[Interview] Taiwan origin coffee monopoly Mori Takasa Cafe

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In recent years, with the upsurge of boutique coffee, coffee lovers pay more and more attention to the origin, soil, treatment, roasting degree and variety source of coffee beans. However, for the vast majority of people, the sources of coffee beans that are commonly drunk in coffee shops are mainly imported from abroad, and they can rarely be drunk in coffee shops. Coffee brewed from Taiwan's native coffee beans. However, the Sengao Sand Cafe, which the editor is going to interview this time, happens to be a special cafe that only serves Taiwan coffee beans. For me, who likes coffee very much, this exclusive interview is really very much looking forward to!

Sengaosha Cafe is located around the Dadaocheng Cultural District, which is full of culture and history. the nearest MRT station is the Beimen Station of the MRT Songshan Xindian Line, which is on foot from the exit of the Beimen Station. it only takes about nine minutes to get to the cafe.

About Sengao Sand Cafe...

The Sengao Sand Cafe, which has been opened for less than half a year, was originally a bean merchant brand specializing in Taiwan coffee beans. Brother Dong, the operator, in order to make more people have access to Taiwan's local coffee beans, so it took about five years to coach and integrate some local coffee bean farmers in Taiwan, and at the same time, after raising the quality of coffee beans to a certain level. To open this Sengao Sand Cafe. So far, almost all of them have purchased coffee beans from these local coffee farmers in Taiwan. (only a small number of coffee farmers cooperate by contract.)

The origin of the name of Sengao sand is that it can be divided into two parts: "Sen" and "high sand".

Part of the reason for "Sen" is that Brother Dong thinks that Taiwan lacks woodland, but in order to grow coffee beans, we must cut down the forest (because coffee can only be grown on hillsides), so how can they grow coffee beans without harming the ecology? So they chose to plant coffee beans under betel nut trees, on the one hand, to enable deep-rooted coffee trees to stabilize the land and carry out soil and water conservation, and on the other hand, they could also enable these betel nut farmers to change the items of agricultural cultivation in this way, which is tantamount to planting coffee beans with the concept of replanting land.

"Gao Sha" is partly due to the origin of the first cultivation of coffee beans in Taiwan, which began in the era of Japanese occupation, when most of the farmers who mainly planted coffee beans were aborigines (the Japanese call Taiwan's aborigines Gao Sha people). Now, most of the farmers who grow coffee beans in Taiwan are also aborigines, so the name Gao Sha is included.

Combining the spirit and concept of the above two, the name "Sengao Sand" will emerge. its most important spirit is to attach importance to the present soil and water and respect the history of the past, and finally give back to all farmers who have worked hard to grow coffee beans. At the same time, it is because of this concept that the Sengao Sand Cafe, a small platform for promoting Taiwan's local coffee beans, has been achieved.

The appearance of the Sengao Sand Cafe, as can be seen in the photo below, can be regarded as a reborn cafe in the old house, which not only retains the main spatial structure of the old buildings, but also takes the retro appearance as the main presentation. It's like there's a sense of going back in time. The current location of the coffee shop, which is the site of the first coffee shop opened by the Taiwanese during the Japanese occupation era, is of great historical value and significance.

Although automatic doors are set up at the door of the cafe, they still retain the original wooden door frames and window frames. Perhaps from the present appearance, there is no very obvious mottled trace, but I believe that as long as it goes through a period of time, it will become very interesting.

As soon as you enter the door of Sengao Sand Cafe, the first thing you can see is the floor with old tiles as the main design, as well as a large number of dark wooden tables and chairs and display cabinets.

A large area of floor-to-ceiling glass also brings plenty of natural lighting to the cafe.

A whole red brick wall is also preserved in this space, adding a historical connection with the original building.

A long coffee bar is so powerful that you can not only chat with baristas, but also enjoy their focus on brewing coffee.

There are a total of 12 coffee brewing filter cups in the coffee bar. what is special is that these filter cups cannot be moved. on the contrary, stainless steel stands are designed and presented in a fixed way (3 filter cups as a group). At the same time, there is also a custom-made connecting sink. With this design, it feels like it can improve the efficiency of brewing coffee, but I think there must be other special reasons.

Next to the only sofa seating area in the store, a hollowed-out display case is also set up, on which there are many native coffee beans from all over Taiwan, and several kinds of beans are presented with the appearance of raw beans, and the relevant information about the origin, farmers, treatment methods and basic flavor are also shown on it.

In the cafe, there is also a mini map of Taiwan's coffee producing areas, which records the names of all the counties, cities and regions in Taiwan that grow and produce coffee beans. (I didn't expect that coffee beans are grown in so many places in Taiwan.)

Looking at the raw Taiwan coffee beans displayed in the Sengao Sands Cafe, I can clearly feel their enthusiasm to promote Taiwan's local coffee beans. Through the disclosure of detailed information, many people who like coffee can get to know these hard-working coffee farmers. From the following photos, I found that there are so many unexpected places in Taiwan growing coffee beans (it seems that Taiwan coffee beans are only in Gukeng area in my memory).

The practitioner of Sengao Sand Cafe-Brother Dong

Since high school, Brother Dong has stepped into the world of hand-brewing coffee because of his personal interests. He has been studying hand-brewing coffee for more than 20 years. After a long period of research on hand-brewed coffee, self-roasting coffee beans and contact with coffee bean farmers, I decided to formally step into the field of professional coffee management. After running several laps around Taiwan, knowing many coffee farmers and conducting many censuses, he found that many farmers only operate coffee beans as a sideline, so they are not so good in terms of quality. in addition, the cost of manual harvesting is relatively high, so the final price is very considerable. (this is also the main reason why coffee beans in Taiwan are always expensive.)

Because he was still enthusiastic about the promotion of locally grown coffee beans in Taiwan, he sold the house with some co-founders and raised funds to buy farmers' coffee beans. and in a completely non-bargaining and non-bargaining way (farmers pay as much as they charge) to buy the coffee beans they grow from farmers, and then through long-term assistance and efforts Guide these coffee bean farmers to grow high-quality coffee beans. The way he helps farmers is to enable them to specialize in their own planting skills, take care of and handle all the coffee beans to the best quality, and then roast, sell, and brew the coffee. Brother Dong, who specializes in this aspect, is responsible for it. By sharing the strengths of both sides, they will eventually promote high-quality Taiwanese coffee beans and let all coffee lovers know.

Demonstration of hand-brewing coffee at Sengao Sand Cafe.

Brother Dong said that there are not many gorgeous techniques for brewing hand-brewed coffee in Sengao Sand Cafe, and the flavor of all the fine coffee brewed is mainly based on the taste of the first part of the extracted coffee. Before preparing to start brewing coffee, Brother Dong prepared the coffee filter paper separately, and then began to grind the coffee beans.

Then put all the ground coffee beans directly into the coffee filter paper, and you can almost begin to prepare for coffee brewing! When I see this, I think someone will ask why the coffee filter paper is not wet first. After all, among the common hand-brewing coffee techniques, there is almost always a step of wetting the filter paper first, so I also asked Brother Dong. And he also said that because they had actually tasted the water after the coffee filter was washed with water without putting anything in it, they did not drink it with obvious strange taste, so they omitted this step.

This time, Brother Dong has prepared a total of three different styles of Taiwanese local coffee for me to drink. From left to right, the coffee beans are processed with fine honey from Nantou State, the fine washed coffee beans from Guanshan, Taitung, and the best washed coffee beans from Nantou State, Jiufen Ershan.

When brewing coffee by hand, Brother Dong's way of brewing coffee is to brew coffee with a large and fast flow (less attention is paid to water temperature and brewing time). By his standards, the average brewing time of a cup of coffee is no more than 50 seconds, compared with the average hand-brewed coffee, you have to pay attention to the water output, brewing curve and rhythm and other meticulous techniques are very different. Another special part is that because Brother Dong has been brewing coffee for a long time and has a lot of experience, he can't see any water temperature measuring equipment here. He only depends on the degree and feeling of the steam. You can know whether the water temperature is suitable to start brewing coffee. (the amount of coffee brewed each time is 180cc)

When the coffee is brewed, it will be presented to the customer in the form of the photo below. Brother Dong also specifically mentioned that since the characteristic of Sengao sand coffee is to extract the flavor of the front part of the coffee, whether it is in the form of iced coffee or hot coffee, there will not be much difference in flavor. And as a result, the content of caffeine will become relatively small (the texture of fresh coffee beans is more compact and not easy to extract. So when you drink it, you will have a sense of tea and the Body is less heavy. That's why he serves both ice and hot coffee at the same time, hoping that coffee drinkers can use it to feel the distinctive features of Taiwan coffee beans with the brewing method of Sengao Sand Cafe.

Brother Dong suggested drinking coffee from the part of iced coffee at first. in order not to dilute the coffee too quickly, he would put the coffee in a test tube and freeze it, and then provide a small cup with ice to drink. Only in this way can we drink the best flavor of coffee at chilled temperature when the coffee is almost undiluted.

After the iced coffee has been drunk, you can continue to drink the hot coffee.

This time, after drinking three kinds of Taiwanese coffee beans, I will also share some of my feelings with you.

Nantou country's surname is Fine Honey Coffee beans (self-employed farmers). This coffee bean is grown in Nantou County, Nantou County. When it comes into contact with coffee beans, the first thing you feel is a very smooth and good taste. With the obvious fruit acid and grain aroma, after a period of transformation, you will gradually taste the light flavor of Huigan in the fruit acid.

Taitung Guanshan boutique washed coffee beans (self-farming farmers), the boutique washed coffee beans from Guanshan Town, Taitung County are very different. In addition to having an annual harvest output, it is also a very personalized bean. Since the coffee beans are grown by Ami aborigines, the same materials as fermented millet wine are used to ferment the beans. Therefore, the most important feature of this coffee bean is that it has the aroma and fermented taste very similar to millet wine, but the coffee itself tends to have a mild flavor, leaving a slight astringency in the mouth and jaw after drinking.

Nantou country surnamed Jiufen Ershan Jiufen Ershan washed coffee beans (Sengao sand contract as a farmer), the coffee beans produced by Nantou County Guofeng Jiufen Ershan can feel very strong lemon acidity and aroma at the beginning of drinking, the flavor presentation is very similar to the Kenyan AA coffee beans that Xiaobian usually likes to drink, but the performance of acidity is even stronger. In addition, it also has a hint of cereal flavor, which is very suitable for drinking coffee in hot summer.

In a follow-up interview, Brother Dong also said that no matter how good the coffee brewing and baking skills are, you will not be able to brew and roast the characteristics and flavor that the beans themselves do not contain, so the quality of the coffee is better. In the end, we have to return to the source of the quality of coffee beans. And he is also convinced that with Taiwan's excellent farming technology as the background, it is absolutely possible to grow high-quality coffee beans that are not inferior to internationally famous coffee beans, so that is why he has worked so hard to assist coffee farmers and actively promote coffee in Taiwan.

If you have a chance, you might as well go to Sengao Sand Cafe sometime to feel the flavor of Taiwan's local coffee from Brother Dong. If you are interested in the story of Taiwan coffee beans, I'm sure he'll be happy to share it with you!