What Does Coffee from the Priciest La Marzocco Taste Like? A Changsha Community Treats Delivery Riders to Free Coffee Every Love-you Day

Brief (coffeeyo.com): In Changsha, a community has turned the 20th of every month into a “Love-you Day,” offering free coffee—brewed on an 180,000-yuan La Marzocco—to delivery riders, couriers and ride-hailing drivers, warming the city’s new frontline workers with a cup and a pun.

Changsha Evening News / Palm Changsha reported on August 20 (all-media reporter Li Zhuo): in the world of commercial espresso machines there is a proud “hot mama” (La Marzocco), handcrafted one by one by artisans in Florence, Italy, each one unique. The La Marzocco Strada X sells for as much as 180,000 yuan apiece, hailed as the “priciest hot mama.” So the question is: what does coffee from the priciest “hot mama” actually taste like?

On the 20th, the Liúhé Community Party Committee of Dongfeng Road Subdistrict in Kaifu District, together with 304 Catering Innovation Valley and Changsha Yishang Food Co., Ltd., launched a “Warm-the-New Coffee Day” campaign, designating the 20th of every month as “Love-you Day” and setting up a permanent “Warm-the-New Rest Spot” at 304 Catering Innovation Valley. New-employment groups such as food-delivery riders, couriers and ride-hailing drivers can come to rest their feet and enjoy a free cup of coffee—using a “hot mama” to salute the laborers of the new economy and let this warmhearted city say “I love you.”

A pun that warms the heart, a cup of coffee that warms the “new”

The 20th sounds like “Love-you Day” (ài nǐ rì). Inside 304 Catering Innovation Valley—the “restaurant star-making dream factory” once covered by Changsha Evening News—this pun adds a thick warmth to this day each month.

“In our line of work, we brave wind and rain every day; a cup of coffee perks you up!” On the morning of the event, Xiao Cui, a post-90s female Meituan rider, came to the 4M Café inside 304 Catering Innovation Valley to pick up an order and was pleasantly surprised to receive a free iced latte made on the store’s “priciest hot mama” machine. Refreshed with a cup of coffee, she set off again. Xiao Cui said shyly that she usually can’t bring herself to buy a coffee costing ten or twenty yuan, and can’t quite tell what’s special about coffee from a high-end machine—but she can taste the genuine care and kindness.

A delivery rider receiving a free iced latte at the 4M Cafe in Changsha

The head of the Liúhé Community Party Committee told reporters that 304 Catering Innovation Valley gathers many start-up companies, and the community and young makers jointly use a pun and a cup of coffee to warm the “new”—the 4M Café, directly operated by park tenant Yishang Food, has set up a “Warm-the-New Rest Spot” that is open free all day to new-employment groups.

Beyond the free cup of coffee on every 20th “Love-you Day,” available to new-employment workers through a fast dedicated channel upon showing their work ID, the café also offers thoughtful services such as air-conditioned rest, book reading, rights-protection information, free drinking water, shared phone charging, an emergency medical kit, free WiFi and umbrella borrowing.

The machine is expensive, but craftsmanship and human warmth are worth more

Coffee aficionados all know that La Marzocco is hailed as the “Rolls-Royce of commercial espresso machines.” For a professional barista, to match top-tier machinery with superb skill is both honor and passion.

304 Catering Innovation Valley gathers a cluster of leading companies across the dining-industry chain. Park tenant Yishang Food is the Hunan general agent for La Marzocco commercial machines, and the store’s “treasured centerpiece” is a Strada X commercial semi-automatic machine with a market price of 180,000 yuan. The company’s head told reporters that there are only two such machines in Changsha—the other is at a specialty café in Yuelu District.

The La Marzocco Strada X commercial espresso machine at the 4M Cafe

What does espresso from the top-tier “hot mama” taste like? Friends from Changsha Evening News’ city-new-consumption public account “0731 New Nine Chapters” tried it specially: the espresso it produced had rich, full crema and a clean, smooth finish.

“The machine really is expensive, but what is more precious than the machine is the craftsman’s spirit and the thick human warmth of Changsha,” said Wu Shuai, head of the 4M Café and a veteran barista. A native of Xiangtan who has fought to build his career in Changsha, he is a craftsman as dedicated and focused as the riders who brave heat and cold to complete every order. He thanked Changsha for its openness and warmth—a cup of coffee from the priciest “hot mama” saluting the craftsman’s spirit and Changsha’s human warmth.

Community Party Committee representatives introducing neighborhood services at 304 Catering Innovation Valley

The Changsha human warmth Wu Shuai speaks of is also reflected in the attentive services of the subdistrict and community. 304 Catering Innovation Valley grew out of an old factory area from the 1970s; turning yesterday’s “industrial rust belt” into today’s “industry showcase” owes much to governance innovation led by Party building at the grassroots. The subdistrict and community brought 304 Catering Innovation Valley into the governance system as an independent “micro-grid,” with the park’s operations head serving as micro-grid chief. Since the micro-grid was established, it has collected more than 60 enterprise demands and coordinated solutions to over 40 practical problems such as parking difficulties and license processing—basically achieving “minor matters don’t leave the grid, major matters don’t leave the community.”

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