Last month I was invited to attend a China Arab Expo in Yinchuan, a city about two hours flight west of Beijing and although I didn’t find any coffee shop there, using my aeropress for my coffee fix, I knew that Beijing would have more to offer. So, before my trip I used google to search for best specialty coffee in Beijing and guess what, Voyage Coffee came up.
So, on my second day in Beijing, I made sure that my first stop in discovering the city or should I say finding good coffee, was at the art district, 798 751 Park , where Voyage Coffee was located. Initially I was a bit apprehensive as I completely underestimated the size of this venue and not having WIFI, I panicked. However, upon entering from the main entrance, which is a pedestrian district, I saw a sign pointing to Voyage Coffee on my right… hey presto!
I found out that the main entrance was in a kind of cul-de-sac, so I had a mini adventure.
Upon entering, you are greeted with Nihao (hello in Chinese) and with a Scandinavian style interior with light brown wood and concrete – urban Nordic chic is what I call it.
They have a La Marzocco Strada with Mazzer grinders and the menu has Chinese on one side and English on the other. The café was busy with both locals and expats with some working on laptops and enjoying their coffees.
I noticed their Probat 12kg coffee roaster housed in a glass enclosure for all to see. I found out from their barista that they roast every Tuesday. I went for a flat white using their Black Forest blend, even though it was late afternoon, having not had espresso-based coffee for days and a NY style cheesecake.
Yummy. Hints of chocolate and dried fruit around the edge of my tongue and the cheesecake was one my wife would have approved off.
Before finishing my coffee, Cody, the top barista came over to offer a Kenyan cold brew coffee.
I think she noticed that I was a bit more serious than other customers when I was asking questions about the coffee earlier, plus she spoke the best English as the others were a little puzzled when I started asking about flavour profiles.
I liked it so much that I wanted to buy a bag of beans and Cody was so excited that she rushed to the back to get me one, BUT sadly they had run out. I opted for her second recommendation, an Ethiopian Mansa, because it was a natural processed.
I took some videos for my Instagram reels and left.
Highly recommended when in Beijing.
I wandered around the art district as someone asked to check another coffee shop, which I didn’t find but I tried Manner coffee, which was okay and I saw %arabica, which had a cool décor but I find their beans to darkly roasted for me, so I didn’t bother.
Find them at China, Beijing, Chaoyang, 酒仙桥路4号北京798艺术区内 邮政编码: 100102
From Coffee With Love 