Food Fight – Cafes & Tea Houses!

There is no listing yet for Uganda Crane Coffee - so I will post my review here.

Beijingers aren't spoiled for choice when it comes to indie coffee shops, but Uganda Crane Coffee provides a great refreshing alternative to the usual "European" upscale coffee shops. It is one of the most interesting cafés you could wish to find.

Uganda produces a variety of Robusta and Arabica coffees, AA being the premium grade Arabica and washed Robustas. The coffee trees grow on small scale farms and it is organic.

The coffee is imported directly from Uganda as green bean and thereafter roasted and packaged in mainland China. They even tailor make coffee for customers on request! However, their standards are quite delicious. There is the UGANDAN ESPRESSO, which is roasted to medium-dark (between full-city and espresso). The beans are ground to a medium grind. There is also the MOUNT ELGON PRIDE OF UGANDA BUGISU AA, the beans are roasted to a medium roast (full city) - a light body cup with a chocolate background that makes a smooth, easy to drink coffee . Next is the THE BLUE MOUNTAIN, a well selected coffee that takes you up the mountain with a balance between body and acidity with a rich flavor .

My favorite is the NILE ESPRESSO though a full-bodied coffee that gives a thick reddish brown cream to an espresso shot. This medium-dark roast makes a good base for cappuccino, latte! Finally there is the VICTORIA ESPRESSO, which is slightly darker than the Ugandan espresso and for those who love milk, in their coffee, this is highly recommended. It also makes a great iced latte!

Uganda Crane Coffee Shop is also a place for gatherings of old and new friends. They frequently have discussions, talks, debates around a wide array of interesting topics, open mic night with alternate evenings of poetry or spoken word and acoustic performances, African film night, coffee cupping /tasting, and even Coffee and Chess! They even allow you to host your own events.

The Bar is a bit out of the way and near the end of Liangmaqiao road and there's not much else around, but it's a wonderful building and well worth the trip. This is what it feels like to stumble onto and into a bygone age of stone and leather. And because it's out on a limb, it's a perfect place for sitting reading for a few hours (I've happily filled a couple of work-related study days here).

The baristas are passionate about their coffee and they do a fantastic job. I've popped in a few times over the last couple of months and tried a few brews, all really good and very well presented.

Intriguingly, most of the voices I've heard on my trips have been African and American, They're a nice, friendly bunch. Though it's a quirky little coffee shop with a entrance that wanders past a main road, the decor lifts the dull gray exterior and inside it's funky and interesting. Particularly love some of the light fittings!
I even recently attended a coffee roasting and cupping demo there and learned some interesting stuff: They post blend their coffee, not in the roaster. So if there are 10 beans in the coffee, that's 10 different roastings. They believe roasting different blends together loses individual characteristics, so it's better to roast separately and then blend. The cupping process I participated in involved sipping spoonfuls of black coffee from a long line of different varieties.

Uganda Crane Coffee is the best coffee shop in Beijing. It puts together all the east African coffee characteristics giving a cup rich in both body and flavors!