Coffee Man Story: the first Chinese to win the highest ranking in the World Coffee Competition

"when you drink a good cup of coffee, this cup of coffee has gone through too many steps. As a barista, every step is perfect. Drinking coffee will be like having a beautiful dream." the protagonist of this article is Jiang Chengzhe, the creator of this dream.

Interest is the best teacher. Like many entrepreneurs, Jiang Chengzhe has been fascinated by coffee since he was very young. he was openly brewing coffee in the classroom when he was in high school. while telling his friends and classmates about each kind of coffee, although he is still a student, he is already a regular customer in the coffee shop around his home.

After going to university, the relatively relaxed and open environment of the university allows Jiang Chengzhe to devote his energy completely to his interests. Jiang Chengzhe is a chemistry department of Tsinghua University in Taiwan. Slightly cold or even scary chemistry has not become the gap between Jiang Chengzhe and coffee. He soon found the commonness between the two. He said: "every coffee roasting and brewing process seems to me to be a chemical experiment. The temperature of the whole process, the fineness and concentration of coffee beans all affect the balance of the chemical formula." a slight difference in each element involved in it will make such a chemical experiment a completely different product, as a researcher and a coffee lover at the same time. It is necessary to integrate the scientific rigor into the roasting and brewing of coffee, and adjust the parameters of each link, so that the final coffee can show high-quality and diversified results in taste. "

The wonderful college time was coming to an end, and most of the students around Jiang Chengzhe chose to take a job or join the institute for further study. At this time, Jiang Chengzhe had already outlined the embryonic form of his future in his heart. I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to build my own business brand. I want to contribute the ideas I have accumulated over the years to the world, so he took the initiative to postpone graduation. During this period, he took an elective course in e-commerce and served as the president of the Business study Society.

After graduating from college and doing military service, Jiang Chengzhe went to work as a project manager in a Taiwan-funded company in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. Two and a half years later, he chose to leave, during which time he had obtained PMP certification as a US project manager. In his eyes, starting a business is a process of rising abruptly based on accumulated strength, and these experiences are all accumulated for his own future.

Everything is difficult at the beginning, Jiang Chengzhe is also confused in the initial stage of starting a business, and he is also worried about how to realize the stage from 0 to 1 of his career. In the six months when he was looking for entrepreneurial inspiration, Jiang Chengzhe once saw a coffee shop with a more ordinary business condition. He had an idea that he was willing to join the coffee shop to help improve its operation, and then thought about how to develop a broader path from the coffee field. But after waiting for 10 days, the store owner did not respond. This incident thoroughly inspired his personality of not admitting defeat and was determined to start his own coffee business!

From then on, Jiang Chengzhe confirmed his idea of working on his own. he returned to Taiwan to learn from his predecessors in the coffee industry, when he met an important person in his life, Mr. Han Huaizong, the author of Coffee Studies. Teacher Han's appearance let Jiang Chengzhe know that his understanding of coffee is still too much on the surface, and the kingdom of coffee and treasures are waiting for him to explore and study. The meeting between the two men became an important turning point in his career. In the following days, Jiang Chengzhe was determined to relearn coffee from scratch, and he began to study, experiment and sum up again and again. The purpose of all this is to create a cup of coffee that can be liked by consumers and accepted by the market.

After a period of study and experience, Jiang Chengzhe took the barista license certification, he repeatedly decided to come to Shanghai, he felt that boutique coffee has a huge market potential in mainland China. He began to set up his own brand OPIKR, and Shanghai is an ideal starting point for his career.

The road of every entrepreneur is difficult, and Jiang Chengzhe is also on such a path. He spent two months designing trademarks, building websites and writing product solutions. On top of this, he also spent a lot of time baking coffee, testing coffee, and even experienced the danger of roasting coffee leading to a fire house. Although it was dangerous and hard, Jiang Chengzhe himself admitted that he enjoyed this state. He felt that the road to his dream was full of opportunities. As Forrest Gump said, life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what the next taste is. "

In order to achieve further success in coffee roasting, as well as to give his brand Oak more influence, Jiang Chengzhe won the championship as a dark horse in the WCE (WorldCoffeeEvents) World Coffee roasting Competition in Taiwan in 2013. In the same year, as a representative of the Taiwan Division, he went to France to participate in the WCE World Coffee roasting Competition, and won the runner-up of the first coffee roasting competition! This was an absolutely sensational event in the coffee industry at that time, and no Chinese has ever won such a high ranking in the World Coffee Competition!

Announcement of the winner of △ 2013 World Coffee Roasting Competition (Chen-Che Chiang) at that time

Relevant reports in South Korean media at that time after △ won the award.

Jiang Chengzhe does not want his role to be limited to the blunt roles of coffee roaster and manager of coffee companies. what he wants most is to be a pioneer in promoting the popularization of coffee culture in the mainland. In mainland China, the promotion of coffee culture is still barren. He hopes that his hard work can promote the vitality of this wasteland, so that more and more people like coffee. Coffee is what he would most like to see. Therefore, Jiang Chengzhe can be seen at various domestic coffee-related event summits.

△ Jiang Chengzhe delivered a speech at the organization activities related to coffee in China.

As a judge in the 2015 Brazilian COE Competition, △ Jiang Chengzhe is grading the contestants' works.

People who know Jiang Chengzhe are moved by his dedication and love for coffee. We also wish him to continue to weave beautiful stories that belong to him and coffee.