The Place
Nestled in a tiny spot on Wuyuan Lu, Jarajam is a chic new café owned by a two local sisters and designed by one of their husbands, who owns interior design firm Nei Space. Despite its size, the place has a lot to offer and sells a range of coffees, homebrewed tea concotions, fresh juices and daily housemade baked goods.
The Food
Coffees start from RMB18 for an espresso. While they might not wow you with their variety of exactly four, tastewise they're pretty solid. Our RMB25 cappucino was exactly the right temperature and suitably strong.
They've also got a good selection of homebrewed tea concoctions, which seems to be something of a passion project for co-owner and floor manager Lita, who keeps her collection of imported herbs and ingredients pride of place in the cafe.
Order them from the board here:
The masala chai (RMB25) is less sweet than others we've tried, and imbued with a robustly spicy flavor. Lita explains the masala part was inspired from her husband's three years spent in India. We found it spicy enough but you can also request it to be extra so if that's what floats your boat.
Less conventional brews are also available. Like this crazy blue 'Thai lemongrass' number (RMB25), which apparently gets its vivid color naturally from snow pea flowers. Lita brews this up with lemongrass her friend from Bangkok brings her, and says its particularly good in the summer with a handful of ice cubes.
For eats, there's a selection of cakes, muffins, tarts, patisserie and quiches baked on the daily by the other half of Jarajam's sister duo. For breakfasts they offer a fresh juice, coffee, with a muffin or pastry for RMB30, and afternoon tea (cake or tea and a slice of cake) for RMB45.
The homemade daily quiche is also righteous. On our visit it was spinach and bacon (RMB65).
Food verdict: 2/3
The Vibe
Flooded with natural light from floor to ceiling windows and a skylight, the best place to sit is right by the window and watch the world outside go by. Interestingly, there's no bar that separates the coffee preparation area from the tables, which gives the feeling of sitting in a friend's kitchen. Sounds odd but it kind of works. Since there's only around four tables, service is leisurely but still pretty speedy.
Vibe verdict: 1/1
Value for Money
With coffee that tastes great and costs less than Starbucks, we'll definitely be back here for a visit.
Value for money: 1/1
TOTAL VERDICT: 4/5
Price: Coffees from RMB18
Who's going: locals and expats
Good for: breakfast, hangouts, coffee, snacks, studying
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