Coffee has been part of Shanghai life since at least 1853. By 1946, the city had 186 cafés and another 111 Western style restaurants serving coffee. Shanghai Brand Coffee followed in 1958 and became familiar to generations of local families.
Today, Shanghai has more than 9,000 cafés and a specialty scene with real depth. Independent roasters sit alongside tiny experimental bars and competition focused cafés. In 2025, Shanghai’s George Jinyang Peng won the World Brewers Cup, putting another international spotlight on the city’s coffee culture.
These are the specialty coffee shops you should go to first.
Captain George
Jing’an
Captain George is where you should start. George Jinyang Peng won the 2025 World Brewers Cup, and his Taiyuan Road café will give you a glimpse into the thinking behind his competition work. The 150 square metre Flavor Museum moves from an everyday café through retail to a dedicated competition brewing room.
Blacksheep Espresso
Huangpu
Blacksheep Espresso is particularly good if you like bright, fruit driven coffee. Its house style leans towards light roasting. If you’re at the South Maoming Road shop, have the sheep shaped affogato. Blacksheep opened in 2017 and later gave rise to Terraform Coffee Roasters, so it’s also a useful place to taste one of Shanghai’s homegrown roasting stories at the source.
Big Sur Coffee
Xuhui
Roasting in Shanghai since 2016, Big Sur Coffee is about very light roasting and letting the origin show through. They buy directly from producers and estates, and its current releases include rare Geshas from producers such as Hacienda La Esmeralda, Bambito Estate and Finca El Paraíso. Expect particularly clear, floral and expressive brews.
OPS Cafe
Xuhui
OPS Cafe is a nine square metre, standing only coffee bar built around a changing menu of roughly five original drinks. Rather than tweaking familiar café recipes, OPS constructs each one from the ground up, combining coffee with ingredients that have included clarified juice, tea, fruit, herbs, spices and alcohol. The tiny format is part of the experience: only a handful of people fit inside, preparation happens directly in front of you, and queues regularly spill onto Taiyuan Road.
Café del Volcán
Xuhui
Café del Volcán connects Shanghai directly with a coffee farm in Guatemala. Its signature beans come from Faldas del Volcán, an award winning estate that has remained in the same family for more than 120 years, before being roasted here in Shanghai. But don’t assume it’s only about Guatemala. You’ll also find coffees from Africa, Asia and even China’s Yunnan province.
Slab Town
Huangpu
Slab Town has always felt as connected to Shanghai’s street culture as its coffee scene. Its original Fumin Road café squeezed into just 20 square metres, with raw concrete, exposed brick and military green details that became part of the brand’s visual language. That identity eventually carried Slab Town into fashion, including a collaboration with Shanghai streetwear label CLOT. The original shop is gone, and its C Park branch closed in September 2026, but you’ll still find some of the best coffee in the city at K11 on Middle Huaihai Road.
How to do a Shanghai coffee crawl
If you have one day
Start at Captain George, then move on to OPS, Big Sur and Café del Volcán.
The four are close enough to combine comfortably, so you’ll spend more time exploring and less time crossing Shanghai. Four coffee stops are also plenty for one day.
If you have three days
Spend day one with Captain George and OPS. Use day two for Big Sur and Café del Volcán. On day three, visit Blacksheep and Slab Town.
If you have one week
Spread all six across the week. I’d go Captain George, OPS, Blacksheep, Big Sur, Café del Volcán and Slab Town.
Then leave one day open. Shanghai’s coffee scene changes quickly, and part of the fun is finding somewhere that hasn’t made it into the international guides yet.
More specialty coffee guides
If you liked this guide, check out our lists of the best specialty coffee shops in New York, Tokyo, Paris, Melbourne and London.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shanghai good for specialty coffee?
Yes. Shanghai had 9,115 cafés in 2025, according to the China Urban Coffee Development Report. More importantly for specialty coffee drinkers, the city supports a large community of independent cafés and local roasters alongside its enormous mainstream coffee market.
What is the best specialty coffee shop in Shanghai?
If you can visit only one, we’d choose Captain George Flavor Museum. It combines George Peng’s world championship pedigree with a café designed partly around the more focused side of his approach to coffee.
Where can I find good pour over coffee in Shanghai?
Start with Captain George, Blacksheep and Big Sur. They offer three different perspectives on contemporary Shanghai coffee: competition brewing, a café closely tied to a local roastery, and a roaster particularly strong in high end coffees.
Which Shanghai specialty coffee shops roast their own coffee?
Big Sur roasts in Shanghai, Blacksheep is closely connected to Terraform Coffee Roasters, and Café del Volcán roasts its coffee locally.
Which Shanghai coffee shop is best for unusual coffee drinks?
OPS Cafe. Its seasonal menus are built around original compositions, and the specific drinks change throughout the year.
How long has Shanghai had a coffee culture?
Coffee has been documented in Shanghai since 1853. By the first half of the 20th century, cafés were already established in the city. Shanghai’s relationship with coffee therefore goes back much further than its current specialty scene.
Which part of Shanghai should a coffee lover explore first?
Start around Xuhui and neighbouring central Shanghai. OPS, Big Sur and Café del Volcán are in Xuhui, while Captain George is close enough to combine with them during a longer coffee day.
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