Man walks through 50 countries looking for best coffee beans to promote coffee when career

Ye Zefan operates the machine in the coffee room.

Fuzhou News Network, July 23 (Fuzhou Evening News reporter Chen Xinfei / interviewee Ye Zefan) Ye Zefan is in his early forties, with ordinary appearance and ordinary clothes. He doesn't know how to drive and is used to riding electric bikes everywhere, just like countless working-class people on the streets of Fuzhou. But when he walked into his office, there was melodious jazz, with the aroma of pipes and cigars, and fine wine, coffee and tea. He used to be a cook and said that the only way to judge a cook's cooking ability is to examine how they use salt. He is the president of Fujian Coffee Industry Association. He once lived in Italy and later returned to China to trade coffee beans. He likes to recommend iced coffee to people. Even if you order hot coffee, he will accompany a cup of ice water.

"Coffee, tea, honey, hot will cover the impurities, ice will expose the impurities. If you add ice to something, you can tell the good from the bad. " Ye Zefan said. It is his philosophy to treat all steaming things with a cold eye.

"I have tetracycline teeth, and they won't let me ride."

Ye Zefan has a book wall in his office, half of which are about coffee. Green plants are planted in the exquisite coffee distillation bottles lined up on the windowsill. On the other wall is a huge map of the world's coffee bean plantations, recording the footprints of the owner's purchase of coffee beans over the past decade. Ye Zefan calls himself a "bean hunter".

Big entrepreneurs in Europe tend to be approachable. Their grandparents are in this business, and generations have accumulated not only money, but also corporate culture. Nowadays, many people are apt to talk about doing a hundred-year-old career, but few can really keep their cool. I want to be a tree grower, and my predecessors will plant trees and posterity will enjoy the cool. In the future, I will send my daughter out of China to study food and let her be the successor. "

He is busy every day, sleeping only three or four hours, but he insists on playing football once a week. Born in 1973, he came to Fuzhou from Jianou at the age of 16 and went to Florence, Italy at the age of 20 to learn to cook western food. At that time, he received a weekly salary, spent as much money as he had, and never worried about the future. "the Italians are very enjoyable. I play with them. They said that unlike the Chinese, the Chinese earned money and saved it and sent it back to China. But I am from the countryside. I have tetracycline teeth. They won't let me play golf or ride a horse. In the past, the buying and selling of livestock depended on whether their teeth were good or not. Foreigners also look at your teeth when they see whether you are healthy or not. I told them that I was in good health and could do any sport. "

"my friend drank my coffee and dared not touch it for ten years."

In 1999, Ye Zefan returned home. At first, he didn't want to stay in Fuzhou. An elder gave him a copy of "Don't remember Mindu", which introduced many local anecdotes from Fuzhou. After reading it, he fell in love with Fuzhou. He also found that all the cafes in Fuzhou were owned by Taiwanese at that time. He thought that there would be more and more cafes in the future, so he began to understand coffee and try to import coffee beans.

"I wanted to promote Italian espresso (espresso) in Fuzhou, so I made a cup for my friend. At that time, he drank and did not speak, but it took a long time to tell me that it was such a cup that he dared not touch coffee for ten years. Someone else came to my cafe and asked if they had soy milk Youtiao. I understand that if you want to sell coffee, you have to popularize coffee, so you started a training course for baristas in 2003, and now you have trained more than 3000 people. " He works as a sales channel for himself by running a training course. Today, these baristas are distributed all over the country, and his coffee beans are well known to more people.

There are nearly 1000 cafes in Fuzhou. Is the coffee bean business easy? He replied: "many people have a dream of opening a coffee shop, but the reality is very cruel. Those who can't sell 100 cups of coffee a day will lose money." This kind of cafe accounts for 70% in Fuzhou, but people who want to open it still keep it one after another. My beans are only sold to people who understand. If he makes them unprofessionally, it will affect my reputation. "

"Coffee is just a drink, but promoting coffee is a lifelong career."

Ye Zefan traveled all over the world to find "beans" and traveled to more than 50 countries. Everywhere he goes, he likes to buy a hat with local characteristics, and has a lot of interesting and adventurous experiences, such as in Colombia. In the 1980s and 1990s, Medellin in Colombia became the "most unsafe" city in the world because of its notorious drug cartels, and there are still remaining drug trafficking forces. But it is like spring all year round, the climate is pleasant, and it has unique conditions for growing coffee beans. After arriving in Medellin, Ye Zefan was protected by an armed team equipped with M16 automatic rifles to buy coffee beans in order to prevent kidnapping.

In addition to buying and selling "beans", Ye Zefan also took part in barista competitions around the world to introduce the event to Fuzhou. "I designed a LOGO for the classroom, which is a key and opens a door." In his description, the promotion of coffee is a career he has worked hard for all his life. But when asked what coffee meant to him, he replied, "Coffee is just a drink to me." He repeatedly stressed that he was a farmer and knew how bitter the farmers who grew coffee beans were. "it's like growing oranges all over the village, but no one knows how to make cartons. I'll make cartons, pack the oranges and sell them. "

Source: Fuzhou Evening News