Pu’er Coffee

 “Almost” is a word that carries a familiar life attitude in Chinese culture. It reflects a way of thinking rooted in balance—a practical philosophy for living. Not too much, not too little. Go with the flow. Stay tolerant of imperfection. Avoid the exhaustion that comes from obsessive precision. I think this is the state many young people today are trying to explore—or hoping to become. “Almost” is no longer the numbed indifference produced by social conditioning; instead, it has become a resilient survival strategy for ordinary people navigating life with limited resources. I don’t know whether the café I’m talking about today consciously embraces this philosophy, but the moment you read its name, you feel a sense of release—like pressure quietly lifting off your chest. As Little Snake Gary once said, “My family doesn’t expect me to shoulder all the responsibility, because I don’t have shoulders!” Located at 540 Wener West Road in Hangzhou’s Xihu District, Almost Relax Café giv...

 Many baristas somehow reach the same consensus: if you want to judge the quality of a coffee shop, just order a flat white and you’ll know. If the flat white is good, the rest of the drinks are usually up to standard. When asked why, these baristas reply: because it is the milk coffee that is the easiest to “mess up.” The most controversial espresso-based coffee The flat white is a coffee with no definitive origin or agreed-upon method. Regarding the true birthplace of the flat white, the debate between Australia and New Zealand remains unresolved, but regardless of who invented it, we only need to know that it is a milk coffee from the Southern Hemisphere. As for its definition, the flat white likewise has no clear concept, so every coffee shop has its own “exclusive recipe,” but no matter how it changes, it usually sticks to three key points: less milk, thinner foam, and stronger coffee flavor. When making it, baristas reduce the milk and control the thinness of the microfoam ...