Essays on Taiwan Coffee | Taiwan Coffee close at hand and far away

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The last time I came into contact with Taiwanese coffee was in early 2015, and I was not impressed. Because I know that even if it tastes good, you can't buy it.

Unexpectedly, a pen contacted me again with this place that is the enlightenment of coffee to many Hong Kong people. Last time, I went to a cafe for adventure, but this time, I went to work for the local producers.

I have attended all kinds of international raw bean review activities for many years: sleeping with strangers, bathing in cold water, ignorance of food, tiredness, and many different treatments. The high standard of this trip in Taiwan reflects the importance and determination of the organizers and the local government to coffee production. They invited coffee from Zhongzhang and other regions to participate, and many of them were star coffee farmers and former winners.

The official poster is designed to depict the image of relay runners in ink painting to express that coffee is also a relay of "seeds into the cup". As soon as we arrived at the competition venue and the residential accommodation built by the mountain, I saw the flag flying leisurely against the background of the mountains. In addition to the daily competition in the cup testing room on the second floor, the conference also specially invited representatives located in the middle and lower reaches of the coffee supply chain, or coffee people who once represented Taiwan's famous international community, to teach for farmers. It shows the relay of the word "high quality".

Fifteen cup testers were asked to select the top six with the highest scores for 25 coffee beans made with different treatments. After intensive screening, a sun bean from Shengu Mountain Manor almost didn't have time to participate and won the championship with 84.56 points. I will talk about the story of this coffee bean in another article. )

The conference made proper arrangements for the judges and was particularly impressed by the daily vegetarian lunch cooked by the residential chef: the white-juicy vanilla spaghetti was covered with sweet red and yellow peppers and mushrooms, together with juicy tomatoes, okra and asparagus, fully showing the simple but unconcealed freshness of farm life, coupled with the carefully matched ingredients of the chef, visually gorgeous.

This competition not only occupies a place in Taiwan's coffee history, but also occupies a seat in my coffee journey.

"Grass root, roasted sweet potato, Hangzhou chrysanthemum, candied fruit, longan, Eucommia ulmoides"

Some of these foods are also available in foreign countries. For some reason, if I write it in Chinese, it just tastes different. It may be because when eating the above-mentioned things, the hippocampus in the brain will combine the environment, atmosphere and emotion at that time.

For me, whether in La Paz in South America or Oslo in northern Europe, the taste of an orange is fixed. But candied fruit? I always think of the smell of mixing different herbs in the old Kowloon medicine store when I was a child: the gold paint color of the plaque hanging on the crossbeam has faded. The door is full of glass jars with Suzhou codes that few people understand now. Next to the abacus and cow bone medicine scale, there will always be a lazy cat. The drugstore owner and his family spread the folding table with newspapers nearby, and the antimony lunch on it smelled of soy sauce, tempeh, ginger onions and fermented bean curd, as well as bursts of thatched root, dates and carrots, seeping out of the pot. Maybe one day, I will take some preserves to Tokyo and eat them like chewing gum to give this old thing a whole new flavor.

This activity made me realize that Taiwan Cup testers are quick and accurate in finding flavor words. "creamy taste" vs "buttery mouthfeel" feels different, but it's authentic. Across the sea has highlighted the difference in flavor description, the other side of the world, people from different cultural backgrounds have different understanding of the taste of coffee, it can be predicted.

"obedience to rules" is also one of the characteristics I have observed. At the beginning of the cup test, the referee explained the rules clearly to the jury in order to be as consistent as possible. For example, do not pick up the bowl when smelling dried incense, lest the smell of sweaty hands affect the impression of a judge (Note: in the COE competition, each judge is only responsible for his own bowl, so there is no such concern). The rule that I particularly appreciate is that the cup spoon should be printed dry on paper rather than tapping on the table or shaking it impolitely in mid-air to wash the spoon around. When breaking the powder, everyone can only rotate three times, not push down. Even if the sample tastes bad because of the deep roasting, you can't imagine how the coffee tastes right.

The competition will be held on SCAA Cup scoreboard. It is understood that it is because the Congress believes that Taiwan coffee has not yet reached the COE standard, and there are more chances of defects, so it is more appropriate to try five cups per sample. Because of this, everyone's first task is to pick beans by hand. Due to the high quality, all 25 finalists passed.

The conference uses three branches of high-quality beans to do Calibration. They have all participated in the competition, so the quality is good: one is full of tropical fruit in the sun, and the other is clean and bright washing, which may not be able to find commercial grade defective beans, so the third 81-82 beans can only be deliberately baked deep to reduce acidity. Actually, I think it tastes good.

With regard to the scoring criteria between the judges, the conference will also calculate the R value on the basis of statistics, just like the COE competition. I still remember participating in the COE for the first time in 12 years, when the chief judge Silvio Leite took me aside and asked me how many years of cup testing experience I had. It turned out that they would analyze every score I gave at that time, compare it with the average of the entire jury, and compare the scores I gave to the same coffee on different days, and finally looked at my highest and lowest scores, so as to evaluate my cup testing ability. The competition in Taichung is full of talents, so the scoring criteria are very similar and professional.

Every cup test is also a challenge. Every cup test, I will also carefully feel the enthusiasm of the producer.

"Taiwan's fruit industry has always been booming, so will the opportunity cost of switching to coffee be too high? Farmers want to expand exports? Or do you just want to prove that they know how to do it? " Although it was only a few days, I finally had a chance to get to know the producer.

Altitude is probably the congenital defect of Taiwan coffee. Some estates are as low as 500 meters, which is worse than Brazil. Some of the taller ones can reach about 1300 meters. Generally speaking, coffee books only say that coffee grown in the highlands has a slower ripening period, so it is more likely to produce sugars. But how does this phenomenon show up on the cup table?

There are several coffees that give out moderate fermented flavors such as mango, pineapple, strawberry and jam when they are hot. I gave them a score of 86.5 at one point, but when they were cold, the rhyme of these fruits quickly faded, and their acidity became sharp and unbalanced. As a result, the score dropped, and we all suspected that this was caused by low altitude. In addition, there is a significant difference in the aroma and taste of some coffee: he is expected to smell it, but when he drinks it, it tastes surprisingly monotonous. Judges with agricultural and horticultural backgrounds believe that this is due to the fact that the sugar in the coffee is depleted in the fermentation process, resulting in the effect of "enough flavor but not enough flavor".

The boutique industry advocates picking only ripe fruits. "picking only the red ones" has become the norm. Some producers even use the mirror red wine industry to quantify and determine the best harvest time with sugar concentration Brix. Friends in Taiwan say they make fruit, so they are no stranger to fructose content. Due to the limited production capacity, they can record the brix value for each batch of coffee fruits produced, some of which can reach 27%. In theory, there should be plenty of fructose to bake and create high-quality flavor. But they also said frankly that for fermentation, we are also in the stage of speculation.

Then again, since they are so familiar with fruit, why grow coffee? It has something to do with the weather. A farmer who has been growing oranges and peaches for decades told me that they began to introduce coffee after the earthquake. Because the harvest time of the fruit is very short, and it is not easy to pick the fruit in the rainy season and on the slope. The shelf life of fresh fruit is also considered. Dried coffee can be stored for a few months, while fruit has a shelf life of only a few days. Although there is a lot of production capacity in the days of bumper harvest, prices have fallen because of abundant supply in the market. In case of loss of harvest caused by typhoon, rising prices cannot make up for the loss of production capacity.

From them, I also learned about florescence control, the changes of the same kind of trees in different environments, and the thickness of coffee peel and its effect on treatment. Although Taiwanese farmers are still in the exploratory stage of coffee production, they believe that through excellent fruit growing techniques, they will soon be able to bring coffee closer to that of Latin America through processing.

I have never seen a place that pays more attention to the storage environment of raw coffee beans than Taiwan.

In the past, coffee was tried in various producing areas in the exporters' beautifully decorated cup testing studios. The samples at that time were immediately prepared by the staff from the warehouse. Latin American warehouses (bodega) generally have special personnel responsible for recording and monitoring water content, coffee batches, certification and commercial grading. For customers, after placing an order, the coffee beans will appear on the dock as if they were enchanted a few months later.

Is it that simple? Of course not. Logistics is a major. From the moment of leaving the tree, processing, screening, bagging, warehousing, and boarding, coffee beans go through a "relay" of different lengths. The so-called traceability, to put it romantically, is to let consumers get in touch with farmers and feel their hard work. In fact, raw bean merchants and logistics operators still have a task, that is, to ensure that the coffee in the cup really comes from a certain variety of trees on a farm. Moreover, they have to do their best to keep the beans fresh.

It is believed that at the beginning, most bakers also rely on indicators such as "bean list, price, taste of the sample, and size of the company" to make the decision to buy raw beans. Over the past year, I have heard many people, especially those in areas where there is a lack of information, complain that the taste of the coffee bought is completely different from that recommended by the sample or cup test. Apart from the ability of businessmen to test their own cups, integrity is also very important. Goodwill, which accumulates bit by bit, can easily be destroyed overnight.

But sometimes, the scam happened before the sack got on board. The refund procedures for coffee that are out of line are complicated, and high-quality beans are often micro-batches from small farms. Producers' concept of contract is not as deep as that of urban people, coupled with low production capacity, it may not be possible to exchange goods, so everything is "letter first". In commercial bulk transactions, buyers and sellers sometimes hire third-party companies to check the export of coffee at the port. However, this practice is mostly based on physical screening indicators, rather than cup test flavor, and small batches of coffee have some disadvantages such as random sampling. Therefore, the responsibility and risk of quality identification after arrival and comparison with the pre-shipment sample (preshipment sample) will fall on the raw bean merchants.

That afternoon, in addition to reviewing BOP's samples for this season, I also had the honor to discuss with my new acquaintances how he used his deep agricultural background to preserve and confirm coffee. For example, the correlation and difference between water activity and water content, the detection of microelements in beans and the secret of using densimeter, etc. If the flight is not imminent, I believe we can find more topics. Rice, wheat, cocoa, vegetables, fruits and even flowers, no agricultural product is stored more carefully than coffee.

In response to my recent series of scientific experiments as "the mystery of beans strangely seeping green", I hope he feels that he is not alone on the coffee road.

Few people will say that their mother is not a good cook. You will miss the familiar taste once you get used to it, and so will coffee.

Coffee in Taiwan is booming and full of talents. Cafes of different styles are scattered like stars in the streets, shining every day of life. The local people have a strong sense of belonging to the community, and the one formed by dozens of households is full of humanity: the motorcycle is parked in front of the laundry, the mother takes care of the children who have just finished school from kindergarten while picking up clothes, and the boss will help put the washed bags in the basket 𥚃 of the car. Outside the noodle stall opposite, the landlady took the stewed meat noodles that had been prepared for them. Most of the vegetables were harvested from the farm on the mountain yesterday. The small corner of the plastic bag 𥚃, and an aunt quietly put in, gave the little boy to eat the red apple awn.

The cafe located on the ground floor of the house is like the modern village office. There is no ancestral temple, there is no incense burner, a wisp of smoke is discharged from the chimney, and the crows on the tile roof quietly feel the change of the coffee in the stove after it has been ignited. Its sense of smell is very sensitive, close his eyes, favorite peaches come to mind, in the background, there are bursts of jasmine.

Fly to the other corner of the street. Outside the canopy of a pre-war building, there is an old swallow's nest. When he combed his feathers leisurely, he was awakened by the open window. The familiar smell of coffee hovered in its nasal cavity as the curved exhaust pipe stretched out from the inside of the unit. But this time, unlike in the past, the bean dryer did not stop running after the smell of fruit and flowers appeared, and the smell from the chimney was stronger than before. It thought of flying away, but was overcome by curiosity. The bursting sound stirred up from the drum, and it smelled bursts of sweetness: is it the smell of cookies? Or freshly baked bread? Through the dusty glass window, the baker was concentrating on sampling, showing his unique baking fingerprint on the coffee through the fire throttle.

That day, I discussed baking with Eiji. He has recently been thinking about the roasting style of the third wave of coffee. From Taichung to Taipei, we have tasted works from several coffee shops, several of which are baked by Taiwan-made machines. He is particularly interested in parameters such as wind speed, wind pressure and conduction convection ratio.

I have also shared the problem that the baking style is dominated by the quality of raw beans in recent years. Due to the development of information, consumers can easily see the award-winning flavor of a certain auction bean on the Internet. if the roaster is determined to increase the sweetness and roast the coffee deep, it is possible to wear off some of the aroma, then who is right and who is wrong? In order to calm the trouble, or market-led, the coffee shop simply put the cup test roasting (cupping roast) out for mass production and sale, wiping out the baking process.

Ravens like flowers and fruits, as well as bread and desserts. A thought of likes and dislikes is all in the present mood. Ah, its figure was lost in the dark night sky.

"tons of coffee rotates in the drum, moving like a liquid. The state of the furnace will operate like a star in accordance with the rules laid down by the baker. Each bean, however, evolves according to its own quality and characteristics, releasing thousands of fragrances and extending in all directions at the moment of bursting. What happens in the bean machine contains a macro picture as well as a micro world: like general relativity and quantum mechanics, they are uncompromising but resonate harmoniously. "

The LED under the funnel support illuminates the glass like a stage spotlight. The crystal ice emits white moisture, just like an invisible window screen. The burgundy coffee flows slowly, scrubbing the surface of the ice, scratching the texture with hot heat, or drilling out of the channel. The liquid gathers into a stream drop by drop and flushes the small semi-dissolved ice particles below. The barista poured water into the pot regularly with a copper hand, but the flow of water was capricious and random.

What is happening is the portrayal of coffee extraction. I'm probably the only passer-by who will notice; the people in the store continue to be busy. No matter how interesting it is, you will get used to it one day when it becomes a rule, or if it can be expected. The barista's water column is like a line connected to a puppet, showing the taste of coffee like seven emotions and six desires through each shake. It was raining hard outside and the guests hurried in and out. He still acts on his own, even if I'm the only one left in the audience.

This is the fifth cup of coffee today. In addition to the taste, I pay more attention to the environment of Taiwan cafes. Whenever friends travel to Taiwan and return to Hong Kong, they will always marvel at the local coffee culture. Is it "fragrant rice next door", or is there another reason?

I have heard that not many people in Taiwan accept coffee with sour. In fact, most people still stay within the inherent framework of "coffee should be bitter." The price of two cups of coffee is almost enough for a meal, so high-quality coffee is quite extravagant relative to other necessities of life. Enthusiasts will pay no attention to it, but for the general public, coffee is not cheap or many people buy it, probably because of the "coffee shop" space.

Compared with Hong Kong, Taiwan does not have so many shopping malls managed by big developers. The business circles along Xinyi Road, Dongmen Station and Yongkang Street are all integrated with residential buildings. After class, young people stroll and eat nearby, and if they want to sit down and chat, they will always find cafes of different styles: decorated with French movie posters and a nostalgic egg twisting machine outside the door, or all kinds of wooden furniture. there is a rattan basket beside the table for four, and each cup of coffee is served in a white knitting cup. Some also sell ceramics and coffee utensils from Japanese, Scandinavian or Taiwanese artists. Operators have no pressure to sell dozens of cups per hour, nor do they have stringent licensing requirements. Neighbors respect each other, and as long as the noise does not affect the residents upstairs, the coffee shop can stay open until late at night. Baristas can aim at quality for every cup of coffee made in this environment, rather than worrying about guests at the end of the line complaining about waiting too long and being forced to castrate themselves.

This reminds me of Gothenburg, Sweden: if you travel to northern Europe, even if you are not interested in coffee, you should encounter the unique local cafe culture. Taiwan, too, is unforgettable.

I sipped the iced coffee in double glazing and recalled his meditative concentration. Is he showing it to me? Or.

This cup of coffee made from Ethiopia and Colombia is called Simone de Beauvoir. A sentence from the philosopher is printed on the back of the flavor card, which seems to be the confession of the barista to the consumer:

"it only makes sense when you want to see me too" (Yet only if you asked to see me, our meeting would be meaningful to me)

Author: Patrick Tam

Owner of Hong Kong boutique coffee shop Knockbox

American Association of boutique baristas,

Baristas recognized by European boutique baristas association

American CQI recognition Cup Surveyor

The first Hong Kong resident judge of Cup of Excellence.