The path around Kuo's garden is lined by cotton trees. The air is thick with the scents of coffee trees (similar to Jasmine) and lemon grass, which they grow beside the path. There are simply designed stones and wooden benches in the garden, with a nice view. Sitting down, sipping a cup of coffee, one can view the line of hills and the fishing harbor in Chiayi.
Originally Tungshan was better known for producing oranges and longans, but now dozens of households are growing the bean.
Tseng Ching-chiang (
As more farmers emerged in Tungshan, the Tseng's restarted their coffee farming. Their new coffee house has a distinctive Taiwanese style. The coffee beans are dried in a Chinese-style bamboo tray, one used to dry tea leaves. "We roast the coffee beans with woks," said Tseng Chien-nan.
He said his grandfather used to grind coffee with a Chinese mortar and pestle, the kind used for Chinese medicine. There is also an item on the menu called "coffee chicken." Tseng said it was a brick-kiln roasted chicken, but marinated in coffee dregs.
According to statistics from the Taiwan Coffee Association, Taiwan's coffee consumption is growing at a rate of 120 percent annually. There are roughly 10,000 cafes in Taiwan. As for the coffee chains, the biggest chain store, Starbucks has opened 110 branches and net profits of Starbucks in Taiwan is likely to reach NT$200 million this year.
"The younger generation are coffee drinkers and they have exceeded the tea-drinking people now," said Travis Lee, owner of Yeats Cafe in Taipei. He has been running his cafe for eight years and is increasingly facing tight competition, with six other cafes in just a small lane on Siping street.
Currently, according to the Agriculture Bureau of Tainan County Government, coffee farms in Tungshan township comprise an area of about 35 hectares, with 15 households growing coffee. The production amount is still too small (less than 500kg a year) to distribute nationwide.
Also, there is a quality-control problem. From the growing process, to roasting methods, there is plenty of room for improvement.
Shi Li-ling pointed out a common problem for Taiwanese farmers after the country joined the WTO. "The price of agricultural products has become very unstable and they're all very insecure about the future. So they tend to grow this and that altogether. But each farm is very small," Shi Li-lang said out. For example, on land of less than 1 hectare, oranges, longans, ginger and coffee was being grown.
Kuo and Shi's coffee farm is smaller than a hectare and does well to make ends meet. "Making a profit is not the main thing for us. What we are working for is a simple and natural lifestyle, hopefully it will come from our alternative coffee growing," Shi said.
The Tseng family said it was also willing to continue growing coffee. "If this does not make money, I at least hope to pass down my grandfather's tradition to my sons," Tseng said.
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