'Taste of Zunyi' Shan Coffee: sauce-aroma coffee specials carry the flavours of Zunyi

A cup of coffee can be the everyday pick-me-up of the morning, and it can also be the gateway to a city’s flavours.

In Xinpu New Area, Zunyi, a coffee shop called Shan Coffee is trying to bring traditional sauce-aroma baijiu into daily life in a lighter, younger way through a cup of sauce-aroma coffee. The roast of the coffee, the freshness of the fruit and the mellow depth of the sauce-aroma spirit collide in the cup, also carrying Zunyi’s baijiu from familiar banquets and dinner tables into a richer set of consumption scenarios.

The scene inside Shan Coffee

From a personal hobby to a public setting

Cai Shuangshuang, the barista at Shan Coffee, is from Renhuai. For her, sauce-aroma baijiu is part of the environment she grew up in.

Sauce-aroma baijiu is the warmth with which family receive guests, the ritual on the table at festivals, and a familiar, dear taste in the daily life of Zunyi people. As a child, her understanding of it came mostly from family and hometown; later, when she began working in coffee, it re-entered her life in an entirely new way.

Cai Shuangshuang first came into contact with coffee in 2019. Before that she was rather introverted, preferring to be alone and to do things by herself. Coffee gave her exactly that kind of quiet, focused space: studying beans at home, exploring brewing methods, trying different setups, practising extraction and latte art. Coffee slowly turned from a hobby into a habit of life.

In 2024, Cai Shuangshuang joined Shan Coffee as a barista. The small shop is more than a place that serves drinks; it has gradually become somewhere people stop to chat, rest and feel life. Some come for a familiar Americano, some try new flavours, and some come looking for a moment of ease that belongs to them.

When coffee moves from one person’s exploration to a meeting of many, new possibilities follow.

The “Zhenqiao” sauce-aroma coffee special

Cross-sector collaboration creates sauce-aroma coffee specials

In 2025, Huichuan held a sauce-aroma coffee lifestyle culture week. Cai Shuangshuang and Shan Coffee took part, developing two sauce-aroma coffee specials with Zhenjiu: “Zhenqiao” and “Zhenhao.”

“Zhenqiao” brings chocolate, coffee and sauce-aroma baijiu together. The opening is an interweaving of dark-roasted coffee’s roast notes and rich cocoa; the mid-palate gradually becomes smooth and full, with a soft wine aroma slowly emerging from the chocolate’s sweetness; the finish leaves a composite aroma of cocoa and coffee with a long lasting impression.

“Zhenhao” presents a different, lighter style. The sparkle of carbonation brings a crisp, lively experience on entry, with sweet-and-sour notes blended with a faint wine aroma; the coffee’s naturally gentle bitterness is moderated by the freshness of lemon. Towards the finish, lemon fruitiness and a light coffee-liquor aroma intertwine, fresh yet layered.

The two products, one richer and one fresher, are like two different life settings: one suited to slow savouring, the other to easy sharing. Yet together they accomplish one thing — freeing sauce-aroma baijiu from a single drinking imagination and turning it into an everyday drink that young people can approach more easily.

“Sauce-aroma baijiu has always been part of life, but young people today are more interested in lower-alcohol drinks and mixed drinks,” Cai Shuangshuang said, which is also an important reason she tried her hand at sauce-aroma coffee.

In the past, baijiu appeared mostly at banquets, business occasions and family gatherings. Today’s young consumers pay more attention to the drinking experience, to whether a drink suits the moment, whether it offers freshness, and whether it can connect with their own way of living.

The new “Zhentao” sauce-aroma coffee special

Accidental invention and flavour innovation

Building on the first two products, Cai Shuangshuang unlocked an entirely new creation, “Zhentao,” as this year’s third sauce-aroma coffee lifestyle culture week approached.

The birth of this product carried a touch of luck that life provides.

On the evening she confirmed her entry, a friend brought over some seasonal passion fruit. Cai Shuangshuang, who had never tried pairing passion fruit with coffee before, began improvising at home. Zhenjiu, coffee, passion fruit and tree tomato — several flavours that seemed unfamiliar to one another were boldly combined, and unexpectedly produced a flavour impression of white peach.

On the entry of “Zhentao,” mellow wine aroma wraps the soft fruit character of tree tomato, the lively sweet-sour of passion fruit unfolds, and it finally transforms into a captivating white-peach note. In the mid-palate, tree tomato lays down a warm fruity base while the passion fruit aroma gradually bursts forth; towards the back, the coffee’s bright acidity balances the fruit sweetness, and the wine aroma is understated and lingering. Fruit, coffee and wine aromas interweave layer by layer, leaving a rich and lasting sweetness.

An accidental attempt ultimately became a flavour expression that belongs to Zunyi.

This also shows that sauce-aroma coffee is not simply a stacking of ingredients, but a search for relationships among different flavours. Fruit opens the palate, coffee builds the structure, and sauce-aroma baijiu lengthens the finish. When a drink has a front, a middle and a back, it acquires a tasting logic close to that of a fine spirit.

What people taste is not only the shifting of sweet, sour, bitter and aromatic notes, but also, within a single drink, how flavours unfold and how tradition can be expressed anew.

Tianyan News reporter Wu Haoyu

Editor Li Yang

Second review Li Zhenglin

Final review Tang Zhengping

Reprint Notice & Disclaimer

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.
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.
Contact China Coffee Network: Tel 400-0000-641 (+86-18288016826) | Email 405854472@qq.com | Address: Jinghong, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province / Tieling, Liaoning Province