Cafe shows latte love for medics

Seven staff, two shifts, 500 cups of free coffee, delivery to the hospitals twice a day－that's been the daily routine for the team at Wakanda Youth Coffee since the novel coronavirus outbreak caused the lockdown of Wuhan, capital of Hubei province.

At 10 am, Jan 23, the city of Wuhan was officially cut off, with all catering and entertainment venues temporarily shut down. There were no people or cars on the streets, and the smell of disinfectant in each community was getting thicker and thicker.

Tian Yazhen, the 30-year-old owner of Wakanda Youth Coffee, was worrying that if her cafe was closed, where would her regular clients－the doctors and nurses at Hubei Provincial Hospital of TCM－get their coffee?

Most of her 21 staff in seven branches had returned to their hometown for the Spring Festival and only six stayed in Wuhan.

Tian had a meeting with the remaining team members to discuss whether they should remain open and supply free coffee to the hospitals. With everyone in agreement, the meeting lasted for less than two minutes.

Li Jianghao, a Wuhan local staff member of Wakanda Youth Coffee, had flown to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, for the Spring Festival holiday. After hearing the news, he wanted to join his colleagues, but all flights and trains back to Wuhan had been canceled. Undeterred, Li took a train to as close to Wuhan as he could get and asked his family to drive there to collect him.

On the morning of Jan 25, all seven staff showed up at the Guanggu area branch of Wakanda Youth Coffee－named, incidentally, in homage to the fictional, but inspirational, African nation of Wakanda featured in the Marvel comics and movies as home to the superhero, Black Panther.

With face masks and gloves on, they use ethyl alcohol to disinfect themselves first, then the room before using food-grade sanitizer to clean the equipment.

There are two hospitals nearby which consume, on average, around 500 cups of coffee a day. After Tian communicated with both hospitals, she decided to send out the coffee twice a day－300 cups in the morning, delivered before noon, and 200 in the afternoon, delivered before 5 pm－coinciding with the shift changes of the medical staff.

To reduce the risk of infecting families, all seven staff stayed in a community a few minutes' walk away from the cafe. Two of the team didn't even tell their family before going back to work.

"Their families later understood that, instead of being anxious at home, we can actually do something to help," says Tian.

Tian founded Wakanda Youth Coffee in July of 2018, focusing on low-priced, high-quality coffee. According to Li Fei, one of the team, to join Wakanda, regardless of position, one has to be a professional barista first.

One of the remaining team members is Sina, a barista from Iran. On Feb 2, Sina received a message from his embassy that Iran was evacuating its Wuhan-based citizens two days later.

At that point, there were already 4,109 confirmed cases in the city. However, he chose to stay.

The team was involved in the evacuation of other foreigners, though－some of their regular clients from Australia and the United Kingdom couldn't get a taxi to the airport, and after completing all the necessary procedures, Li drove them to the airport in time to catch their flights home.

"If they ask us for help, it means there is no one else they can turn to. They are in a foreign country," Li says. "We would like to help them as much as we can."

Since the reopening for the medical staff, all of Tian's staff soon became a production line making its signature latte－two in charge of grinding and extracting the coffee beans, one for milk foaming and one for packaging－three people working together can make three cups in 90 seconds.

To make a latte, the best temperature for foaming the milk is 60 C, Li and his colleague raised the temperature to 90 degree, so that when the doctors and nurses get the coffee, it's still hot.

"Even if the coffee is free, we want to present our best quality product to the medical staff," Li says.

The name of the drink, which the cafe called the China Latte, was changed to the Wuhan Latte on Feb 5. On each cup, the staff scribble handwritten messages of encouragement and thanks, such as "Come on Wuhan" or "Respect to You".

"We want the front line medical staff to feel warm when they drink our coffee, which is the least we can do," Li explains.

Li is responsible for delivering the coffee to the hospitals. He and his colleagues have tried many creative ways to fit 300 cups of coffee into the car.

When the fully loaded car arrives at the hospital, Li puts the coffee on a cart and steps two meters back as the volunteers of the hospital come and collect the hot beverages. While there is no conversation between them, the eye contact alone conveys respect and thanks.

"They are working on the front line to fight the coronavirus, if they are not afraid of facing it, what are the rest of us afraid of," Li says. "Instead of doing nothing at home, the past few days have been so fulfilling for us, it has taken me no time at all to fall asleep each night."

By Tuesday, they had delivered more than 7,000 drinks to the hardworking medical staff of Wuhan.

One medical worker commended Tian in a report, saying that the first coffee she had came after a seven-and-a-half-hour shift wearing a full protection suit and not a single drink.

"I finished the cup of coffee in one gulp, without having time to even enjoy the taste. Thanks for your coffee, when the outbreak is over, I'll visit your cafe and order one!"

The news struck a chord with people online and they found a creative way to donate－they pay through the check function of food service and review app, Dianping, even though they don't visit the cafe. Some pay 100 yuan ($14.3), some pay 200, and some choose to pay 28 yuan daily－the price of two cups of Wuhan Latte.

By Wednesday, Wakanda Youth Coffee had received donations of around 1 million yuan, as well as offers of help from milk and coffee bean suppliers. The team were surprised and extremely flattered by the donation.

They posted a letter on Wednesday, explaining that they will keep a public tally of the donations, and when the outbreak is over, after the cost of the coffee's ingredients have been covered, all remaining donation money will be put into a special Wuhan latte foundation for all of the front line medical staff in Wuhan.

Tian's team is now planning to invite more peers to join them, and their goal is "to supply coffee to all medical staff in Wuhan", she said.