By Vera Magana, Dining and Cuisine Writer
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but there is an abundance of fun and creative museums to go to with great food all around Los Angeles, from ice cream to donuts. Now there’s a coffee museum, called Coffee World, located in Torrance. The world’s first coffee pop-up establishment brings a whole new realm of vibrant colors and fun. Created by brother and sister, Kashin and Divya Papel, as well as Nishant Sehgal and Tran Ngo, the pop-up museum provides an immersive, interactive experience for the price of a few cups of fine coffee. For $25, you can have the experience of becoming a cup of coffee from bean to brew.
Divya, the founder and the artistic mind of all, walked me through a curated coffee-inspired art show alongside a fully immersive social media experience. This, while teaching about the process and history of this bean we love so much.
Kishan and his sister Divya wanted to bring something new and interesting that brought Angelenos together. Their answer was coffee — the greatest product consumed globally on a daily basis ever, reflected in the cultures that make up Los Angeles. At Coffee World, the light and the dark and a splash of artistic vision (puns intended) of coffee are showcased.
The museum idea that’s been in the works since 2018 was first brought to life in March 2020 until temporarily shut down due to the pandemic, but reopened in May 2021. Since reopening, business has been booming and attracting people from all over neighboring cities, including San Pedro locals like myself. Kishan helped me imagine ten different rooms that would showcase the entire coffee process.
Rather than the old-school way of going to museums to look around and read, here you’re interacting with what’s around you, and each room represents a step in the coffee process from farm to cup. This museum is not only for the coffee lovers, but great for all ages, kids, adults and even people who don’t drink coffee but just enjoy pictures with life size whimsical art.
The tour of Coffee World begins in the seeding room, which became my personal favorite. The zen environment and colorful artwork around the walls and ceiling offered a sense of peace and groundedness.
In the second room, two different types of processing occur — the dry method and the wet method.
Through another door was a beautiful art exhibit of hanging strings that represent the cherry going through the de-pulping process. A coffee bean is a seed of the coffea plant and the source for coffee. The cherry is the pip inside the red or purple fruit.
In subsequent rooms, it was apparent that each space was curated using specific artists from all over the world. As the tour continued there were many fun things to keep yourself entertained, including a game of cup pong and a giant ball pit that made you feel like a coffee bean being roasted. We continued on to the seventh room, which was dedicated to sustainability, using used coffee cups to build an art piece, showcasing recycling in the process and making it beautiful.
The remaining rooms can be left to the imagination until your visit, but the fluorescent colors of each section flow radiantly, and there is plenty to learn. One fact interesting to me, I discovered through an art piece on their wall that said “THANK GOAT FOR COFFEE.”
According to a legend, a young Ethiopian herder named Kaldi noticed his older goats bouncing around with high energy all over hillsides, so he followed them and discovered they had been eating a bright red cherry. Curious enough, he ate one too and suddenly became energized, and thus coffee was discovered.
One more surprise is you can’t have coffee at their establishment just quite yet, however, based on this success, there are rumors about another location opening up. So be on the lookout for Coffee World, an interactive experience that makes you feel like a kid experiencing coffee for the first time all over again. If coffee is your love language, definitely stop by.
Venue: Coffee World, 3525 W. Carson St., Suite #173, Torrance
Time: Thursday through Friday 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday 2 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Details: 310-896-5576