Coffee new badge of the middle class

Behind a wooden counter in downtown Yangon's Coffee Club, the unmistakable hiss of steaming milk briefly drowns out a funky soundtrack piped through a store filled with students glued to smartphones.

In any other Asian capital it would be an unremarkable sight. But in Yangon it's something new.

Long absent from the region's booming cafe culture, Myanmar's commercial capital is now witnessing a surge in upmarket coffee bars providing an alternative to the instant coffee served at thousands of street carts.