Simple Kaffa Wu Zelin-world champion barista creates a new coffee experience

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

Text / Liang Dawen; photography / Krystal Lin

You may have heard the success story of Berg Wu (Wu Zelin), the founder of Simple Kaffa Coffee Shop: in 1999, he began to teach himself to brew coffee. Because he loved coffee and started his business at a low cost, in 2011, he opened the first coffee shop, Simple Kaffa, and participated in the Taiwan Coffee Masters Competition for seven consecutive years since 2009. He won three championships and represented Taiwan in the World Championship Barista Competition (WBC,World Barista Championship), and finally won the championship in 2016. Becoming a world-class barista, Berg has almost become the focus of the media in Taiwan. Wu Yujie, CEO of Fujinshu, has known Berg for many years and invited him to build a quality coffee shop at Fujin Tree 353Cafe. Along the way, he has witnessed the bitterness and sweetness of his entrepreneurial dream story, as well as the transformation he has brought to Taiwan's coffee culture.

Even though Berg is already a world champion, in his speech and demeanor, he still feels that he is a dedicated and humble person who has not been changed much by the honor of being a world champion. Although The Lobby Of Simple Kaffa, the store opened by Berg, is located in the basement of the East side, this visit to the store, walking into the comfortable seating area with European style behind the arch, is already crowded in the afternoon.

In the open bar work area, Barista, trained by Berg, is busy, the aroma of coffee and the sound of the machine never stop. Everyone is focused on his own position but has a tacit understanding. Berg sometimes instructs on the spot and sometimes goes into battle in person, and every detail can see the store run by him himself. With persistence that cannot be replicated elsewhere: give people taste buds and spiritual satisfaction and enjoyment, a complete eating experience beyond coffee, including environment, cutlery, music, service and so on.

Now we are all willing to invest money in ourselves.

Jay: "as a matter of fact, we all know the story of the world champion from a lot of media. I don't want to talk about it today. Instead, I want to know more about the role you expect to play in starting a business in this generation in your 30s."

Berg: "I remember reading an article that said that around 70 years, it was the most pitiful generation, and it was very miserable from school to society, but the reform of the joint entrance examination and the boom in the technology industry suddenly fell down. regardless of the opportunities and treatment in society, the general environmental conditions were very difficult, and it was impossible to keep up with the previous generation. But I think our generation is working very hard. It's interesting now that we are all willing to invest money in ourselves, and there are many capable and talented people who are honing themselves, even if they can't do it big, but they can do it very well. " In the eyes of Berg, even if the strength is small, the ideal state is for everyone to connect and combine, find common points of cooperation in different industries, and create sparks.

"for example, the Fujin Tree 353Cafe that I worked with Fujinshu is a good example. the collision between different industries is very interesting, but there is relatively no spark in the same field. For example, I have tried to work with coffee and bartending before. If it can be combined with something creative or marketing, it may also be interesting."

If no one does it well, there is still a chance.

Jay is very curious. In Taiwan, there are so many coffee shops and coffee culture, and people are willing to pay for coffee with high unit prices. In Berg's eyes, is coffee culture mature in Taiwan? "in fact, I think it is immature. I have met a lot of people who open coffee shops just to be happy, but do not think of a good business model. But they are not happy when they jump in to open a shop, and they are not happy in the face of survival. I have seen a wave of shop collapses in the past six months. As soon as the rent goes up and profits are eaten, regardless of whether the market is mature or not, apart from big companies, personality coffee shops should be developed into a scale. At least several companies have to do it to be mature. " To open a shop is to face the problems of talent, capital and cost. Berg has been in this industry for so long, and he knows very well that many coffee shops have the financial resources to make a lot of money at once, but it does not mean making money, so Simple Kaffa has always been based on the idea of maintaining and doing better. The most ideal and mature state in his mind is that he can buy beans from independent coffee shops like a supermarket in Europe and the United States. It means that better coffee has entered the life of the general public, and there are still many opportunities in Taiwan. "if no one does a good job, there is still a chance."

To get consumers to believe you, you need something other than coffee.

Jay has been working in Taiwan's consumer market for many years and has always known that Taiwan always talks about cp, which is cheap and better, because it is curious to know the habits of Simple Kaffa guests. In fact, because of the honor of being a world champion, Berg has observed more and seen many changes in the industry. "now we can sell coffee with high unit prices in our store because we are world champions. Because of this award, our performance immediately jumped up, but if there is no prize, it may take us two or three years to achieve it, and we cannot jump on it in an instant. I think everyone will want to taste good things at first, but tasting good things requires accumulated experience. Not all consumers can feel the difference. To make them believe in you and make them think it is worth the money, sometimes they really need to match other conditions, fame, atmosphere, customer service, to make him feel that he can spend this money to get something different. It can't be said that good coffee served by roadside stalls is that expensive. " Along the way, he also found his blind spot, that is, people with technical background will always drill their toes and persist in changing from 90 points to 91 points and 92 points, but if this effort is used in other links, guests can even have 95 points of experience. With this understanding, Berg has now become more focused on the overall management.

Make a texture up, popularize more common people down.

Entrepreneurship is difficult, but entrepreneurs always hope that there are no resource restrictions to pursue their ideals. When asked what Berg wants to do if there are no restrictions, he quickly recalls two goals: "I want to go up and down at the same time. The market is actually a bit like a pyramid now. Going up is getting better and better, making texture and making more and more valuable. Suppose we open a store, is this store designed?" It makes people's eyes bright, and it feels like a flagship store. Is the service provided better? As for going down, I am slowly looking for resources or opportunities, hoping to use capsule coffee to become more popular and civilian, so that I can make a good taste at home. "

But Berg has repeatedly stressed that by going up, he doesn't mean pursuing awards or international honors, because even though everyone in the market knows that Simple Kaffa has won the top awards, he doesn't necessarily get the best coffee in the store. "some people will ask me if I can drink something for the game, and I will ask what price you are willing to pay me to do it. To make an analogy, like the coffee beans in the competition, I have to keep them for 10-12 days, and then after opening the seal, I have to wake up for 2-4 hours. This is the peak state of the coffee beans. So every pot of coffee beans is opened 2-4 hours ago, so we are unlikely to do these things in the store, beans are also expensive, so the cost can be calculated, a cup may cost 20,000 yuan, everyone will be dumbfounded. For every penny of goods, the cost of materials is of course not expensive, but the whole production process is full of details and conditions. It's all about cost. "

Say whether it is big or not, say whether it is small or not, go through the problem of transformation

Berg has experienced many difficulties. At this stage, his dilemma and the problems he is facing is that the company is in the process of transformation. when it comes to whether it is big or small, there are always some trivial but important issues to deal with. We also have to face the training of talents. "it costs a lot of time to train people in the store, and I'm also very busy during the competition, but now I'm more focused. I also let the staff bring new people, and the team members have more than a dozen regular jobs. I believe that no coffee shop has this resource, and I also hope that in terms of salary and vacation, I can do better than most stores, so that talent will not be lost."

However, it is not easy to win the championship because of some savings, Berg in pursuit of better, and soon to burn it up, is currently preparing to open a pure baked beans space, spent a lot of money to buy a new machine, so that the usual baked beans consume a lot of gas, but also remove the smell produced by Pinglai baked beans. He laughs that entrepreneurs always experience the bitterness and sweetness that only they know in this infinite reincarnation.

Continue to cultivate taste buds and broaden your knowledge

And Berg's current way of life, how to further improve themselves? In addition to continuing to concentrate on his coffee major, he also strives to make good use of what he eats. This is not because he has made too much money and squandered, but because he knows very well that working in the catering industry needs to cultivate taste buds and broaden his knowledge. He also tries to cook things and taste different tastes. In addition, as he said before, he hopes that by connecting with different fields, we can get to know each other and have deeper contact. in the future, we may hold dinners that combine tea, wine, coffee and even agricultural products, hoping to stimulate more creativity. let more beautiful things happen in Taiwan, a land that everyone loves.