages in Haikou, Wenchang and other places many times to clean and cook for the recovered elderly there, and sent some New year goods to the elderly. Sometimes, sitting in his own warm cafe, Zheng Yiyun will pick up a paintbrush in one hand and coffee in the other to paint natural and fresh paintings. Sometimes, she would invite writers to the cafe for book exchanges. She said that coffee is a kind of complex, which can purify the mind and enrich cultural thoughts. She wants an extreme cup of coffee, an extreme text, and an extreme painting to attract more people who love coffee, literature and art.