Every November, Yunlin County is cast into the national spotlight with its Gukeng Coffee Festival, which showcases Gukeng Township’s (古坑) coffee industry, farming history and unique coffee culture. During weekends in every November since 2002, visitors have flocked to the hilly area for a taste of the smooth, mild brews made mostly from Arabica beans, and for a chance to explore the world of coffee in greater depth than ever before.
Now in its 10th year, the festival has this year added a “Taiwan Coffee University” program that will hold classes at Huashan Elementary School to help visitors learn more about coffee and the crop’s evolution in Taiwan, a Gukeng official said.
“We will teach people how to roast coffee beans and how to brew coffee from scratch,” said Sun Wang-tien, head of the agricultural economy department of the Gukeng Township Office.
The new program has three “schools” — the school of agriculture, the school of history and humanities and the school of music — that will give visitors free instruction on topics ranging from how to grow coffee trees to what music goes best with a leisurely cup of coffee, Sun said. Visitors to the festival, running every weekend from last Saturday through to Nov. 24, can also learn about the history of coffee’s development around the world and in Taiwan, and how it is an important part of people’s lives, he said.
“We have found that tour guides and education are the most effective ways to spread the value of a culture,” Sun said.
“Since 2003, quality has been our priority while deciding how to promote our coffee industry and how to highlight the quality of coffee grown by our farmers at the annual coffee festival,” he said.
Every year since then, the township has held contests during the festival to select the best fresh coffee beans produced by local farmers, as well as those from other parts of the country, the best coffee-roasting master and the top coffee-making experts. Through the competitions and the participation of foreign experts invited by the county to share their expertise with local farmers, “our skills and techniques in handling the crop have improved considerably,” said Sun, the man in charge of this year’s coffee festival.
Gukeng is recognized as the nation’s cradle of coffee cultivation. Coffee farming there goes back to the Japanese colonial era and reached its peak between the 1940s and 1960s, before falling off due to high production costs and high prices for the coffee, Sun said. When it was in vogue, Taiwan-grown coffee was mostly drunk at imperial residences in Japan and at homes of senior government officials in Taiwan, he said.
Though the industry went through a dry spell, coffee continued to be planted in the Gukeng area and the industry was revived on a wider scale during the past decade as coffee drinking became fashionable in Taiwan.
Coffee beans are currently planted on 50 hectares of land in Gukeng, a negligible size when compared with coffee farms in South America and Africa.
Therefore, local farmers have been encouraged to focus on growing the highest quality beans possible, Sun said.
That has meant high production costs, which is why Gukeng has eschewed marketing strategies aimed at mass-market coffee shops and instead geared them toward linking high-end coffee to the travel and fine dining sectors, hotels and even bookstores, Sun added.
“We are dedicated to creating an atmosphere conducive to drinking coffee,” Sun said.
Instead of getting a cheap cup of latte, he added, visitors will be served coffee with the unique characteristics of the brewers, and premium pure coffee from local and world-class coffee farms in other countries.
“People are offered many ways to enjoy coffee here,” Sun said.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
NO SHAME IN RETREAT: Hikers should consider turning back if the weather turns bad or if they do not have sufficient equipment, the Taroko park headquarters said Two people died of hypothermia over the weekend while hiking on Hsuehshan (雪山), prompting park authorities to remind hikers to bring proper equipment and consider their physical condition before setting out in the cold weather. Temperatures dropped over the weekend, bringing snow to high altitudes in Shei-pa National Park. One hiker, surnamed Lin (林), who on Friday was traveling with a group of six along the Hsuehshan west ridge trail, lost consciousness due to hypothermia and died, the Shei-pa National Park Headquarters said. On Saturday, another hiker, surnamed Tien (田), in a group of five on the southeast of the west
RSS