My Story with
COFFEE
Coffee has always been a vibrant part of my life. What started as a simple beverage to keep me awake during class became so much more. From the excitement of starting and running my own coffee shop to the artistic and academic inspiration it provides, coffee has truly shaped my journey. Let me tell you my story with coffee.
GreenCup
In-School Cafe Startup
We aim to provide healthy, delectable, and affordable coffee
Where It all began
I started drinking coffee in 9th grade largely because of the Entrepreneurship Berkeley Program I joined. As more of my classmates began demanding for coffee, I started making it for them, and by the end, I was brewing coffee for the entire class.
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Berkeley Entrepreneurship Class
In the Berkeley Entrepreneurship class, I worked on a business idea called GreenPlate, which is an app that provides people access to healthy, delicious, and affordable food and recipes. In the end, we earned the highest rank among all the projects, but the idea of GreenCup grew.​
Initial Startup
Initially, we wrote a pitch deck of an auto-coffee vending machine to be set public for people to use; later, faced with school administration disapproval, the plan pivoted to an in-classroom cafe that we went with ever since.​
Basic Setup
The cafe setup was like this: first, we take orders the night before; then, the next morning we arrive early in the classroom to make the coffee; lastly, we put the coffee in a cupboard to wait for the customers to pick them up throughout the day. ​
Growth
In the first year, we only had a three-person team to handle all the finances, supply, orders, advertising, and everything else. However, after a year of operating, we attracted a community of coffee lovers who were willing to join and build our project together. Now going into the third year of operation, our little business has grown into a group of 30+ members employees who work in our human resources, supply chain, finance, media, and coffee makers. We didn't limit our scope to only our school community, but also to a broader realm of coffee lovers around the world through our official media accounts like youtube. Furthermore, we also held sales and occasional charity events, like slushy sales.
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We hope our legacy GreenCup can continue to thrive in the BASIS onwards to create an inclusive community and brew more delicious coffee.
COFFEE
As an academic inspiration
I set off for a trip to Hainan to look for the scent of coffee in the mountains...
During...
Throughout the journey, we got the opportunity to try out different types of coffee, see different processing techniques, visit local coffee farmers and coffee industries, and see the potential for Robusta beans turning into specialty coffee (specialty coffee tend to be Arabica beans because they are higher quality and have more flavor, but Robusta beans also have the potential according to our investigations).​
Initially...
In the spring of 2024, I set off on a trip to the Chinese province of Hainan. Known for its production of Robusta coffee, it is one of the first places in China to produce Robusta bean. Intrigued by the prospect of specialty beans, I set off for an anthropology field research.​
Discovery...
During the trip, I discovered this traditional coffee culture native to Hainan that was not known to many people. When coffee first arrives at Hainan from overseas Chinese immigrants coming back from Southern Asia, they are lower in quality. So the Hainan people create a deep roast technique that adds sugar, butter, or cream to lift the coffee aroma and hide the bad quality flavors. The dark roasted beans are ground into powder to boil in hot water, and the finished product is usually complimented with condensed milk. Alongside the roasting technique, Chinese immigrants also brought back the habit of drinking coffee that infused to the local tea drinking culture forming something called a LaoBa Tea Restaurant, which is a place for middle age men to drink coffee, tea, and have snacks for the whole day.
Inspired...
After this journey in Hainan, I was intrigued to look deeper into anthropology as a major; furthermore, this knowledge I learned inspired me to incorporate it into my research paper China's Coffee Frontier A Tale of Two Regions and a Global Market and also in my coffee series artworks. I was given the opportunity to share with more people about the unique coffee culture in Hainan, and gain attention for their coffee industry. In the future, I hope to continue to see the coffee of the world, and continue to make recipes.
