Taiwan’s coffee culture has become a touchstone for quality across the Strait. Several baristas in Shanghai said they are familiar with coffee industry techniques used in Taiwan and that they had received training from Taiwanese professionals.
Coffee industry professionals in Taiwan have won top prizes in various world competitions, including Berg Wu’s (吳則霖) first place in last year’s World Barista Championship in Dublin, Chad Wang’s (王策) third place in last year’s Taiwan Brewers Cup Championship, Lai Yu-chuan’s (賴昱權) first place in the 2014 World Coffee Roasting Championship and Liu Pang-yu’s (劉邦禹) first place at the 2014 World Cup Tasters Championship in Melbourne.
In authenticating craftsmanship and quality in the coffee world, competitions play an important role in helping industry professionals stand out, one Chinese barista told reporters, adding that Taiwan is often discussed enthusiastically among those in China’s coffee industry.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan is recognized for its long tradition in the industry and for the skills and experience of its professionals, the barista said.
Wang Xiaofeng (王曉楓), the owner of a well-known independent Shanghai cafe named Moon Coffee, said Taiwanese entrepreneurs opened the first independent coffee shops in the city three years ago, inspiring locals with their elegant and unadulterated offerings.
The tendency of Taiwanese cafe owners to roast their own beans was eye-opening for residents, who were still used to thinking of Starbucks as the standard, Wang said.
Whenever coffee industry professionals in China gather together and talk about getting into the industry, they inevitably bring up their training at the hands of Taiwanese industry leaders, the barista said, citing world roasting champion Jake Hu (胡元正), latte art champion Van Lin (林東源) and coffee grading master Huang Chun-hau (黃俊豪).
These individuals run cafes, coffee production and distribution companies or training courses in Shanghai, the barista said, adding that their engagement with the industry has made them influential.
Lin, who first began conducting training seminars in China in 2005, said that many of her former students have gone on to run their own coffee shops.
“Taiwanese occupy a huge territory in China’s coffee industry,” Lin said.
Taiwan’s first foray into China’s coffee market was with the 1997 introduction of Ueshima Coffee Lounge, which introduced the concept of serving coffee and breakfast together to the Chinese. The chain later changed its name to Two Coasts Coffee and continued to expand.
Young people now regard chain stores, such as Ueshima, as obsolete, the barista said.
Instead, they look for inspiration in the many independent coffee shops in Taipei that reflect their dreams of running their own unique outlets.
Wang Xiaofeng said he has never been to Taipei, but knows that the city’s small coffee shops have good sources for green coffee beans.
He said he talks to Taiwanese roasters in Shanghai to learn what he can about Taipei’s high-quality cafes.
Taiwan’s interest in coffee developed through the influence of Japan during the colonial period. Taiwan later developed its own unique coffee culture that has received international recognition.
USA Today called Taipei one of the top 10 cities worldwide for coffee in 2012, while the BBC in 2014 recognized the city as one of the six best worldwide for coffee drinkers.
Lin — who has been in the industry for 20 years — said he was apprehensive at first about his ability to excel as a coffee professional, seeing the industry as a Western venture.
However, after traveling widely, Lin said he realized that Taiwan is at the forefront in terms of coffee industry know-how.
The only difference between Taiwan and the West 20 years ago was that Taiwanese had not yet made coffee-drinking part of their everyday routine, Lin said, adding that this difference caused difficulties for Taiwan’s coffee industry professionals.
Lin said Taiwan’s outstanding performance in the industry has also had an impact in Southeast Asia, citing trips to the region during which he was invited to demonstrate his latte art skills or to judge competitions.
Lin said that Taiwan is considered to be an industry leader in Asia in Southeast Asia, where many nations have a high proportion of ethnically Chinese people who are happy to learn from Taiwanese professionals.
Taiwanese photography instructor Wu Ping-tse (吳秉澤), who also operates a reservation-only cafe in Shanghai, said Taiwanese consumers differ from those in China in that they are already familiar with high-quality coffee.
Lin said that for many Chinese going to a cafe is a fashionable thing to do, whereas Taiwanese usually see cafes as places for rest or interaction with others.
“It is rare in Shanghai to see people reading or relaxing in coffee shops like you would see in Taiwan,” he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater