What is the flavor of Taiwanese coffee?

What is the flavor of Taiwanese coffee?

We asked the owners of "Fika Fika Cafe", "Sengao Sesame Coffee", "in Hongben Shop" and "Goodman Roaster" who love Taiwanese coffee, and they all mentioned a key word: tea.

Over the past few years, high-density cafes and excellent coffee talents have made the world remember the name of Taiwan. Cup testing, bean baking, and coffee masters, including the World Cup champion announced last month, have all fallen in Taiwan. In fact, apart from tea, Taiwan, which is located in the subtropics, is also the promised land of coffee. Following in the footsteps of baristas, we drink Taiwanese coffee from different elevations, with a distinctive style, which is unique in the world, like the long back-to-Gansu rhyme of tea, no less than Kona and Geisha.

Perhaps many people know that there is a kind of coffee in Taiwan, but few people know how rare it is to drink their own coffee in their own country. When you walk into a coffee shop in big countries with a thriving coffee industry, such as Northern Europe, the United States, Italy and Japan, you still order Kenyan AA, Guardia Antigua, almost all beans from Central and South America and Africa, and only a small amount of beans are grown in Hawaii and Japan in the United States. Taiwan, on the other hand, has the advantages of both talent and origin.

Champion bean baker Chen Zhihuang (James) roasted beans for the Taiwan coffee competition this year.

When baking Taiwan beans, James is particularly light, lest anxiety cover up the distant flavor of Taiwan beans.

James, the head of Fika Fika Cafe, came to the bean baking factory in Nangang, such as the cast iron giant's Joper bean roaster, which was roaring. James stared at the baking curve on the screen, the beans under a button, and 30 kilograms of brown coffee beans flooded into the cooling tray.

As the champion of Nordic Cup coffee roasting, people used to equate his impression with Nordic coffee, but in recent years he has gone deep into teaching in various producing areas in Taiwan and found that Taiwan coffee has grown amazingly. "three years ago, many of them still smelled of mud and mildew, but they have made rapid progress in recent years. Taiwan coffee farmers use a variety of wonderful methods to experiment, add milk, raise Ledo, and develop their own unique fermentation technology. You can see the perseverance of Taiwan farmers. "

To this end, James even developed the exclusive baking curve of Taiwanese coffee. "Taiwan coffee tastes very fine, and if it is medium-roasted, it even feels the same bitterness as black tea, and if you use the international baking degree standard Agtron (infrared caramelization detector) 58max 63 (the former is the surface of the bean, and the later is the test after grinding, the lighter the baking degree is, the lighter the roasting degree is 7080. "

The coffee cherries from the coffee farm in Baisheng Village, Nantou County, are full of flavor despite their low altitude. (courtesy of Baisheng Village)

James freezes coffee from Taiwu Township in Pingtung for eight hours into ice bricks and sprinkles with honey to give it a delicate fragrance of flowers. (not yet on sale)

Whenever foreign friends come, James likes to take out coffee from Nantou Baisheng Village Manor and ask them to guess the altitude after they have tried it. "the internationally famous coffee producing areas are all at high altitude, and the coffee fruit will be tighter, but Baisheng Village is only more than 400 meters above sea level, but it is dry and free of miscellaneous flavors, with aromas similar to apricot, and the sun treatment will have pineapple, wine leaven, and mango flavors, mild and balanced. When the answer was revealed, the surprised expressions on the faces of foreign experts made James very proud.

Dong Dinghe, a former boss of the electronics industry, plunged into the coffee world for the sake of coffee farmers.

The individual coffee in the shop must be cold and hot to make you taste better. (320 yuan per portion of Alishan sun-tanned coffee in Chiayi County)

"in a small Taiwan, the taste of coffee varies greatly from place to place, so it is a very interesting coffee. Dong Dinghe, the person in charge of Sengao Sand Coffee, said. Coffee from Sengao sand covers 12 major townships in Taiwan, and there are as many as 121 cooperative farmers, accounting for as much as 40% of Taiwan's coffee supply. These are the results of Dong Dinghe's six-year visit to the producing area to fight with farmers.

He analyzes the flavor of the "tea" in Taiwan's coffee. "Taiwanese farmers are used to planting sweet fruits, and even coffee has a strong sense of sucrose, resulting in the characteristics of Huigan. And this kind of sweetness, it feels like tea. "however, coffee from all over the country still has its own style. For example, Alishan and Mizuho have the most perfect sour taste. Gukeng has a strong aroma of sesame and nuts, and Taichung News Agency has less sunshine, but it uses a mushroom dryer to make amazing sun-dried beans. In addition, Taitung Tai Ma Li is not high above sea level, but the temperature difference between day and night is still large, and the brown sugar and brown sugar are beautiful, while the Ami people in Guanshan even use millet wine wine for fermentation. Mizuho's tea farmers are also very talented. use the withering technology of tea to treat coffee beans as honey. His favorite planting area is to grow coffee under the betel nut groves. Betel nut trees not only provide shade for coffee trees, but also their roots can hold on to soil and water.

Atsushi Ito was the first Japanese to vigorously promote "Alishan Coffee" and even moved to Taiwan for coffee.

Because of its strong tea charm, Ito uses the concentrated solution extracted from Alishan coffee beans to produce "Alisan Coffee Caramels Alishan coffee caramel" (300RMB / can)

When it comes to promoting Taiwan coffee, we have to mention the Japanese who emigrated to Taiwan for Alishan Coffee: Atsushi Ito. Having been in Taiwan for five years, he has gone from running events and handing out leaflets to introduce Alishan Coffee to three stores and even to Central Hong Kong. "Japan doesn't have its own coffee. My colleague who worked at Starbucks told me that the nearest coffee farm was in Taiwan. "

Ito, who flew to Taiwan, drank his first cup of shallow roasted coffee in Zhongpu, Chiayi. "is that what coffee looks like? Like oolong tea, lemon black tea, high sweetness. In 2009, Taiwan coffee, which has always been unknown, made an unprecedented great leap forward in the international coffee industry, ranking 11th in the annual ranking of the American Fine Coffee Association (SCAA) and becoming the first in Asia. This bean comes from Alishan's Tropical Dance Coffee Farm. It is also the manor that Ito cooperated with after founding the brand. This cup of Ali Shanshui bean washing coffee, with a bright sour aroma, comes out of the amazing oolong tea as soon as it enters the throat. With its unique tea fragrance, Ito also uses oysters as dessert and uses the concentrated solution extracted from Alishan coffee beans to form "Alisan Coffee Caramels Alishan coffee caramel", which is strong and not greasy.

Cold brewed Taiwanese coffee with nitrogen is the secret weapon this summer. The foam made by adding nitrogen is particularly thick and dense, and the bubble feeling makes the coffee light and easy to drink. (200 yuan / copy)

Red Chef Yang Fengxu is in charge of making all the desserts in Hong Hong, and he, who studies coffee, often uses Taiwanese coffee for dessert.

The idea of Taiwanese coffee also appears in "in the Red Book Shop." "for some reason, Taiwanese coffee feels a little more like tea than other foreign beans. "dessert chef Yang Fengxu said. All the coffee in the shop, including Italian, American and latte coffee, is made of Taiwan beans. This summer, according to the texture of Taiwan coffee, they launched Taiwan bean nitrogen cold brewed coffee (Nitro Cold Brew). First, the coffee was cold soaked and mixed with nitrogen through the draft beer system to produce a foam as dense as Guinness black beer. "the texture of Taiwan coffee is thicker, the bubbles are particularly dense, and the unique wood texture is presented by bubble drinks. "carbonic acid seems to change the flavor structure of coffee. It tastes like beer without wheat flavor, but fresh fruit juice.

When we start not only respecting foreign ingredients, but also looking for more local agricultural products, can we also look back at the different flavors of coffee beans in various parts of Taiwan, beside tea gardens and under betel nut trees? perhaps the quality of foreign coffee is not as stable, and because of labor and land costs, the price remains high. But they are special. Taiwan is unique, but we have never understood it.

I admire these cafes and are willing to choose the most difficult road and insist on using high costs as a window for people to get in touch with Taiwanese coffee. Next time, when you stand in front of the Menu, maybe you can spend more time with a cup of coffee and give yourself a chance to get to know Taiwan.

Fika Fika Cafe Sunshine Shop

Add: No. 40, Lane 321, Yangguang Street, Neihu District, Taipei

Tel: 02-2656-0133

Business hours: 10: 00: 00: 18: 00, weekends: one day off.

Swiping by credit card: no. There is no service charge.

Sengao sand coffee

Address: No. 1, Section 2, Yanping North Road, Datong District, Taipei

Tel: 02-2555-8680

Business hours: 12: 00, 00: 00, 22: 00

Pay by card: yes. There is a 10% service charge.

Goodman Roaster

Add: 110 Tianyu Street, Shilin District, Taipei

Tel: 0983-29547

Business hours: 11VOR 00001800

Swiping by credit card: no. There is no service charge.

In the red book shop

Address: No. 3, lane 75, section 1, Heping east road, Daan district, Taipei

Tel: 02-2391-2978

Business hours: 12-day-old 30-week-20-00, the second week off every month.

Pay by card: yes. There is no service charge.