Wu Zelin, a Taiwanese coffee master, came to his world together.

Follow the caf é (Wechat official account vdailycom) and found that Beautiful Cafe opened a small shop of its own.

Jiang Xun, a master of aesthetics, once said, "when 'sour taste' and 'bitter taste' are combined with life, they will eventually become memories of life." Think that coffee is not like life, for people who like coffee, the unique sour taste of coffee beans or the bitterness gradually produced after baking are charming features, making the subsequent Ganyun flavor more hierarchical. Talking with Wu Zelin Berg, who had just won the champion of "Taiwan Coffee Master" for the third time in a row, he found that success was really not an accident, and the process that others sounded hard was an understatement of the past, even sweet memories.

Indigenous steelmaking and coffee making

When he was in college, Berg often went on dates with his wife, Chee, who was still a girlfriend at that time. At that time, he didn't think the coffee was very delicious. It was not until he came into contact with Italian-style coffee that he was surprised to realize that there was a "way" to make the coffee attractive. So they began to buy beans and try to make it by themselves. At first, of course, they failed. In the era when Facebook and unknown stations had not yet appeared, it was not easy to get information. But they looked for friends through BBS and repeated coffee information websites, and gradually grasped the main points of "playing" coffee in the sharing of their unprivate experiences, and knew how to adjust the taste they wanted. since then, playing coffee has become their common interest.

After graduating from the Electrical Research Institute of National Taiwan University, Berg entered the relevant industry in accordance with the established track. although the work was close to what he had learned, the voice in his heart became clearer and clear. he, who began to refit the action coffee car from the institute, knew that coffee was the passion of a lifetime, so he moved step by step towards "making interest a job" and asked Berg that he had to go to work on weekdays. Isn't it hard to work on the streets during the holidays? "when you do what you like, you don't feel hard, because you don't feel like you're working," Berg said with a smile.

"when you do what you like, you don't feel hard because you don't feel like you're working," says Berg (center, left Chee), who started retrofitting the action coffee tricycle when he was in graduate school.

"when you do what you like, you don't feel hard because you don't feel like you're working," says Berg (center, left Chee), who started retrofitting the action coffee tricycle when he was in graduate school.

After years of hard work, Berg's coffee shop "Simple Kaffa" finally settled in the East District. Berg and Chee laughed that the hardest thing about opening a shop was "boredom", because the number of customers who opened the shop was unstable, so when they often had nothing to do, they listened to their predecessors' encouragement that "as long as you make a good cup of coffee, the guests will naturally come back." they did not expect to adhere to this simple truth. The guests really brought back one by one for coffee.

Recalling watching the World Coffee Competition in Denmark in 2008, Berg planted a wish in his heart: "I also want to stand on the stage and share my coffee with you." The year after he returned to Taiwan, he signed up for the competition in Taiwan, and the inexperienced one was brushed off in the preliminary round, but not only did he not suffer a blow, but he even regarded the score as professional advice, and with the determination to improve his skills, he returned to the stage year after year until 2011 when he opened a shop so that he began to train a lot on the formal bar and signed up for the finals again.

Brew every cup of coffee with a moment's mind.

"Coffee is interesting because there are so many factors that affect its flavor. We have to adjust the coffee beans to be influenced by the time, place and people through experience, so as to find out the ideal aroma and taste," Berg said. Listening to his experience of playing coffee, he was able to enter the circle from outside the preliminary competition, and won the Taiwanese coffee master championships in 2013, 2014 and 2015 in succession. Success is really no accident. He not only gives full play to the experimental spirit of science and engineering in roasting coffee and water quality, but also records every influence factor and change, so that he can have more control over the performance of coffee. Berg says: "in fact, coffee is just like the tea ceremony, and it can vary according to production area, origin, and year, so we should cherish it with the intention of a period of time."

In the 2014 WCE World Cup Coffee Masters Competition, Berg was praised by the judges for its coffee with obvious flavor in the producing area.

In the 2014 WCE World Cup Coffee Masters Competition, Berg was praised by the judges for its coffee with obvious flavor in the producing area.

The competition shows the coffee maker's requirements for self-quality.

"the formal coffee competition requires contestants to brew three types of coffee within a limited time of 15 minutes: concentrated coffee, milk and creativity. In addition to brewing coffee and showing proficient skills, contestants should also make the judges feel the story of the three types of coffee in various ways. Whether the taste and aroma performance echoes the theme set by the contestants." Chee said that in order to assist Berg in her daily training, she took special classes and was qualified as a judge. "in fact, I think the coffee competition is the daily epitome of the 'self-requested coffee shop', because for guests, the feeling of each cup of coffee is the same as the game can not be rewound." Chee said that the coffee competition is not only a pursuit of creativity, not only the selection of coffee products, but also the smooth and meticulous movements of the participants on the stage will also be taken into consideration, but also a challenge to the stability and basic skills of coffee makers.

Chee shares its implementation in many contestants will practice with coaches, some coaches will modify the movements of contestants, while others focus on the psychological construction of contestants. Once famous international judges never drank his students' coffee, only asked students to drink their own "self-reflection", until students rushed out of self-confidence, and Berg has been able to find out the factors that affect different taste feelings through systematic experimental records. So during practice, Chee only needs to tell him what she has just drunk, and Berg knows it's time to adjust the temperature, time, or technique.

Chee also encourages heavy coffee lovers who like to play coffee and hope to achieve a certain quality to participate in more competitions, because from training to formal competition, they will be more required to take an attitude and focus on each brewing, so they will make rapid progress in a short period of time.

Smell, drink and swallow good coffee

And how do the judges "taste" coffee? Chee sharing is actually the sensory changes of coffee through the body's sense of smell and taste receptor, first "smell", receiving the vaporized ingredients of coffee with the sense of smell in front of the nose, followed by "drinking", feeling the change and coordination of the taste level of coffee on the tongue, side of the tongue and the root of the tongue, as well as consistency and smoothness, while "swallowing" is the afterrhyme of coffee, holding your breath and exhaling before swallowing the coffee. The aroma change which is different from "smell" can be detected through the nasal olfactory receptor. at this time, the aroma comes from the water-soluble aromatic substance of the coffee. After swallowing the coffee, the aroma can be closed and vomited again to feel the performance of the throat rhyme.

In recent years, whether it is cheap coffee that is necessary to facilitate the opening of superstores, cafes large and small have opened one after another, curious to ask Chee and Berg what is the difference between boutique beans and commercial beans. In addition to the fact that the prices of some coffee beans are scarce because of their scarce production, why can the price of a cup of black coffee differ by more than four or five times? What is the difference between the so-called coffee? Berg shows that most commercial coffee beans are harvested by machines, which can not control the maturity of beans, and the harvest process is inevitably mixed with impurities such as branches and leaves, which affect the flavor of coffee. And even the quality of the same tree coffee beans is the key to affect the taste performance, for example, the different lipid and sugar content of coffee beans can also cause differences in flavor performance, or some beans appear to be complete at first glance, but in fact, there are worms inside. This bad factor can only be eliminated by manual selection, and the cost of labor will be reflected in the price.

But Berg also cautioned that the definition of good taste is very subjective. Influenced by past taste bud experience, over time, no matter drinking coffee or playing with coffee, do not fall into the price or brand myth. His sense of smell and taste is the most reliable evaluation. No cup of coffee in the world can make everyone feel 100% delicious, but he feels that the coffee he brews can not make others feel bad, is the most basic goal.

Coffee has been obsessed with coffee since I was a student. More than a decade later, Berg and Chee said firmly that "Coffee never left our lives". Berg proved once again that when you really like something, you will want to make it the best. Berg relies on his romantic love for coffee to overcome layers of realistic obstacles, and then step by step to find out the flavor changes manipulated by various factors through the spirit of scientific research and experimental design expertise. "Romance leads reason" has also led Berg to the world stage.