Millet desserts bring sweet taste of success

"But later I realized that taste is a subjective matter and all we can do is to make sure that we use high-quality materials and ensure that each batch meets our own standards."

Liu said she did not intend her place to be deemed among the legions of "internet celebrity stores"- businesses that take off suddenly due to online promotion but soon disappear as social media allure ebbs.

"The tag implies that the business will be short-lived and lack prospects in the long term," she said."But for us, I think the store has core competitive advantages — we have invented our own variety of items and we have local villagers as a steady source of employees."

Throughout a Friday morning — a relative downtime for the store -Liu could hardly take a break, busy checking expiration dates of a new batch of milk, examining the freshness of blueberries she ordered online and asking helpers to clean straw packaging and litter off the ground.

Around 10:30 am, the buttery, yeasty scent of freshly baked products permeated the shop. The first customer of the day stepped in, ordered a cup of coffee, a millet cookie and enjoyed them by the windowsill.

Outside her store, local villagers gathered to chat and play cards under the warm sunlight, while several parked their tricycles loaded with sweet potato vermicelli noodles, Chinese salty crepes and other homemade specialties, appealing to customers who visit the patisserie.

"This courtyard in front of my store has become the central business district of Jinpoluo," she said half-jokingly.

Liu recently leased a house about a five-minute walk away and was renovating it into a storage house and an activity place to hold workshops for school children as well as adults.

"I don't make long-term plans for my business and I want my pace to be steady," she said. "But if there is a market need, such as growing queries about learning baking skills, I will definitely grab the opportunity and make a move."