Gentleman's Baking House: Ito Atsushi's flagship Alishan Boutique Cafe in Taiwan

A silly Japanese dreamed of pushing Alishan coffee all over the world.

Taiwan's coffee market has been booming in recent years, importing about 16000 metric tons of raw coffee a year, and producing only more than 700 metric tons of beans locally, accounting for only 4% of the domestic raw coffee supply. With such a small amount of production, is there a chance to make a brand? When coffee-loving Japanese Tomoto Ito visited Taiwan, after drinking Alishan coffee, he was obsessed with this taste and decided to give up his job in a Japanese coffee shop and come to Taiwan to start a business, bringing Alishan coffee to Japan and the world.

Love coffee and keep thinking about Alishan coffee

This month, Ito opened a shop in Tianmu, Taipei, called Good Man Roaster (Gentleman Bakery), which specializes in Alishan coffee from Taiwan. He is in his early thirties, his head is shaggy, he is not fluent in Chinese, he speaks foolishly, but he looks serious and solemn when he makes coffee.

When he was in Japan, Ito was a professional coffee cup tester and stayed at Starbucks and Hachong Coffee Shop. He heard that the nearest coffee farm to Japan was in Taiwan. when he visited Taiwan in 2002 ○○, he didn't know Chinese at all, so he specially asked a Japanese travel agency to contact the coffee farm in Taiwan. He went to the coffee farmer's garden in Alishan alone and drank Arabica coffee from Alishan, thinking about the taste of lemon black tea.

After returning to Japan, he also kept in touch with a coffee farmer and mulberry in Alishan, but after a while he heard that Lin Sang had given up growing coffee because of his livelihood. He is bored. Alishan coffee is good. Why do not many Taiwanese know that he, who loves coffee, decided to bring Alishan coffee to Japan and to the world.

His friends think he is stupid enough, but his wife admires him to be pragmatic. Only his boss supported him and even said to him, "A 30-year-old man should go overseas if he has a chance." "

Come to Taiwan to start a business and promote Alishan coffee in local steelmaking

Three years ago, Atsushi Ito quit his job in Japan and went to Alishan to buy coffee beans and communicate with the aboriginal accent and Taiwanese mandarin of coffee farmers in his not fluent Chinese. Later, Li Gaoming of the Tropical Dance Coffee Manor felt his sincerity and decided to sell him three kilograms of coffee beans first. Li Gaoming's Alishan coffee beans are of good quality and were ranked 11th by the American Fine Coffee Association, but a kilogram of raw beans costs more than 1,000 yuan, and the price is three times higher than that of ordinary coffee beans.

Alishan coffee beans bought by Benedictine Ito do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers, and because in the high mountains, there is a big temperature difference between morning and evening, which makes the coffee beans have a flavor similar to lemon black tea. After buying raw beans, Ito uses the method of shallow baking to make the unique flavor of Alishan coffee more prominent.

"at that time, I wanted to brand Alishan coffee in Taiwan and sell it to Japan, but I was enthusiastic, but I didn't have a job. He handed out flyers at Songshan Airport in the morning. The Japanese always introduced Taiwan's Alishan coffee. On average, he handed out more than 200 leaflets a day, and rented a small space to sell Alishan coffee at the airport in the afternoon.

The airport staff did not look good when they saw him, and Japanese businessmen or tourists who came to Taiwan also thought he was strange. But he continued to explain Alishan coffee, and gradually, the Japanese community began to know that there was a brand of "Alishan coffee" in Taiwan. Cui Tzu-fang, commissioner of Taiwan's Creative Design Center in Japan, said that for a while her Japanese friends told her, "there is an Alishan coffee in Taiwan that tastes good, and it is sold by a Japanese." "

Brand management attaches importance to product packaging

In addition to buying coffee beans in Alishan and promoting Alishan coffee at the airport, Takeshi Ito attaches great importance to product packaging. He worked with Japanese designers to design a series of packaging of coffee beans, which is quite textured, and is gradually accepted by some Taiwan channels and coffee shops. Began to enter his Alishan coffee beans. Speaking of Taiwan's coffee, Ito said in his few Chinese: "Taiwan's coffee is very delicious, but the product packaging is really not good-looking." "

Recently, Atsushi Ito opened a coffee roaster in Tianmu and bought a set of coffee bean roaster as a base for him to promote Alishan coffee. At the end of this month, Songyan Eslite can also buy his Alishan coffee. The goal of bringing Alishan coffee to Japan and to the world does not seem so silly. Clothing stores and department stores in Osaka, Japan, can buy Alishan coffee. Next year, Ishedan department store in Malaysia will also see Alishan coffee.

"Good Man Roaster by Alisan Coffee" is the brand name set by Atsushi Ito this year. The brand's logo has a little boy sitting on a chair. Ito's child, who is more than two years old, said foolishly, "I hope my son can also run this brand in the future, continue to drink coffee, and continue to bring Taiwan's Alishan coffee to Japan and to the world." "