Pu’er, China –
At a mountainside cafe in southwestern China, Liao Shihao brews handfuls of locally grown beans into steaming cups of coffee, a modern twist on the region’s traditional drink.
For centuries, Pu’er in Yunnan province has given its name to a type of richly fermented tea — sometimes styled “pu-erh” — famous across East Asia and beyond.
But as younger Chinese cultivate a taste for punchy espressos, frothy lattes and flat whites, growers are increasingly branching out into tea’s historic rival.
