TheBrief News
POSTCARD jolt of coffee, Pu’er’s farmers are catering to the
Coffee gains ground demand. Yunnan accounts for 98% of China’s
coffee harvest, with half coming from the
NEWS
TICKER in China’s tea-growing mist-shrouded landscape around Pu’er. Today,
Surgeon
heartland China is the 13th biggest coffee producer in
the world—rising from zero output three
General urges A DOZEN INTERNATIONAL COFFEE EXPERTS decades ago to 136,000 tons annually today.
naloxone use shuffle around a long wooden table, paus- In April, Seattle’s annual Specialty Coffee
ing at each steaming cup, heads dipping and Expo decided to showcase China as its por-
On April 5, U.S.
Surgeon General sniffing deeply. Then the raucous slurping trait country of origin. It follows on the heels
Jerome Adams issued begins. In the wings, coffee farmer Yang Fan of Starbucks’ launching its first single-origin
his office’s first public- watches intently as the judges circle, awaiting Yunnan coffee last year after eight years of
health advisory in a verdict on her latest crop of beans. partnership with Yunnan farmers.
13 years, calling on
China may be the spiritual home of tea, With global coffee prices at record lows,
Americans to carry and
learn to use naloxone, but it is fast developing a reputation as a top Yunnan farmers are processing beans in be-
the opioid-overdose coffee producer. This tasting was a side event spoke ways to create distinct flavors and
antidote. The drug to the first ever Pu’er International Specialty aromas—allowing them to enter the market
has saved thousands Coffee Expo in China’s southwestern Yun- of specialty coffee. “At current coffee prices,
of lives when used by
nan province, which ran this winter and drew I can’t even feed my family,” says the farmer
emergency responders
and police officers. more than a thousand attendees, including in- Yang. “My only way out is to produce spe-
dustry aficionados from across the globe. cialty coffee, to make the best coffee beans.”
“Coffee has huge potential in China,” says That means letting beans dry in their cher-
Liu Ying, who swapped her life working in ries, thus imparting a wild, fruity flavor via
Pakistan private-equity investment in Beijing to grow environmental fermentation. Or allowing
launches new coffee in Pu’er five years ago. “The younger them to “honey” in their sugary inner muci-
polio drive generation prefer to drink coffee in their lage layer, which adds a subtle sweetness.
A weeklong polio- offices much more than tea.” Back in the tasting room, Yang awaits the
vaccination drive in Still, Pu’er remains synonymous with experts’ verdict on whether all that extra ef-
Pakistan aims to reach tea. This bustling town near the Laos border fort was worthwhile. “If I told you this was
all 38.7 million children is surrounded by undulating green hills Colombian or Panama coffee, nobody would
under the age of 5 in
the country, one of only
scored with tea plantations; it produces an argue with me,” says Samuel Gurel, CEO of
three left in the world eponymous variety of tea, considered one of Pu’er’s Torch Coffee Roasters, as Yang breaks
where the disease is China’s most refined. into a huge grin. “It’s a great example of how
still endemic. Cases But the region’s temperate climate is also Chinese coffee is evolving.”
of the paralyzing virus perfect for growing arabica coffee. And as —CHARLIE CAMPBELL,
have been steadily
declining there, with
China’s fast-living millennials move away with reporting by
just one case reported from traditional tea in favor of the invigorating Zhang Chi/Pu’er, China
so far in 2018.
HEALTH
Michigan:
No more free Doctor’s orders
water for Flint Colorado legislators are pushing to allow anyone with autism to use medical marijuana. Other
states have recentlyy exp
expanded their programs to include certain conditions. —Abigail Abrams
Michigan will stop
providing the city of
Flint with free bottled ANXIETY SLEEP APNEA PTSD
water when the current New Jersey Minnesotans with In November 2017,
supply runs out, the announced March 27 obstructive sleep New York Governor
state’s Republican the expansion of its apnea will be able Andrew Cuomo
Governor Rick Snyder medical-marijuana to use medical signed a law making
said April 6. City program to include marijuana starting posttraumatic stress
officials denounced the anxiety, along with this summer, the disorder the 12th
move, saying residents four other conditions. state’s health condition approved
don’t trust that their Governor Phil Murphy department said in on his state’s list
water is safe after it said reforms would November. The state of eligible ailments,
became contaminated reduce patient and also added autism to which includes
with toxic levels of lead caregiver fees. its list of conditions. chronic pain.
in 2014.
10 TIME April 23, 2018
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