Coffee Art: China & Thailand

I have been wanting to write again about coffee for some time now since it is a big part of my everyday life thanks to all of you back home! At the same time, I have some great pictures - one of them my friend Andrea has already displayed on her blog - of coffee that I have been drinking over the last few months and I thought I would share you some of the wonderful works of art that I have tasted.

So I must state that drinking coffee from China - and East Asia for that matter - is very different from what you might think of when drinking coffee back home. Having come from Washington - the land of Starbucks and numerous other small coffee chains - it hard not to come in with expectations of what coffee IS and what it ISN'T. Not to mention that I worked for Starbucks for a small amount of time.

At the same time, I have come to enjoy learning about how the Chinese view coffee and how they prepare it. Below are some pictures and descriptions of the coffee I have tasted thus far.

(Above: Cold Mocha & Irish Coffee)

First off, a Mocha isn't always what you would necessarily think of if you ordered it in Nanchang. I am still not exactly sure what they do, but I think they use some spin-off of a French press method to make the coffee and then mix it with a milk-like substance (most likely rice milk). Afterward, they add cold water (?) and put whip cream (apparently homemade) on top.

The Irish Coffee is definitely an interesting drink to order. The waiter brings out a Bunsen burner along with the coffee and melts what would appear to be the Irish cream (?) powder into the coffee and lights the liquid on the top of the coffee on fire. So yeah, it's definitely worth ordering to watch, but not that tasty.

(Mocha)

Strangely enough, this mocha did have steamed milk and a really fancy design on the top. On the downside, it was lacking any semblance of chocolate and tasted much more like a latte.

(Cappuccino)

Not really, but the place we go to thinks that they make cappuccinos. Actually, it is some form of coffee mixed with whip cream. The picture above is from the time we went to Dio and it happened to be Valentine's Day and they were making the cappuccinos with 'Love' written with cinnamon powder. It's kind of impressive really. I mean the 'o' in "Love" is even in the shape of the heart - who doesn't like that? : )

(Shannon holding a huge French fry next to a latte)

Since Shannon and I are the coffee junkies around here, we often end up hanging out a lot. This time we decided to order French fries - an odd match for drinking coffee in the morning to be sure - and one of the fries was a big as the latte, which was impressive since it was like 6 inches or so long. Plus, I just had to include because of Shannon's expression.

The latte - I should note - that you are looking at above is divided into two substances as you can already see. Oh yes, and that is a cold latte - whatever that means. The top part of the latte is coffee, while the bottom is most likely rice milk. It is topped off with whip cream, pieces of orange, and mint.

（Mocha in Thailand)

This is perhaps one of the coolest coffee designs I have ever seen. I mean, it's not every day you see a cat in your coffee. *smile*

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! Laters!

厦门 (Xiamen)

It has been over a year since I have been in this beautiful city and I can't express the emotions that I feel just walking through its streets again. At the same time everything just seems so different. Furthermore, it is a stark contrast compared to the city (Nanchang) where I have been living for the last 4 months. I wish I had a better way of explaining it, but the best I could do would be to say that it would be like living in Boise and then visiting Seattle.

Upon arriving things went every way we didn't expect them to go; however, as I have been taught "One must always be expected for the unexpected in China - and flexible". So after wandering around for about 15 minutes and asking a group of Chinese people we finally found our "hostel". We walked in, handed them our reservations, and that is when things started not to work out too well. We noticed - somewhat strangely - that this place had no computers and that it was staffed in what - to us - appeared to be a peculiar manner. After about 5-10 minutes of the lady looking at our reservations and asking about rooms she told us that they didn't have any record of our reservations.

I thought this is kind of strange and not too good. We spent the next half an hour or so debating back and forth about whether or not we had reservations and the issue of having made a deposit with their company. At the mention of money being exchanged they called someone who begin a conversation between me and the person at the front desk by handing a cell phone back and forth. The debate came to the conclusion - that is our conclusion - that the company lost the reservation and/or our booking agent that we used failed to send along the information or pocketed the money. At any rate, the people were very nice and arranged for us to stay at another hotel called the Easy Inn, which was actually cheaper and somewhat nice. So it pays to smile, nod, and be patient when dealing with the unknown; that, of course, and send some thoughts up to the Father every once in awhile.

After booking our room, getting settled, and refreshing ourselves we hit the town to get out and do something else besides stay indoors since we had been in a train for some 18 hours. We walked around and marveled at our rather modern surroundings that appeared surreal to us having come from Nanchang. As Shannon commented, it looked like we were hanging out in some large theme park. We walked for about 1 mile or and found a ferris wheel and large ship in the middle of a huge shopping center that was oddly enough deserted.

I must say, though that the large ship was much more interesting and overall more intriguing. I mean who walks into a large shopping area expecting to see a huge ship parked right in the middle of it? I, of course, had no choice but to be as tourist-like as I could and take a picture of it so that I could show it to you. Below is a picture of the ship.

After checking out the mall area we headed over to an international bookstore that happened to have some amazing coffee! Shannon and I couldn't believe that there was actually place that had real coffee with real espresso. The place we went to made hazelnut lattes for 12元 a piece, which is about equivalent to $1.80 for a 12 ounce latte. It was so ridiculous since we usually pay about $3.00 a "coffee" at Dio, which is usually not even really coffee but some kind of substitute. I have to say that was really cool!

I should note that I was able to have dinner with a good friend of mine named Wang Yue this evening and catch up on everything that has been going on with her. Tomorrow we will be going to see Xia Da and Gulongyu, so I will probably have some more pictures for you tomorrow!

(Andy, Shannon, Jonathan, and Laura making fish faces)

Coffee: French Press Style

So I decided that I would dedicate this post to coffee as it is something that is dear to my heart as well as something that I crave nearly every day of the week. It is also something that just allows you to ease into the morning and your lesson plans for the day. However, as it is a precious commodity here in China it must be used sparingly. Thus, my teammate Shannon and I have it about twice a week (Monday and Wednesday).

If you look at the picture to the right you will see our French press and the little pastries we have found to accompany them when we go to work. I must admit that finding pastries to go with your coffee is not entirely something that is easily done in China. Thankfully, we have found two good little snacks to pair with our coffee: Muffins and Chocolate Egg Rolls. I would say that we tend to buy the muffins more often as they are a little healthier and filling, especially when drinking coffee on an empty stomach.

I actually sent my French press and 3 lbs of coffee from Starbucks before I left for training back in August so that it would be in Nanchang by the time I arrived mid-September. I had thought for sure that I a few individuals on my team would like to drink coffee for sure, but I was mistaken. Upon arriving at training I was quick to realize that only two people - including myself - liked coffee. Moreover, of the two people that liked coffee both of them had worked at Starbucks. At first I was kind of shocked, but then I was like well that just means more coffee for Shannon and I.

I keep a stash of all the little goods that are needed for coffee mornings at work. However, I only bring our coffee supplies in on Monday and take them home on Thursday or Friday. It actually requires forethought and preparation to bring all this in as I have forgotten and slightly felt the wrath of Shannon :)
What you are looking at is actually the lower left-hand side of my desk. In it - as you can see - is a box of Nescafe (used only in emergencies), half a pound of Sumatra from Starbucks, a water boiler, a grinder, and the top to our French press. What you do not see that is usually in here is: the rest of our French press, cups, muffins, and whatever chocolate we have at the time. What does it bring: Joy to me every week!

To be sincere though, I would actually say one of the coolest things about having coffee at our office is our ability to share it with our fellow Japanese teachers from time to time as well as get to know them better. Besides having Shannon to drink coffee with, I would say that building relationships with our Japanese friends has been a really blessing.

Today, I told them that I would make them some coffee as Tecao (I am sure I spelling this absurdly wrong)is always hinting at Starbucks and having a real cup of coffee. However, I didn't get back as soon as I thought I would from lunch and only got back to catch them leaving for class. So I asked Temocha (this too...) and Tecao what rooms they were teaching in and begin making a French press as quickly as I could. I don't really think they thought I would make and bring them coffee, but in 10 minutes or so I had steaming hot coffee ready and I set about getting coffee to take it to everybody. I took coffee to Shannon first - she wasn't surprised - and then went and delievered coffee to Tecao and Temocha who were both surprised that I brought them coffee. Tecao was so happy he grabbed me and introduced me to his class, all the while wearing that great smile of his.

I have invited him up for coffee this weekend and I am looking forward to hearing more about Japan and anything else.

Well, to end this post I thought I would finish it with a picture of my friend Shannon telling me that I needed to be quiet and get back to work. Too much coffee aparently keeps me jabbering a little more than is pc appropriate - what can say? Shannon is trying to teach me time management, but it is a little slow catching. Then again, it was never really something that I could say that I specialized in, let alone had. In the end, I don't think that coffee and time management go together....or something like that....yeah.