上海“小红罐”曾是新中国首个咖啡品牌！“老字号的前世今生”档案展启动

Brief (coffeeyo.com): On September 19, the “Shanghai Story — Old Brand Archive Exhibition & Bailian Guochao Market” opened at the Shanghai Archives. Among the city’s time-honored brands on display, the “Shanghai Brand” coffee — New China’s first self-developed coffee brand, famous for its iconic “little red can” — stands as a vivid emblem of the city’s industrial memory.

On September 19, the “Shanghai Story — Old Brand Archive Exhibition & Bailian Guochao Market” opened to strong attendance at the Shanghai Archives. The exhibition selected archives and artifacts treasured by the municipal archives and nearly 20 time-honored enterprises, clearly tracing the lineage of how many of Shanghai’s old brands have inherited, innovated and developed.

White Rabbit creamy candies, Warrior sneakers, Phoenix-brand bicycles, Hero fountain pens… Shanghai is home to 197 “China Time-Honored Brands,” the most of any city in the country. These enduring old brands — engraving the city’s memory, carrying forward its industrial spirit and reinforcing cultural confidence — are the liveliest annotations of “Shanghai Story.”

Take Shanghai Brand coffee for example. Archives show it was New China’s first self-developed coffee brand, with beans selected globally and roasted using Shanghai’s distinctive roasting craft. From the 1960s to the 1980s, virtually all the coffee raw material used by domestic cafes and foreign-related hotels came from the Shanghai Coffee Factory, which at one point monopolized the domestic coffee market — an iconic “foreign-flavor” product of the planned-economy era. It also produced nationally beloved foods such as Lukoufu, malted-milk cubes and chrysanthemum-crystal drinks. Worth emphasizing is the Shanghai Brand coffee’s iconic “little red can”: the coffee powder must be brewed rather than being instant, making it a hallmark ornament in many old Shanghainese families’ glass cabinets.

The two-day event organically integrates the archive exhibition with the guochao market, themed lectures and parent-child experiences, balancing public-welfare character with dissemination efficiency, making archive culture tangible and warm, and creating a new “old-brand + new-guochao” cultural-commercial-exhibition fusion scene and experience for citizens. Among these, the concurrently held Bailian Guochao Market brings together categories such as food, daily necessities, beauty, health products, optometry and eyewear, and new-energy vehicles, as well as old-brand names like Shanghai Brand coffee, Marie painting materials and First Food. Prices are affordable, and people-friendly services such as free optometry are also offered.

Main image: Shanghai Brand coffee at the archive-exhibition site. Photo by Labor Daily reporter Gong Junqi.

Photography: Gong Junqi

Editor-in-charge: Wang Di

Reprint Note & Disclaimer

1. This article is compiled and edited by coffeeyo.com. The materials and images herein are sourced from public channels and the copyright belongs to the original authors. This site reprints them solely for information sharing within the coffee industry and does not represent our stance; all data and views are subject to the original source. We thank the original authors for their work and sharing.
2. For matters concerning content authorization, attribution, copyright, or any other issues, please contact us promptly. We will verify and cooperate in handling them without delay. We also welcome coffee-growing regions, brands, and industry media to exchange and contribute articles with us.
3. Contact coffeeyo.com — Tel: 400-0000-641 (+86-18288016826) | Email: 405854472@qq.com | Address: Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan / Tieling City, Liaoning

Reprint Notice & Disclaimer

1. This article has been edited and compiled by China Coffee Network. The information and images therein come from public sources and the copyright belongs to the original author. This reprint is intended solely for information sharing within the coffee industry and does not represent the views of this website; all data and opinions are subject to the original article. Our thanks to the original author for creating and sharing it.
2. For matters concerning content licensing, attribution, copyright or otherwise, please contact us promptly and we will verify and cooperate in handling them as soon as possible. We also welcome coffee origins, brands and industry media to exchange ideas and contribute articles.
3. Contact China Coffee Network: Tel 400-0000-641 (+86-18288016826) | Email 405854472@qq.com | Address: Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province / Tieling, Liaoning Province