Taste of times past

A painting of Desheng Café.

"As a matter of fact, not only in Shanghai, all the coffee available in cafes and hotels across China were provided by us, and that's why they have a common name — Shanghai qingka (black coffee) and Shanghai naika (coffee with milk)," says Yang Dongwei, marketing manager of Shanghai Coffee Factory.

According to Yang, a tin of Shanghai-branded coffee priced at 3.5 yuan ($0.57) indicated the drinker's thirst for life.

Shanghai-branded coffee was not instant coffee. In order to have a cup of coffee at home, the coffee drinker had to wrap the coffee into gauze, boil it in a pot, and filter the remains. "The best mate of a coffee is soda cracker," says Yang.

Shanghai Coffee Factory's dominance was challenged in the late 1980s when foreign instant coffee was first introduced into China, as well as the later spread of cafés including Starbucks, Costa Coffee and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Sandwiched between instant coffee products and foreign cafés, Shanghai-branded coffee was forgotten by most drinkers, and adamant fans could only find it in some supermarkets and special stores.

After years of oblivion, the brand was revitalized in the second half of 2013, with a new set of coffee products including Italian coffee, blue mountain coffee, and Columbian coffee in new packages.

The 80-year-old Shanghai Coffee is now trying to attract younger customers as well as recapturing its older fans. "The packaging has changed and there are new varieties of flavor, but this is just our first step, we are looking to borrow the successful business model of international coffee brands," added Yang.

Contact the writer at wang_ying@chinadaily.com.cn.