Coffee is being served up in a shop opened by a national newspaper as it seeks to “bring open journalism to life in east London”.

The Guardian’s latest venture, #guardiancoffee, opened its doors in Shoreditch’s BOXPARK pop-up mall last week.

It aims to bring members of the paper’s staff into contact with those who are shaping the future of the technology industry in London.

The Guardian’s head of technology, Jemima Kiss, said: “#guardiancoffee is all about making our journalism and our journalists more accessible, more open and more deeply embedded in one of the key communities we write about.”

Last week’s announcement caused a stir on social networking site Twitter, with many mocking the newspaper’s venture.

But the Guardian’s chief commercial officer David Pemsel described it as a “great opportunity to work with our commercial partners in new and exciting ways”.