The coffee legend of Mr. Taguchi, the god of Japanese coffee! Taguchi's Contribution to Coffee

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When we talk about hand-made coffee in Japan, as well as important figures in Japanese coffee, Mr. Taguchi is absolutely indispensable. Not only does he have a reputation as "the number one place in the Japanese coffee industry," but his works are also the inspiration of many coffee men. today, the editor will introduce Mr. Taguchi's coffee legend to you.

I don't like esoteric and ambiguous words. In the past, coffee was always regarded as the product of the sensibility of coffee makers, and "roasting" was often covered with a layer of mystery, but this mysticism did not help. Creation requires calm logic of thinking. Lack of logical concepts, empty technology is just the way it used to be.

Taguchi, born in Sapporo, Japan in 1938, used to be an engineer. He dreamed of opening a coffee shop in 1968. He and his wife, Fumiko Taguchi, co-operated the Baja Cafe (Caf é Bach). In 1972, he began to bake coffee beans and traveled to coffee-producing countries all over the world, focusing on hand-brewing and baking. As the head of Baja Cafe, Mr. Taguchi even brought along many descendants of the coffee industry.

Baha Cafe logo

The philosophy of Bach Cafe

Baha Cafe is located in the Tokyo Valley area, which is not a prosperous area. Although many people do not like it when they choose to run a coffee shop here, Taguchi has relied on his insistence on coffee and customer-centered philosophy to create the ideal Baha Cafe in his mind.

But the Baha Cafe business was not smooth sailing from the start. Baha Cafe was formerly SHIMOFUSAYA Cafe. During the SHIMOFUSAYA Cafe period, it opened at 5:30 a.m. every day. It adopted a low-price strategy. The target group was set for the workers in this area. We hoped that they would come here for a cup of coffee before going to the construction site. This strategy was actually quite successful. The coffee shop was full of customers.

However, in the year after opening, the government built a brand new bus lane, and the cafe happened to be within this area, which caused customers to stop, resulting in a significant decrease in visitors. In the face of the blow, Taguchi reconsidered the direction of business and decided to transform into a specialty coffee shop with its own baked beans, hoping to use the sale of self-baked coffee beans to compensate for the reduced revenue due to the reduced number of visitors.

Taguchi protects his wife-- Fumiko Taguchi

After the transformation, Baja Cafe pays attention to the quality of products and the value of the brand, and uses its own baking instead of low-price strategy, hoping to let guests understand the high quality of coffee, they will be willing to spend a higher price to enjoy this cup of coffee in order to maximize the value of coffee.

In order to improve the speed and efficiency of hand flushing, Baja Cafe uses hand-washed filter paper instead of traditional flannel, and distinguishes individual beans according to the degree of baking, allowing guests to choose according to their preferences. In addition, the shop also makes bread and desserts. Taguchi once compared "if coffee and dessert are lovers, then coffee and bread are like husband and wife." The supporting roles of these coffees enrich the level of taste buds, but the supply of Ueda Koukou at West Point is equally exquisite, so as not to cause the countereffect of paying attention to one or the other.

Taguchi's contribution to Coffee

Hand-made coffee

As mentioned earlier, Baja Cafe has changed from flannel filtration to filter paper extraction. Taguchi has been working hard in the field for a long time and put forward the concept of "systematic caffeine" in his 2004 book Coffee, which integrates the details of making a good cup of coffee into a system, breaking the so-called myth of "relying on intuition".

In addition to sorting out the systematic knowledge of hand punching, Taguchi was also involved in the design of the YUKIWA M5 wide-mouth hand punch, which is also a special pot that demonstrates a large number of hand punches in his books. YUKIWA M5 is a crane mouth pot, the biggest feature is that the handle is hollow, there are two small holes at the top and bottom to help dissipate heat, and the lid is hinged to connect the kettle body, so that the lid can not easily fall off, which is very rare in the hand punch pot.

In the Japanese program "what the teacher didn't teach", Taguchi was invited to demonstrate by hand. In particular, he mentioned that after the first steaming, the fresh coffee powder would swell like a hill, while the next water injection should not exceed the upper limit of the height of the first expansion, so as to avoid adding too much water and releasing bitterness. However, the swelling of coffee powder is not only a single factor, the freshness of coffee beans, grinding thickness and baking depth will affect the swelling level. If the coffee powder can not expand to a certain height, you can try to increase the water temperature and slow down the water injection rate.

In 2016, he published a more detailed special book on filter paper hand-made coffee extraction technology: coffee Kanda mouth Care, 40 years of hand-washing persistence of the chain. Proper water temperature, stable water column and the disturbance of drawing the word "coffee" from the center to the outside have become the three basic points of hand-made extraction.

Coffee roasting

Baked beans are introduced in detail in Taguchi's "Coffee Collection" and "Taguchi Care's Fine Coffee Collection". The knowledge of baking beans is elusive to beginners. In fact, baking beans and science are inextricably linked with data. Taguchi also gathered long-term experience in baking beans and jointly developed the Meister bean baking machine with Japanese Daiwa ironworkers.

Taguchi Guard's important works

Taguchi's boutique coffee collection

And the 2004 Coffee Collection, about eight years later, Taguchi published the Collection of Fine Coffee by Taguchi, which is more focused on the boutique field, which is divided into knowledge, technology and practice to describe the introduction to fine coffee, including raw beans, treatment, baking, cup testing and sales. This book was awarded the third time in 2012. Because of its improved content and complete structure, this book has become one of the coffee books that coffee players must collect.

Taguchi's fine coffee collection

Taguchi's coffee equation

Among Taguchi's books,"Taguchi's Coffee Equation" is different from other related books, written in collaboration with Dr. Yukihiro Tanabe, explaining the world of coffee from a scientific point of view. From moisture content, temperature, water powder ratio, gold cup theory to roasting curve, there is no lack of data support, so from a scientific point of view to demonstrate the process from seed to cup of coffee, but also set a precedent for coffee books.

List of works by Mr. Taguchi

2004 The Complete Coffee

2009 Coffee Tasting Guide (Simplified Chinese)

2011 Coffee Basics

2012《Taguchi Mamoru's Fine Coffee Collection》

2013 100 Years of Coffee Fragrance: Kandaguchi's Philosophy of Sustainable Management

2014 Coffee Shop Textbook

2015 Moriko Taguchi's Coffee Equation: The God of Coffee and Doctor of Science Solve the Mystery of Controlling Aroma and Creating Target Taste (co-author: Yukihiro Tanabe)

2015 Cafe Bach Recipes for Delicious Desserts (co-author: Fumiko Taguchi)

2016 Café Bach Filter Paper Hand-brewed Coffee Extraction Technology: Coffee Kanda Gukou, 40 Years of Hand-brewed Persistence!

2017 Taguchi's Talk about Hospitality: Baha Cafe's Popular Service Thinking and Store Management

Taguchi's coffee equation

Legend of Moriko Taguchi

Since 2012, Mr. Taguchi has served as President of the Japan Fine Coffee Association (SCAJ) and Chairman of the Training Committee. The Baha Coffee Group, operated by Mr. Taguchi, has more than 100 storefronts. To control such a large chain, Mr. Taguchi has his own set of management besides coffee expertise.

Now 80 years old, Taguchi not only visits stores across Japan every day, but also rolls up his sleeves and demonstrates the correct way to brew coffee to his employees. In addition, he adheres to the concept of inheriting baking skills. Although his economic life has long been carefree, he still holds classes every week, teaching his skills of more than 40 years of coffee immersion to the students who come to learn without reservation.

Mr. Taguchi once said that "coffee in his hand is the crystallization of sweat". Mr. Taguchi, whose life cannot be separated from coffee, seems to have a mission to carry forward coffee, and his achievements today are precisely because of his attitude and persistence in coffee. Today, Taguchi's coffee legend has not yet come to an end, and it continues to advance towards the ultimate of coffee.

References:

Taguchi's Fine Coffee Collection

100 Years of Coffee Fragrance: Kandaguchio's Philosophy of Sustainable Management

Taguchi's Coffee Equation

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