Taiwan Coffee Godfather Huang Chongqing: Changsha has a huge market potential for developing boutique coffee

Coffee king Huang Chongqing is using a siphon pot to extract the world's most expensive boutique Colombian Gesa coffee.)

(coffee King Huang Chongqing [right] to exchange ideas on the promotion of boutique coffee culture with Changsha coffee lovers.)

Red net reporter Chen Siyi reporting from Changsha

On December 6th, the 2014 World Barista (barista) competition kicked off in Changsha District in front of the Jiangshen Temple in Juzizhou. The attention of the public, in addition to this world-class wonderful event itself, also focused on a nearly 70-year-old on-site judge-Huang Chongqing, chairman of Taiwan's Billie Coffee Industry. At the invitation of Yang Jing, president of the Changsha Coffee Industry Association, Huang Chongqing parachuted into Changsha with the world's most expensive Colombian boutique coffee (200g coffee equivalent to more than 1000 yuan, NT $6000). During the conversation, Huang Chongqing said, "Changsha has a huge market potential for the development of boutique coffee."

Huang Chongqing is low-key and cautious, and it is rarely exposed in the media, but everyone in Taiwan who has operated coffee for more than 30 years knows this coffee veteran. Indonesia's Mantenin was first introduced to Taiwan by him and has become a household name of top-grade coffee today. Huang Chongqing leads Taiwan's coffee industry market from scratch, from small-scale industries to the development of high-quality products. The nearly 70-year-old still has no plans to retire. He is Hale and hearty to share with you the story of the 38-year-old coffee kingdom.

When he first arrived in Changsha, the cold weather did not counteract the coffee godfather's enthusiasm for the Changsha coffee industry market. The day after he got off the plane, he and his eldest son Huang Weilun held a close meeting with more than 20 coffee lovers in Changsha to test, taste and share the knowledge of fine coffee at the Moungar423 Cafe. Many professional coffee lovers let Huang Chongqing give a thumbs-up to the development of Changsha boutique coffee. He said that although the development of boutique coffee in Beijing, Shanghai and other first-tier cities has gradually transformed into maturity, due to excessive competitiveness, labor costs will gradually increase, and the difficulty of development will gradually escalate. However, Changsha, Xiamen and other cities have great potential with the promotion of coffee culture and professional coffee knowledge. "I believe that in less than ten years, fine coffee will be fully promoted in Changsha. People's concept of coffee will not only stay on the basis of fancy coffee with a lot of milk and saccharin. Changsha has a huge market potential for the development of fine coffee."

Huang Chungking took out the boutique geisha coffee he brought from Taiwan (also known as "Gesha" or "Rose Summer"), extracted it in a siphon coffee pot and shared it with you. Gesa coffee comes from Ethiopia's "Gesa Mountain", so it is called "Gesa" coffee. In 2005, Gesa Coffee beat heroes from all over the world in the SCAA (American Fine Coffee Association) competition, winning the title of number one in the world, and won the world championship again in 2006 and 2007. It has been as sweet and sweet as lemon and strawberry, and its high price has become popular all over the world in recent years. According to Huang Chongqing, the boutique Gesa is currently the most expensive coffee in the world, with a market price of 1182 yuan / 200g. In the fragrance of this expensive coffee, a world of coffee that we have never seen before slowly unfolds to us.

Huang Chongqing, who was born in Kinmen County in 1950, has a deep relationship with Indonesia. His father, Huang Sichuan, emigrated to Indonesia from Kinmen in his early years, reclaimed land to grow coffee, had a successful career, and his friends and relatives joined the Indonesian coffee industry one after another. In order to meet his father who went abroad to Indonesia when he was young, Huang Chongqing set foot in Indonesia in 1977, and since then, he has been inextricably bound to coffee. When he returned to Taiwan from Indonesia, Huang Chongqing founded Bili Coffee Industry Co., Ltd., which has become the most established coffee import and export company in Taiwan. Since then, Indonesian Mantenin coffee was first introduced to Taiwan by Huang Chongqing and has become a household name of top quality coffee today.

"everyone has a different 'soul coffee' that belongs to him at different stages, and each stage will pursue a better taste of the coffee, and the taste and taste of each cup of coffee will have different tastes and different souls according to the intention of the barista. For me, the 'Soul Coffee' that first brought me into the coffee world was Indonesia's Mantenin. " A Mantenin coffee bean with a strong aroma led Huang Chongqing into his coffee world and has been unable to extricate itself ever since. While many people's impression of coffee still lingers on various brands of instant coffee, or the misconception that "glossy deep-roasted coffee is good coffee," Huang Chongqing has opened up a different coffee market in Taiwan.

From the beginning, due to the lack of understanding of coffee in Taiwan, 15-18 tons of boutique coffee beans could not be sold in a year. Two partners of Billie Industries blamed Huang Chongqing for being a "fool" with no market vision and withdrew their shares one after another. Huang Chongqing alone supported Billie Industry. At that time, Huang Chongqing, which was one of the few people in Taiwan and only supplied raw materials for coffee in Kinmen, suffered a lot in those days when coffee was a luxury, imports had to pay high tariffs, the market was small and profits were limited. But with his love of coffee, he never gave up the industry.

In order to provide better quality coffee to customers, Huang Chongqing flew to Indonesia as soon as he had time to learn about coffee cultivation and production, and finally invested in coffee gardens and signed a long-term partnership. to ensure quality assurance at every step from harvest, baking to finished product packaging and entry into the market, and to enable coffee groups in Taiwan to drink high-quality coffee. After 37 years of hard work, he has built his own coffee kingdom. Billie has become one of the most popular high-end coffee in Taiwan. Billie Blue Mountain Coffee and Sulawesi Star also won the highest gold medal in the 2000 Taiwan Coffee Competition. In addition to roasting factories and outlets in Taiwan, Billie Coffee has also expanded to Shanghai, Xiamen, Hong Kong, America, Australia and other places. Billie Coffee was even rated as the number one brand of Chinese coffee by Han Huaizong, the author of Coffee and an expert in Coffee.

Recalling the establishment of the coffee kingdom in 37 years, Huang Chongqing concluded that in the first decade, what he did was the trade of coffee raw beans, in the second decade, he began to do the processing and packaging of coffee, and in the third decade, what he did was the promotion and popularization of fine coffee. Over the next decade, he plans to focus on the combination of coffee culture and art. "Coffee, tea and cocoa are called the three major beverage plants in the world. In fact, coffee is a kind of beneficial drink that has the same health effect on the human body as tea. But in Asia, most people's misunderstanding of coffee makes the popularization and promotion of coffee still stay at the stage of rapid consumption of drinks such as Starbucks and Costa, and does not form a cultural trend!" Huang Chongqing hopes to return to his hometown of Kinmen and set up a coffee museum so that more people can really understand coffee and coffee. "combine coffee with traditional Chinese culture, so that coffee is no longer a product of Western culture, and let it carry forward in China like tea culture."