Recommended by Yinchuan Cafe

I remember three or four years ago, I asked many people around me, what is your dream in the future? Many people answered me: open a small shop of your own, with flowers, sunshine and freedom. If you ask more specifically, the other person will say meaningfully: the cafe has been a dream for many years. At that time, opening a cafe in Yinchuan, a remote city in the northwest, was an ideal and extravagant hope for young people. Unexpectedly, in the past two years, more and more brave young people have pursued and persisted in practicing their dreams of cafes in this city, especially this summer, a series of cafes began to appear, so that the atmosphere of independent cafes in Yinchuan began to slowly form, with more coffee culture.

As long as you walk into these small cafes, the hosts will enthusiastically make you a latte and beat the milk foam evenly and delicate, like the sunshine of this season. In fact, they also want to say that it doesn't matter what you drink, the mind and heart of a city should be reflected in the cafe, and the beauty of the city should be reflected in the details of life.

NO 1

Agui Cafe

Recommended: iced latte, ice fruit bubble series

Venue: Yuhuang Pavilion North Street (opposite Shengshi Garden)

Please choose a free afternoon when you go to Agui Cafe. It doesn't matter if there is sunshine in the cracks in the leaves or a cold rainy night, it doesn't matter if you are alone, or that you want to be alone. Walk through some busy streets, walk up the narrow stairs and come to the "Agui Coffee" with the style of "English indoor courtyard".

Unlike other places, the layout here feels like moving the garden into the room. Bright floor-to-ceiling windows, yellow walls, corduroy retro sofas and green ceiling fans spin over the room. In the afternoon, the sun shines through the glass window, which looks like a nostalgic scene from an old British movie.

This summer, Agui Cafe, opened by three post-80s male students, Xu Kun, Xu Qiang and Yao Wenjun, officially opened. One of the bosses, Yao Wenjun, who once studied at Jiangxi Ceramic Technology Institute, has run two bars and has taken charge of all the designs here. Because of his unique aesthetics, he is particularly picky about the "sense of space", insisting on setting floor-to-ceiling windows and arranging space partition.

"in fact, under the same area, more sofas can be placed, and the size can also be smaller." But he was reluctant to do so. Yao Wenjun always feels that, unlike the bar, people who come here actually want to release their emotions more freely. "if I have to sacrifice so many good feelings for a good cup of coffee, I would rather drink soy milk."

Quite surprisingly, there is an eye-pleasing female barista named Lei Xiaoting, who is also Yao Wenjun's lover. Graduated from Yunnan University, she began to study coffee skills in Xi'an two years ago and participated in her husband's dream.

Like many people with years of experience in other places, Lei Xiaoting is strict, from coffee makers to beans, insisting on choosing "Little Red Riding Hood" from Italy, and even mixing drinks with imported syrup and fresh limes, even though they are astonishingly expensive.

Lei Xiaoting, with a quiet personality, only likes to do two things: one is Taobao, and the other is creating her own food. As the female director of romantic dramas here, she always tries to use different recipes to create beautiful colors and delicious ice drinks. Talking about ice drinks in a coffee shop may be considered a bad thing, but to be honest, A Gui's ice drinks are well made. White Forest, banana milkshakes and grapefruit tea are the most sincere things I have ever seen in a cafe. Real materials have replaced all kinds of pigments and seasonings. The "mojito" in the ice fruit bubble series is the main feature in summer, with fresh mint leaves and green lemon, poured with chilled Sprite, or liqueur, for those who like reading in cafes, surfing the Internet, listening to music and in a daze. There is no doubt that it is a very pleasant place.

NO 2

Lolita Coffee

Recommended: Yinong, Tabing series

Venue: Minsheng City Garden

If Agui Cafe is the upstart of Yinchuan Independent Cafe, then Lolita Coffee is the veteran.

Starting from the first independent cafe in 2007, and then transferred to Minsheng City Garden in 2009, Guo Baichen, who once won the runner-up in the barista contest, did train the first batch of coffee customers in Yinchuan. After running a coffee shop for four years, his attention to Lolita is now more focused on cultural gatherings, so friends in Beijing and Sichuan often come to know about the shop through the Internet.

In the face of the boxing enthusiasm of the young men of literature and art, he seemed particularly indifferent. "nowadays, most cafes are functionalized. Many people go to cafes to consume the environment, and few people really go for coffee." Guo Baichen is such a coffee addict who likes coffee and is keen to promote it.

When I walk into Lolita coffee, I always love those knickknacks, all kinds of printed coffee cups, several books that can write down my mood, coffee bean display area, and even barter cards on the wall. People can't help but think of the Duoer Cafe in the Taiwanese movie "the 36th Story" and the line "what is the most valuable in your heart?" Sofas that allow people to sink into, and bookshelves for free reading, these leisure elements that literary and artistic youth love, all have here.

Of course, what the boss thinks most is the coffee shop's most important thing-coffee. Before the new barista took the job in the store, he would watch carefully and take notes from time to time, from espresso and cappuccino to individual coffee and creative coffee. In addition to having qualified baristas, good coffee beans are even more important. In the words of the boss, "Lolita is small, but she is making coffee according to her conscience." Taiwanese light meals, homemade cakes and desserts are also sold here, and recently a summer drink called mochata ice has been promoted. The drink, which is mixed with mocha and fresh milk foam, is very popular, but Guo Baichen insists that the blending of milk will not take away the original flavor of the coffee.

Sometimes, people who dream of opening a coffee shop think that their work can provide other dreamers with an aesthetic, ideological, artistic and open space. Every week, film shows, photography competitions and coffee lectures are also held here regularly. Guests who come to the store like to have a chat with Xiao Guo in the cafe. Here, there is no utilitarianism, no affectation, coffee drinkers are always so eager to return to that real and thoughtful self.

NO3

Enjoy coffee

Leisurely Coffee, which has been open for two years, is the most suitable cafe for the label of "independence". Because it is more like a pure white home than a cafe. The small area of the room, the host and hostess, are not talkative people. Whenever there is a coffee shop, the male host is always busy doing the design in front of the computer, while the hostess quietly makes freshly ground coffee. Therefore, people who come here always expect leisurely business not to be too good, so that they can always maintain a sense of privacy.

The hostess of leisurely Cafe used to work in Beijing, because she was not used to the noise there, so Huiyin opened this small shop with her husband. She said that when she is in a different place, she likes to go to all kinds of cafes very much, because everyone has more or less unknown troubles in their life, and some people do not want to talk to the people around them, so the cafe has become a good place to store their worries. I have always felt that the cafe in every city is like a traveler's home. It should be a warm and reassuring place.

At first, I couldn't understand why I always liked such an inconspicuous cafe with home-like lights. Is it just the right espresso? Or is it the sense of infinite distance given by the hostess? And now it seems to me that a good cafe actually has a soul.

The charm of enjoying the cafe lies in the "self" of the host and hostess, who are more like those who run the shop by industry, far away from the business itself. Blue Mountain, Yinong and lattes are divided into large and small cups here, and the hostess can often remember the orders of regular customers. But when the shop should close around 10:00 in the evening, they will politely refuse even if more guests ask for a seat. If you want to order, you need to make an appointment by phone in advance, because the hostess who cherishes the ingredients can never prepare more pizza or egg tart stuffing.

Two different people once asked whether the coffee cups in the hostess's shop were sold. And got two answers. One customer was politely refused, probably saying that this is what the hostess went to all over the country when she was traveling, and she couldn't bear to give up her love because of her hard work. While another customer was generously given away by the hostess. It is concluded that the hostess here is indeed a person of temperament.

If you want to feel at home on a rainy afternoon, come and enjoy it. It has everything you need for a good cafe. (Yinchuan Evening News)