Coffee Man Story | reversing the bitter impression of Coffee two young entrepreneurs talk about coffee dreams

Songyue Coffee Manor still retains the original Sanhe mansion. The owner Guo Zhangsheng and his son Guo Zhijia welcome the guests to the mountain for coffee.

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Guo Zhijia, from Songyue Coffee Farm, is quite legendary when he talks about the management of his father Guo Zhangsheng's coffee garden, and Zhang Dehong, who is new to the field of boutique coffee, is also looking forward to the future of Taiwan's coffee market. Two young entrepreneurs all want to contribute to Taiwan's boutique coffee.

Cut down tea trees and grow coffee Songyue amazing international

Guo Zhijia said that his father had a special passion for coffee. When Taiwanese didn't know what coffee was 30 years ago, he couldn't help but go up to the mountain to collect coffee. He dug up a few unknown saplings and planted them, and two years later he grew coffee fruit. Songyue Manor, which is 1200 meters above sea level, used to grow tea mainly. Kuo Chih-chia says, "when my father decided to cut down a large area of tea trees to grow coffee, he didn't get the support of his family at all, and there were no guests selling coffee in the mountains."

So he decided to take the initiative. Songyue Coffee sent the raw coffee beans they planted on Taiwan land to foreign competitions, and won the first prize of Taiwan contestants in the 2010 scaa annual world boutique coffee competition in the United States. From then on, they became famous and repeatedly won prizes in various coffee and bean competitions in Taiwan, and the honor of national champion constantly fell on their simple manors.

Songyue Coffee Manor heavy yellow bourbon coffee, the fruit is more round, ripe bourbon beans, the peel is orange and very beautiful. (courtesy of Songyue Coffee Manor)

Guo Zhijia said that at present, their manor has planted 3-5A coffee trees. In addition to Taiwan's native Tibica, there are also yellow bourbon and orange bourbon. Tiebika's coffee fruit is long and sharp, and the bourbon's coffee fruit is more round and mature. The peel is orange and orange very beautiful. "recently, a high-profile geisha coffee has been introduced to grow in the manor, but it is not yet fruitful." It is impossible to predict the flavor of coffee grown in Taiwan. "

Zhang Dehong, of the Husky Coffee Factory, wants to disrupt the stereotype that coffee is bitter, so that more people know about coffee and fall in love with it.

Chang Teh-hung of the Husky Coffee Workshop says that the quality of coffee in Taiwan is actually very good, but the quantity of coffee produced is small, and there is no industry to promote it, resulting in a scene of decline. In fact, Taiwan's land is very suitable for growing coffee. Taiwan is located at the junction of the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates, and the land is rich in minerals. Coffee can absorb the nutrients of the land and grow healthily, coupled with the characteristics of the island climate. He believes: "Taiwan is a good place to grow high-quality coffee."

Do not accept coffee "sour" can not enter the depth field

However, after all, the culture of coffee in Taiwan is too shallow, and the taste of coffee beans is so sour that it is unacceptable to the general public. Chang Teh-hung says, "only good coffee can retain that sour, and bad coffee cannot be cultivated shallow, because it cannot be baked out. That kind of acid is a kind of dead acid that cannot be returned." Chang Teh-hung even points out that the coffee grown in Taiwan is full of fruit aromas, especially passion fruit and longan flowers, which cannot be grown anywhere else.

During the period of promoting boutique coffee, Zhang Dehong found that the general consumer's stereotype of coffee is that coffee is bitter, because Italian coffee will scorch the beans, and consumers who drink these deep-roasted coffee, it is not easy to try other flavors, especially the "sour" of coffee. Zhang Dehong stressed, "if you can't taste the acid of coffee, you can't step into the depth of coffee."

Guo Zhijia, who has grown champion beans in his manor for many times, pointed out that most of the Taiwan coffee beans bought by many consumers are mixed with beans imported from abroad. However, the real Taiwan coffee beans are becoming more and more popular internationally, because young people in Taiwan are willing to learn, and the roasting technology has also improved a lot. Coupled with the comprehensive introduction of discount coffee in convenience stores, Taiwan consumers have accepted coffee. It has started a craze for drinking coffee, but the promotion of fine coffee is still insufficient. "Real fine coffee must be evaluated, and only when the score of Taiwan's largest coffee association reaches more than 80 points can it be regarded as fine coffee."

Refusing rotten coffee costs only 50 yuan by hand.

Zhang Dehong, who provided service to the government, estimated for the guests that it was very simple to prepare a set of utensils for follicular coffee, as long as a bean grinder, a filter cup, a small scale, a hand pot and a glass coffee pot cost about 4,000 yuan. if you buy half a pound of boutique beans for 500 yuan, you can make coffee by hand, and you can enjoy healthy and delicious coffee for only 50 yuan a cup.

"reject rotten coffee" is a slogan called for by those who promote high-quality coffee. They advise consumers not to drink instant coffee, especially instant coffee made from coffee beans in Taiwan may be even worse, because there are very few coffee beans produced in Taiwan. Compared with large coffee-producing countries, instant coffee from large foreign manufacturers may also be extracted with coffee beans, while instant coffee produced in Taiwan may only contain flavors and other chemical components. Smart consumers should choose boutique beans.

The depth of roasted coffee determines the flavor and nutrition.

Guo Zhijia, who has grown champion beans on his manor many times, points out that real Taiwan beans are becoming more and more popular in the international community.

Kuo Chih-chia, who has worked on coffee farms with her father since childhood, points out that there is really not much boutique coffee in Taiwan's estates. Some coffee merchants sell Taiwanese coffee, but they do not have their own estates, nor do they have QRcode certified by the Agriculture and Food Administration. The sources of such coffee beans are more complicated. In addition to the source of coffee beans, Kuo Chih-chia mentioned that most of the coffee on the market in Taiwan are deep-roasted beans. Some stores roast coffee beans too much, which is equivalent to roasted beans, or even leave them for too long. Even tar has flowed out. He reminded consumers, "if you see oily black coffee beans, you must be careful, there may be a problem of expiration."

Zhang Dehong also stressed that shallow coffee beans will have the problem of not being cooked, and unripe coffee beans will remain toxic alkaloids, which are harmful to the human body and are the main components that cause palpitations, as well as the toxins of defective and defective beans; but if you roast light coffee, it will retain rich chlorogenic acid, which is an antioxidant, good for the liver, and has the effect of burning fat and increasing attention.

The two young entrepreneurs who work hard to promote high-quality coffee share the same ideal. They want to disrupt the stereotype that most people in Taiwan think that coffee is bitter, so that more people can understand coffee, fall in love with the taste of coffee, and enjoy the fun of coffee more. They hope that this is not a dream, but a fact that coffee will become popular in the near future.

Guo Zhangsheng, the first coffee grower in Taiwan

Songyue Coffee Manor is located in a high mountain with an elevation of 1200 meters. At the foot of Yunfeng in Jiannan at the junction of Gukeng Township and Alishan, guests who come to the manor always have a chance to see the misty scene.

Songyue Coffee Manor is located at an altitude of 1200 meters above sea level. under the Yunfeng of Jiannan at the junction of Gukeng Township and Alishan, guests who come to the manor always have a chance to see the scene surrounded by clouds. Guo Zhangsheng, who has grown coffee for nearly 36 years, said that he should be the first person in Taiwan to grow coffee. In fact, he had no choice but to cut down tea trees to grow coffee, because the time for picking tea cyanine every year was very short. But he often couldn't find a tea picker at a critical moment, so he had to let the tea grow old and let the hard-growing good tea lose its most beautiful flavor, so he decided to plant coffee trees instead.

Guo Zhangsheng said that coffee beans do not grow old overnight, so the harvest time is longer, which is more beneficial to understaffed manors in the mountains. Guo Zhangsheng points out that at present, there are many different varieties of coffee trees planted in Songyue Manor. In addition to the most common Tibica, there are also some rare species, because no one in Taiwan has experience in growing coffee. So he always makes reference to foreign information, and then gropes for himself. The same kind of coffee is tried in different ways and recorded again.

The situation of dealing with sundried beans in Songyue Coffee Manor. (courtesy of Songyue Coffee Manor)

After continuous attempts, Guo Zhangsheng has his own unique way of making coffee beans, because Songyue used to be a tea garden, with some tea-making equipment, and coffee beans can also be used in the process of treatment. and controlling the fermentation process of coffee beans is similar to making tea, so the coffee beans made by Guo Zhangsheng are different from the coffee flavor of the general manor. Guo Zhangsheng welcomes consumers who are interested in Taiwan coffee to come to the mountain to taste coffee and learn about the real strength of Taiwan coffee.