Wakey Wakey: New Online Cafe Guide Breaks Down Beijing's Best Bean Destinations

Feeling groggy? Oh, if only there was a comprehensive café breakdown for us weary coffee bean fanatics. It'd come in handy as we squint through bloodshot tired eyes to make sense of Beijing's overactive café scene.

Thankfully, Marco Costantini has perked up to such demands and created Black White Filter: Beijing's Cafe Guide. The website (which is also on Facebook, Instagram, and Weibo) couldn't have come at a better time, seeing as Beijing's trendy barista scene is percolating at such a rapid pace, with new cafés opening all but constantly.

Black White Filter's website has a page that lists the capital's hottest cafés in alphabetical order, along with a handy search function and a district by district breakdown.

Costantini, who arrived this past September, says newbies like him could make ample use of such search functions. He tells the Beijinger: "Having time to wander around the city I found lots of great cafés and hidden gems, and I couldn't really find a website that people could consult to find good coffee where they lived."

Even more enticing than the directory is a "stories page" with writeups that lay out the backgrounds and best features of some of the cafés. That list is short for now, featuring only four spots thus far. But Costantini only got started on it at the end of March, so we're looking forward to seeing more of those posts.

And if you think this resource is only suited for coffee snobs, or "in the know" F&B types that find and frequent new spots with the deftness of a detective, then don't worry. Costantini is by no means an elitist, dedicating a section of Black White Filter to short descriptions of coffee varieties, from basics like espresso and flat white to rarer varieties like piccolo and con panna. That page is rounded out by a breakdown of brewing methods.

An Italian with a flair for both photography and straightforwardly eyecatching online design, Costantini "has managed cafés of all different sizes," according to his bio on Black White Filter's website. It goes on to describe how, prior to moving to Beijing, he owned and operated a cooking school, worked as a hospitality business consultant, in Wellington, New Zealand.

READ: The Beijinger Café Reviews

He also writes: "This website is a place to celebrate the wonderful people who dedicate themselves to provide a space for people to relax ... This guide is comprised of Beijing's places I love, the ones I would recommend to friends with great coffee, friendly service, good atmosphere, and a place to escape the city clutter."

That latter component may be Black White Filter's most promising aspect, seeing as its Facebook page looks like a good spot for Costantini's fellow café fiends to comment, share, and gather finely ground details about which Beijing spots have their favorite baristas and imported blends.

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: Black White Filter, Costantini