A café in Jiangyou, a city in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, launched an unusual coffee blend made with cooked pork intestines. The drink, which has quickly caught public attention, is a latte infused with pork intestine liquid and chitterlings, as reported by the South China Morning Post.
The coffee sells for 32 yuan (approximately US$4) per cup and promises a layered experience with three distinct taste levels – entrance, mid, and high. According to the café’s owner, Zhang Yuchi, the higher the level, the stronger the pork intestine flavour.
“Red-braised pork intestine is a popular cuisine in Jiangyou,” Zhang explained. “I thought of combining it with coffee to promote both my shop as well as this delicious food of our city.”
Zhang further revealed that the pork intestines are sourced from a well-known local restaurant. The café then extracts the intestine liquid and carefully adds exactly six grams of it into each latte, a quantity that Zhang says was finalised after multiple rounds of testing.
“We add precisely 6 grams of intestine liquid into the coffee. It is an amount we decided on after rounds of tests. We want customers to taste the delicacy of intestines but we do not want to diminish the coffee flavour. We hope most people can accept it,” he said.
Zhang described the flavour as a combination of sweet and salty, similar to “salty cheese.”
Since the drink gained traction online earlier this month, the cafe has seen its sales soar, quadrupling in numbers, with nearly 80 per cent of customers ordering the unusual latte.
“I am a fan of coffee. I saw someone recommending this type of intestine coffee, so I decided to give it a try,” a woman visiting from Chengdu told the media.
Another customer, who travelled from northern China, shared her experience and said, “Many people in northern China do not eat pork intestines. But I think they can accept this type of coffee.”
The pork intestine latte has sparked a wide range of reactions on Chinese social media. Some are eager to try the drink, with one user saying, “It is not a bad idea. I want to try it.” Others, however, are more sceptical. “It is ridiculous. I am OK with both coffee and pork intestines. But not a combination of the two,” another comment read.
This isn’t the first time China’s coffee culture has taken a creative turn. In Jiangxi province, a café made headlines for serving lattes mixed with fried chilli and hot pepper powder. Meanwhile, in Yunnan province, another café went viral by blending deep-fried worms into their coffee.