Hearing-impaired baristas brew up expertise
Hearing-impaired baristas partnered others to compete in a latte art competition at the seventh Lujiazui Coffee Festival in Shanghai that kicked off late last month.
It was the second such contest jointly organized by Swedish food company Oatly, Alipay's Blue Wind Chime Program and Chinese coffee chain Unibrown Coffee.
The contest featured 10 groups of baristas who were scored on their latte art, taste and production time.
Hou Liang, who lost his hearing in childhood due to a high fever, won the competition.
After graduating from a special education school in 2006, Hou worked in graphic design for nearly eight years before making his foray into the coffee industry.
"I went to a Starbucks' sign-language store in Malaysia and I met several 'silent baristas'. I have also tried different beans in different regions in specialty coffee shops in China, and that got me interested in the coffee industry," says the 39-year-old barista, who scored the highest for latte art and taste in the contest.
Hou launched his first cafe, Lanna Coffee, with his partner in 2021.He credits the achievement to the training provided by Oatly.
"The 'silent barista' project by Oatly carries out regular training and has developed a special ordering system and a sign-language dictionary that helps us to get certified by the Specialty Coffee Association," says Hou.
Established in January 2017, the Specialty Coffee Association is a trade association aimed at fostering global coffee communities that support activities that make coffee a more sustainable, equitable and thriving activity for the entire value chain.
"Through the training, I can now make various flavors of coffee every day to provide more variety to my customers. The practice not only improves my coffee-making skills but also allows more customers to enter our 'silent world', understand and communicate with each other to bring us closer," Hou says.
He grew up in the company of hearing-impaired people, who now visit his coffee store almost every day.
"When I see them drinking coffee while sitting around, laughing and communicating in sign language, I feel a sense of satisfaction and warmth," Hou adds.
The contest is also a key part of the "silent barista" project that was launched three years ago by Oatly, which has since sponsored barista training for over 200 hearing-impaired people.
Presently, more than 80 baristas trained under this initiative have been employed in cafes like Unibrown Coffee and Hinichijou, according to Oatly.
Other than Oatly, Meng Gong Fang coffee shop, the first employment base for youth with mental challenges in Shanghai, and Lili Time, the first coffee shop on the Chinese mainland to be certified a "B Corp" enterprise, were involved in the coffee festival this year, aimed at helping people with physical challenges secure employment in the coffee industry.
A "B Corp" enterprise is one deemed to have high standards of social and environmental performance.
"A cup of delicious coffee warms the city. A coffee project born out of love is worth investing more care in," says Chen Bai, one of the organizers of the festival.
Chen says the number of brands participating in the coffee festival has increased from 24 in 2016 to 260 this year.
"Coffee festivals can enhance the quality of surrounding businesses and generate more commercial, tourism and even accommodation consumption," says Li Zhiwei, deputy director of the Lujiazui neighborhood committee office.
"The coffee industry is a highly competitive one, and some startups and boutique coffee shops need platforms to gain more exposure and opportunities. This festival can provide them that."
The festival concluded on April 2.