The Road to Champions--The Secret of Wang Ce's Hand Brewing of the 2017 World Coffee Brewing Cup Champion

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"the most important thing is that the person who drinks the drink, a brewer must start from the drinker's point of view. "

─ Wang ce, 2017 World Coffee Cup Champion

The global trade volume of coffee is second only to oil, but rather the NBA of agricultural products. As long as there is a match, employees and fans from all over the world will pay attention to it, just like the NBA game, which requires the cooperation of strikers, centers, and defenders in order to play a good game. Compared with other countries, Taiwan's coffee, with an annual output of only 841 metric tons, is like a dust spot. In recent years, due to the dedication of employees in various links, Taiwan coffee has repeatedly stood out in international competitions in terms of baking, brewing, flower drawing, cup testing, and so on. This has made coffee people all over the world take a fresh look at Taiwan coffee and gradually connect the chain of the boutique coffee industry. While the boutique coffee is changing with each passing day, and every link has endless business opportunities, it is not too much to say that it is the glittering catering industry.

Wang ce, who served as the judge of the top 12 + 1 invitational tournament in Taiwan and won the 2017 World Coffee Brewing Cup in June this year, polished the mirror of the defender with a skilled and charismatic staff. It once again marks that boutique coffee is a fashion industry that combines local customs, technology, flavor, performance, machinery and equipment, and even creates idols.

(right) Wang ce (Photo courtesy of / Dongran Entertainment Industry Co., Ltd.)

Training food since childhood, won the world championship at the age of 28.

Only a year after he began to brew coffee, 28-year-old Wang ce won the world championship, and now he is always surrounded by people asking for autographs on coffee-related occasions, which seems lucky. However, when Wang ce set brewing coffee as a career, after repeated and careful reflection and practice, he derived a coffee philosophy that is pleasing to himself and to others.

Every aspect of boutique coffee is a creation of both reason and sensibility. Wang ce, who first tried to cry, positioned himself as a Maker, requiring that the coffee brewed must have a close relationship with him. Coming from a well-known trading coffee company, coffee has long been a part of his daily life. He drank this black liquid for the first time since he was six years old. "Coffee has always been in my life. I have been listening to my parents. My parents have trained me to taste food since I was a child. I have to describe the taste when I eat, which will be very helpful to me in the future. "

Waving goodbye to Taiwan at the age of 12, he chose to study in the UK alone, studying for a master's degree in biology and food nutrition, and then went to London to get a baking diploma in the Blue Ribbon, where he learned how to supervise his taste, and then worked in a boutique chocolate shop. Chocolate also pays attention to producing areas, estates, proportions, and flavor. For him, he only needs a foot in front of him.

After studying in Britain and returning to Taiwan, his father arranged a systematic coffee course for him, and he also went to work at REC Coffee in Fukuoka, Japan. He was personally processed by coffee master Iwase Iwase (Yoshikazu Iwase), seeking motivation from the needs of the guests he served, and even scrutinized the feedback notes of the guests, thus accumulating the seal of his coffee career. When all the conditions were in place, Wang ce was ready for the competition after a year and a half of formal contact with coffee.

Wang ce, who won the 2017 World Coffee Cup (Photo courtesy of / Dongran Entertainment Industry Co., Ltd.)

The bean picking, fermentation and baking are accurate, and the cook connects the person with the producing area.

Before the game, Wang ce's team learned that in recent years, international coffee competitions, whether raw beans, roasting, brewing and other competitions, were almost without exception the beans of Geisha (also known as geisha) in Panama.

Wang ce believes that this trend is quite reasonable, and any contestant is bound to come up with beans that are bound to win, he realized. "if you don't give the judges a heavy punch, it's hard to impress them. "in addition to heavy taste, the aroma / flavor / acidity / body fat / aftertaste on the score table must be at least moderate.

In order to implement their own ideas and vote for the judges' preference, the Wang ce team started from the manor, selected the beans from the more than 300 coffee beans on the cup test table, selected the beans from Silla de Pando in the Volcan region of Panama, studied the processing method, and put more effort into the quality of the beans, and devoted themselves to producing a fragrance-like flavor through fermentation, allowing the coffee flavor to re-evolve. Looking back, Wang ce suggested to Taiwan coffee beans, "I think it has great potential to improve the quality of coffee beans. Taiwan coffee beans can try this method to reflect their quality." "

Accurately handle legal beans closer to the taste of the judges, and then give them to a trusted baker, be sure to brew and show the desired taste, such as his speech in the competition: "for a cup of 'clean' coffee, workers pick fresh fruit of the same color, and then the fermentation process breaks down the sugar into lactic acid and aroma ester molecules, which will be a" pineapple-like acidity "in your mouth.

Coffee processing information about the place of origin is important, but it is valuable only when I, as a brewer, associate it with you and this cup of coffee. "

Brewing is the last step in the interpretation of coffee, as well as directly facing the guests. Wang ce stressed, "what I have to do is not only to make a cup of coffee, but also to let people know what is good about this coffee, apart from brewing." my homework, my thoughts, what I've done. "

The action is exquisite. 9 minutes 59 seconds. Perfect touchdown.

From breaking out of the top 20 cooks in Taiwan, to competing with the top players of 41 other participating countries in the World Cup, there are only six left in the finals, and there will be more than a thousand people all the way through. Now it is in the overall process (bar management, whether clean enough, no extra movements), customer service (does it leave the judges with the impression of comfort? Are you thoughtful for the judges when drinking your coffee? Strive for high marks on projects such as).

Wang ze's delicate movements different from others in Budapest have so far been impressive.

"you will see my eyes, naturally from the rightmost Thai female judge to the far left, each staying for 2 seconds. "the judges all have a note board in their hands. Apart from the standing referee, Wang ze asked the three sitting judges not to take notes." now I'm going to start describing the flavor. Please don't write in a hurry and pay attention to my actions. "then, he personally handed out the menu to each of the judges, and the ladies first, these thoughtful actions to increase the contact between people, in order to move the judges' behavior.

Before starting to brew, he first made a warm cup action that no contestant had ever done before, took out a white glove, wore it on his right hand, took out a white long scarf, folded it in two, and wiped the white coffee cups clean one by one. The ear of the cup is placed on the right hand of the judge and delivered to the table. Later, during the lecture, Wang ce revealed the intention of every move in the competition, "this is a kind of consideration for others. ─ puts the coffee cup of the judges in the right position, because the judges will not pick up the coffee cup and smell it, but will put their face close to it. I believe most contestants should rarely notice this. "

After brewing, Wang ce specially designed a move for the judges to check whether the coffee mountains of his three filter cups were all equally high, and handed them the coffee to smell, which was different from the other contestants. It was stipulated that the cooking must be finished within 10 minutes. finally, Wang ce cleaned up everything on the table and did not waste a touchdown in 9 minutes 59 seconds.

Wang ze: the hand is the key factor

"the hand is a very critical factor. He pointed out that although all the parameters before cooking can be set, if the hand is unstable, all the parameters will be meaningless, and the unstable hand will lead to different amount of water each time, and the result must be different. "you have to determine the amount of water you inject each time. You have to count the number of circles. These are the details that a professional cook should pay attention to. "

At the time of the competition, Wang ce also showed his unique skill-at the same time, he fluently held a kettle with both hands to flush water, while explaining in English through the microphone, but he first injected water into the left and right two ceramic V60 filter cups with two pots, and then injected water into the middle judge's filter cup, which remained stable and staggered into three filter cups in more than a minute. Beautifully won the unanimous favor of all the judges.

Wang ce shows his hands (Photo courtesy / Dongran Entertainment Industry Co., Ltd.)

This eye-catching method of brewing the pot with both hands at the same time came from Wang ce's coach, 2014 World Brewing Champion ─, Greek Stefanos Domatiotis.

There are several descendants of Stefanos's signature technique, and as soon as this technique is unveiled, experts will know what to do, but Wang ce is the first Asian cook to inherit this technique.

Professional task: to make more people fall in love with coffee

Wang ce believes that one of the lessons of being a professional is to make more people like coffee, so that coffee lovers can establish their own coffee style at home. "how can we develop a bigger market? everyone doesn't have to be the same as us. We may not have to have classes, but what we can do is how to make coffee easier and make everyone willing to try it. "

"what I want to do is to chain up boutique coffee. In addition to small shops with their own personality, I want to start from my vision and concept and run boutique coffee as an enterprise to see if I can do anything interesting. The rise of Blue Bottle coffee in the United States has set off a new wave of high-quality coffee brewed and aged by hand and machine. Wang ce believes that this wave will sweep across the country more vigorously.

After the game, Wang ce was invited to open a shop in Shanghai and Japan, but he, who has planned to open a coffee shop next year, plans to open his first and flagship store in Taiwan as a platform to convey his ideas. "my father's idea is that if you want to open a store, you should open it in Shanghai, but after all, I represent Taiwan to win the championship. Of course, the first store will start from Taiwan. "defining your brand as" FUN Taiwan "is an emotional issue, even if you don't earn more in Taiwan than in Shanghai. "

Wang ce, who won the 2017 World Coffee Cup (Photo courtesy of / Dongran Entertainment Industry Co., Ltd.)

Tips for choosing water for the champion of brewing

Happy to pass on the brewing training to the coffee men who are willing to take part in the competition, Wang ce shared his secret of winning the championship from taking part in the competition with his own water.

"if the water quality is different and the flavor is poor, different parameters are needed. "Wang ce's team decided to use the simplest method, first use the water quality, and then fix all the parameters, such as gouache ratio, grinding degree, water temperature control, etc., and grind it very finely. Once injecting water into the filter cup, the stable hand does not need to turn a few more laps. The coffee powder will pour itself, and he can only pour water into the filter cup." the degree of grinding and the amount of water are the corresponding parameters for brewing, and the brewer injects water into the center of the filter cup according to the degree of grinding. The traditional Japanese hand flushing is relatively rough and requires some disturbance to flip the coffee powder. "

Each cook's technique has suitable water. The water used by Wang ce is neutral and slightly sour. PH6.7?6.8,TDS is about 70ppm (conductivity, salt, calcium, etc., 0?89ppm is strong soft water, some baristas like very clean taste and will use low TDS).

According to the value commonly used by baristas, the TDS of the water quality used by Wang ce is on the high side, so the fine grinding corresponds to the water quality, and then some minerals are used to balance and blend these flavors. This TDS value, coupled with his brewing method and water quality, produces high sweetness and alcohol-sensitive thickness of coffee body fat, and presents a syrup-like texture.

Upstream and downstream contributing author: gu Biling

Article source: upstream and downstream bazaars