Master · Life – Hidden in the alley, popular all over the internet! Why does Guiyang coffee go viral 300 million times?

In Guiyang, you can easily encounter a "Champion Coffee" store. On social media such as Tiktok and Xiaohongshu, "Guiyang Coffee" has exceeded 300 million views. The prosperity of coffee in Guiyang is jointly painted by more than 3000 coffee shops in this city, and here lies a group of people's love and perseverance, youth and struggle.

Weighing, dropping beans, measuring water loss rate and color value of bean powder… These are the daily operations of Li Tuojian, the manager of "Snow Coffee" coffee shop, every morning. He needs to customize different roasting methods for the six types of coffee beans in the shop. "For example, African beans have more floral and fruity flavors in their soil, so we bake them relatively lightly to preserve their acidity. Asian and American beans have high purity and sweetness, so we go for moderate roasting to increase their sweetness

In 2015, Li Tuojian founded the "Snow Coffee" brand in Huaxi District, Guiyang City. Currently, there are a total of 5 branches, and many customers are long-time regulars of his family.

Guiyang resident Xie Yiwen has been drinking coffee at the "Snow Coffee" Taiping Road branch for two or three years: "Basically, I come here every day, and the outdoor feeling is a bit better. I like their 'Orange Sea' coffee

In 2011, Li Tuojian studied abroad in South Korea and obtained the Intermediate Certificate of Barista. When I first came back, the coffee shops in Guiyang were places for people to play cards and board games, so I wanted to open my own coffee shop that only produces products

Good coffee requires the perseverance of a barista, from selecting beans, roasting to grinding and extraction, every step is the key to making good coffee. Tu Hailan is not only a barista, but also one of the partners in the store. Studying the flavor of coffee and the emotional value of products is her major hobby.

Tu Hailan said, "Whenever there is a holiday, I will go to some coffee shops across the country that I am interested in to clock in. The more than 200 badges on this wall are all obtained through stamp collecting. This is a creative specialty store that I clock in at every year when I go to Shanghai. It mixes different ingredients together to create a 1+1>2 effect. Many stores have good design concepts, styles, and product technologies, so we need to learn from their good places

During peak season, "Snow Coffee" can sell over 300 cups of coffee per day, and the booming tourism industry in Guizhou has also brought customers and popularity to the coffee shops in the alleys. Next, "Snow Coffee" plans to open its first out of province branch in Xiamen.

Li Tuojian said, "I hope to encourage more people to come into contact with coffee and enjoy it. Our current mini program has 70000 members, which is a great achievement for us. This is the result of the joint efforts of coffee managers over the years

In addition to old stores like "Snow Coffee" that have been open for more than 10 years, there are also new stores like "Hu Dou Coffee" in Guiyang, with a team of ten people with an average age of 25.

The manager of "Hu Dou Coffee", Liang Jiachen, is very busy every day, not only managing the business of the store, but also preparing for the China finals of the World Barista Competition in July this year.

Liang Jiachen said that the competition he participated in required him to make 12 drinks within 15 minutes, expressing his views as a barista while doing it. It required a very smooth performance, which required a lot of practice to support it. "Last year, we did it about 500 times, and the year before last, we practiced about 700 times," he said

In April of this year, Liang Jiachen won the championship of the East China division of the 2026 World Barista Competition. The championship is not accidental. In 2023, he won the national fifth place in the competition, and in 2025, he won the national third place. In order to prepare for this year's national finals, he spends most of his time preparing for it.

Liang Jiachen said, "This is our fourth time reaching the finals, and the pressure this year is not so great. We will still work hard to participate, but the results may not be important to us. After a change in mentality, the process of participating in the competition will also be easier. This year's focus is no longer on how to win, but on how to optimize the aspects that were not done well in the past

Nowadays, Guiyang has an average of one coffee shop per 2000 people, surpassing Shanghai in density and becoming one of the cities with the highest coffee shop density in the country. Among over 3000 coffee shops, in addition to chain brands, there are more than 1000 local coffee brands in Guiyang. It is also a consensus among many coffee managers to find their own differentiated development path in the "Coffee City".

Liang Jiachen, the manager of "Hudou Coffee," said, "In the entire coffee industry, Guiyang is more focused on baking and coffee shops. Guizhou tourism has developed rapidly in the past two years, which is very helpful for our store and peers. Our focus in the second half of the year will be on training instructors, hoping to share with more coffee lovers in Guiyang

A cup of coffee fills the city with fragrance. When the relaxed philosophy of life meets the cool mountainous climate, Guiyang has grown numerous cafes. They are not only a comfort to the taste buds, but also the best footnote to the romantic and leisurely temperament of this city.

Contributors: Tian Jiajia, Wang Junlu, Hu Tao, Luo Yang