A coffee change-maker in China

Sebastian Martin has spent three years becoming a coffee expert. Photos provided to Shanghai Star

When Sebastian Martin saw the growing taste for coffee in China, he was inspired to start a business that not only brings some of the best beans to China, but is creating positive change for farmers on the other side of the world. Yu Ran reports.

Sebastian Martin, 27, wants to change the way Chinese drink coffee.

Martin, who was born in the United States to a Bolivian family, trades directly sourced fresh coffee to the Chinese market, and is now planning to open his first cafe in Shanghai.

Martin's company and soon-to-open coffee shop is called Cambio, which means change in Spanish. The name reflects Martin's desire to be a change-maker in the Chinese coffee industry and in the lives of coffee farmers in developing countries.

"I want to introduce high-quality coffee from my home country and other developing countries in South America and let a growing number of Chinese consumers taste the freshness and richness of coffee from afar," says Martin, who spent five months in South America sourcing the coffee and another nine months learning everything he could about making coffee — from roasting the beans to pouring the perfect latte - before launching his company in Shanghai in early 2013.

Martin initially traveled to China from the United States in 2011 to study entrepreneurship in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. He decided to start his own coffee business in Shanghai after noticing the boom in coffee consumption all over the country.