AIIB Project Office Hosts Coffee Salon
2016-09-22

  After a hard day’s work, some people choose to refresh themselves with a nice cup of tea, some with exercises, and others a cup of coffee. Though coffee is getting increasingly popular today, few people have a chance to learn about its history, evolution and distribution. Following the two well received customer relations events in March and April and to further strengthen the ties with the customers, the AIIB Project Office, together with the Coffee Mall located inside the AIIB Building, organized a Coffee Salon event for the AIIB staff, with Maria as the lecturer, on 21 June, which was presided over by the Person-in-charge of the AIIB Project Office.

  Coffee for westerners is like tea for easterners, being one of the top 3 herbal drinks in the world (the other two herbal drinks being cocoa and tea), which boasts a long history and widespread popularity. The word “Coffee” derives from “Kaweh” in the Greek language, meaning “strength and passion”, and the coffee tree is the Rubiaceae tree. The coffee we drink today is made from coffee beans, which are nutlets contained in coffee drupes from the coffee trees and are baked and then boiled. The drink has been getting popular in the world and the “coffee culture” has emerged into prominence everywhere, at home, in the office and on social occasions, being linked with fashion, style and modernity.

  The event was divided in 3 parts in relation to the history, connoisseurship and brewing process respectively. When coffee first made its way to Europe, it was only affordable for the rich, hence its nickname “black gold”. It was not affordable for the ordinary people until 1690 when a captain from the Netherlands got some coffee seedlings in Yemen and transplanted them successfully in Indonesia. When the wife of a Dutch Guiana diplomat gave some coffee seeds to a Spaniard living in Brazil in 1727 who transplanted them back home also successfully, coffee quickly became popular in South America and eventually the most important drink on the old continent, along with the price fall as the result of mass production. To make the seminar fascinating, the event organizer added an interactive session of questions and answers for the audience and anyone who came up with a correct answer was rewarded with a gift. The AIIB participants were very curious and active in the interactive session which enlivened the atmosphere. In the coffee brewing session, Maria showed the audience how a good cup of coffee was made.

  As reaching out to the customers is one of our most important tasks, a number of trials had been performed in advance of the event by the lecturer and the AIIB Project Office staff to ensure the success of the event and make the lecture informative and entertaining. The positive feedback from the customers has shown that we have achieved extraordinarily good results by organizing such an event. More efforts will be made to explore ways of strengthening customer ties and organizing events with the special characteristics of the Project Office in the future.