Story by Chris Lau, CNN. Photos by Bertha Wang
Hong Kong (CNN) — A coffee roaster hums like an idling train in the attic of LCC Roastery, churning out freshly cooked beans at the artisan coffee seller on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island.
Owner Ringo Lam is proud of the broad selection of beans on offer: a jar labeled “Ethiopia” promises a mix of “jasmine, floral, tropical fruit, pineapple” flavors. Another, from Colombia, offers hints of “butter, caramel, dark chocolate.”
But one stands out: “Lantau Bean.”
That jar holds Lam and his fellow coffee lovers’ daring dream to pioneer what many didn’t know was possible: growing coffee in the shadow of a metropolis.
The 55-year-old former tech entrepreneur has been working closely with farmers on Lantau –– an island known for its greenery and laidback lifestyle, a 30-minute ferry ride from Hong Kong’s bustling city center –– in a quest to cultivate the city’s very own beans.
Asia produces some of the world’s finest coffee, mostly in the southeastern part of the continent where a tropical climate blesses countries like Vietnam and Indonesia with a conducive environment.
In East Asia, love for the drink has grown exponentially in the past decade. But less favorable conditions –– namely, annual periods of extreme cold –– have hindered countries such as Japan and China from developing their crops (save for a few high-altitude, mountainous areas like the Yunnan region in mainland China or Alishan Mountain Range in Taiwan, where premium Arabica can still thrive.)
Hong Kong, a Chinese city of 7.5 million people who live mostly in urban areas, has more than 700 cafes but has never been seen as an ideal breeding ground for coffee beans. It has a stronger cultural attachment to tea and – disruptive summer typhoons aside – exorbitant land prices have made it more logical for the financial hub to import almost all of its own grains and vegetables rather than grow them. Let alone coffee beans.
So when Lam tells people about his ambitious plan, he often leaves them in bewilderment.
“All they see are just countries that you probably won’t plan to go,” Lam told CNN, jokingly giving a few examples. “Ethiopia, Colombia – that’s definitely not your top tourist places.”
“But suddenly, when someone is growing coffee so close to you, they will ask, ‘Can we really grow coffee in Hong Kong?’” he said.
The answer, it turns out, is yes. While high altitudes may boost flavor and complexity, it’s a misconception that coffee trees only thrive there. What determines their growth is whether the region falls under the so called the “coffee belt,” which is about 25 degrees north and south of the equator, says Katie Chick, an arboriculture instructor involved in running a coffee farm linked to the University of Hong Kong. Sitting 22 degrees north of the equator, the city is just within that band.
“Geographically speaking, Hong Kong is fit to grow. We just lack a bit of altitude,” said Chick, the assistant director of the university’s Centre for Civil Society and Governance. While many of the world’s most popular coffee regions are at more than 1,000 meters above sea level, Hong Kong’s highest point is less than that, and its farms are low-lying.
Chick said daily temperatures fluctuate more drastically high up in mountainous areas, which may spark more biochemical reactions in the beans, leading to more a complex taste.
“But that’s not the only requirement,” she said.
Her center runs the biggest coffee farm in Hong Kong, with 800 trees yielding up to 50 kilograms of beans per year. It was originally envisioned as a project to revitalize an old village in the countryside, but now Chick and her colleagues are selling their beans at local markets.
For Lam, it all started on a trip to Panama six years ago. He was there to visit