The Sweet Taste of Premium Coffee:

Chiayi’s Alishan is famous for its sunrises, sunsets, and “sea of clouds,” and for its world-renowned “high mountain” teas. Now coffee shrubs are starting to appear as well, as a cluster of high-end Taiwanese coffee orchards is taking shape. In fact, when various Taiwanese organizations partnered with the US-based Alliance for Coffee Excellence (ACE) to organize Taiwan’s first Cup of Excellence (COE) competition in 2023, 13 of the top 20 entrants were from Alishan.

The Chiayi branch of the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute has been conducting coffee research since the Japanese colonial era. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Coffee cultivation in Taiwan

Is Taiwan a good place to grow coffee? Yi-tan ­Denise Fang, director of the Chiayi branch of the Taiwan Agri­cultural Research Institute (TARI), tells us that the world’s “coffee belt” spans the Tropics from 23.5 degrees north of the equator to 23.5 degrees south. She goes on to say that coffee and tea grow well under similar conditions, and that a British company first imported a small number of Arabica coffee plants to Taiwan in 1884.

Chang Shu-fen, an associate horticulturist and coffee expert at TARI’s Chiayi branch, says that the Japanese government’s cultivation of coffee in 1902 at what is now the Hengchun Tropical Botanical Garden revealed that Arabica coffee varieties were well suited to Taiwan. The Japanese went on to cultivate coffee seedlings on Mt. Hebao in Gukeng Township, Yunlin County, and later on Mt. Hua and at other locations. However, after World War II there was no market for Taiwanese coffee, and most of the island’s coffee fields were left to run wild.

When international coffee prices heated up in the 1950s, coffee fever again swept Taiwan. The government imported rust-resistant coffee varieties and growing techniques from Hawaii, but when the government later stopped actively promoting coffee cultivation, Taiwanese coffee farming went quiet once again.

Strangely, 1999’s Jiji Earthquake provided local coffee with another opportunity to take root. The government’s promotion during its rebuilding efforts of the One Town, One Product policy, which encouraged every township to promote at least one specialty product or attraction, turned Gukeng, previously a coffee producer, into a ­development hub. When the Yunlin County Government later went on to organize the first Taiwan Coffee Festival, it firmly established Gukeng as “Taiwan’s coffee capital.”

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Taiwan currently has 1,178 hectares in coffee cultivation. Located primarily in Pingtung, Nantou, Taichung and Chiayi, these fields produce more than 1,000 metric tons of coffee beans per year.

Taiwan and ACE organized Taiwan’s first Private Collection Auction in 2021, attracting industry participants from 14 nations including the US’s Blue Bottle, the so-called “Apple of the coffee world.” The results of 2023’s Cup of Excellence competition show that international buyers have come to recognize the quality of Taiwanese coffee.

Our island has succeeded in producing high-­quality coffee in just 20 years largely through the efforts of farmers ­themselves, although the central and local governments have also fostered steady improvements by organizing many competitions and reviews of beans.

In one example of farmers helping themselves, Ali­shan’s growers formed the Chiayi County Coffee Industry Development Association (CCIDA) as a vehicle for sharing information. Hsu Ting-yeh, a member of the CCIDA’s supervisory board and owner of Zhuo Wu Mountain Coffee Farm, argues that the group’s cooperative ethos has improved the county’s coffee quality. When Fang Cheng-lun, owner of the Zou Zhou Yuan coffee estate, was the CCIDA’s chair, the association also arranged coffee matchmaking events and ensured that competition coffees were able to participate in auctions even if they didn’t win any awards. “Hard work leads to opportunities,” says Fang.

Washed, sun-dried, honey-processed… the various ways of removing the coffee fruit from its seeds (“beans”) bring out different flavors in the finished product.

By working together to advance coffee cultivation and processing techniques, Alishan’s coffee estates have made the region a hub for premium Taiwanese coffees.

Coffee consumption

Coffee-drinking culture has also driven improvements to Taiwan’s production of high-quality beans. According to the International Coffee Organization (ICO), Taiwanese consumed 2.85 billion cups of coffee in 2021, an average of 122 cups per person per year.

This Taiwanese love of coffee has had interesting effects on the local coffee industry. Krude C.H. Lin, chair of the Coffee Industrial Alliance of Taiwan (CIAT), notes that 671 Taiwanese hold CQI Q Arabica Grader certifications; we have high per-capita numbers of cafés, cafés that roast their own beans, and both professional and amateur roasters; and our convenience stores carry coffee beans roasted within the last week. Very few other places in the world can say the same.

Lin observes further that Taiwan has been the biggest buyer at the world-famous Best of Panama coffee auction in recent years, and that our leading convenience store chains have launched their own premium coffees, showing that consumers have the palate and means to consume expensive, high-end coffees. Taiwanese coffee is trending in a premium direction and towards coffees with distinctively Taiwanese characteristics.

Taiwanese coffees’ successes in COE competitions highlight the skill of our growers and the quality of their beans. Our excellent transportation infrastructure and the accessibility of our estates make estate visits easy. Travelers who make the effort find the coffees well worth the trip.

Fang Cheng-lun (right), owner of Chiayi’s Zou Zhou Yuan café, brews coffee for a customer

Zhuo-Wu Café owner Hsu Ting-yeh has hit on a novel way of appreciating coffee: serving it like tea, with both aroma cups and drinking cups. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Guo Zhangsheng (right), owner of Gukeng’s Songyue Coffee Manor, has grafted coffee onto common tricalysia (Diplospora dubia), a shrub native to Taiwan, in an effort to create a Taiwanese coffee sustainable in the climate change era.(photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Zou Zhou Yuan

Our circuit of local coffee estates begins with Zou Zhou Yuan in the Tsou indigenous community of Lalauya in Alishan’s Leye Village. A statue of a Tsou warrior stands outside the estate’s shop holding a spear and bearing a hunting knife at his hip, looking like Fang Cheng-lun’s proverbial “battle farmer.”

Fang won the top prize at the 2007 Taiwan Specialty Coffee Evaluation. In 2022, his sun-dried Geisha coffee also won top honors at the Alishan Coffee Evaluation & Assessment and was sold at the accompanying auction for a world-record price of NT$520,000 for five kilograms.

Given Taiwan’s technological prowess, it’s no surprise that Fang uses smart agricultural tech to grow his premium coffees. In just one example, sensors in his fields measure soil temperature, moisture and nutrient levels and report them to an app. He needs only to analyze the numbers to set his field-management strategy, leaving him more time to observe the plants themselves. “I’ve discovered some really interesting things that could change coffee growing in Taiwan.”

Noticing that the leaves and fruits of some of his coffee plants were unusually shaped, he sent them in for DNA testing. The results confirmed that they were from a previously unnamed African variety, which he dubbed So’ngna (“best” in the Tsou language). He believes that continued observation may lead to the discovery of still other varieties, and that the discovery in Taiwan of a brand-new variety is a real possibility.

Fang’s coffee estate fully integrates the entire coffee production process, from field management to bean processing. A visit to Zou Zhou Yuan will show you exactly how premium coffee is made.

According to Krude C.H. Lin, chair of the Coffee Industrial Alliance of Taiwan, Taiwan has exceptionally high per-capita numbers of cuppers and roasters.

Zhuo Wu Mountain Coffee Farm

In 2021, Zhuo Wu Mountain Coffee Farm, located in Chashan Village at the southern end of Alishan Township, sold one pound of its “Sun-dried Geisha” coffee for a record-high unit price of US$500.50 (around NT$30,820 per kilo) at the Taiwan Private Collection Auction.

Hsu Chun-jung, the farm’s 70-year-old owner, grew tea for 37 years before taking his son Hsu Ting-yeh’s advice and switching to coffee after insects damaged his tea plants in 2001.

The elder Hsu excels at field management, and has produced a renowned and high-priced sun-dried Geisha coffee by grafting a Geisha onto a Typica rootstock.

Hsu Ting-yeh worked with a biotech company to install a precision agriculture system that samples the soil, as well as the coffee branches, leaves and fruit, at various times to help improve both the quality and the quantity of the crop. “We know what to do and when to do it,” says the younger Hsu. “It’s very scientific.”

You can sample authentic Zhuo Wu Mountain Coffee Farm coffee at Zhuo-Wu Café in Chiayi City. The café serves its coffee with both an aroma cup and a tasting cup, inviting you to prime your senses before sipping it, making for an almost ritual experience. If you ­order the washed-process Geisha, you’ll find that the nose ­offers up the sweet and sour scents of lemon and ­orange; the flavor hints at berries; and the mouthfeel is soft and full. The spring-water-washed SL34 smells of flowers and tea, tastes of berries, oranges and melons, and has a nice sweetness.

“We’re always experimenting, experimenting nonstop to accumulate information,” says Hsu Ting-yeh. He says that each year’s harvest is filled with anticipation of the new beans: “It’s like winning the lottery!”

Peisu Coffee’s father–daughter team of Mo’o ’Akuyayana (right) and Lupi’i ’Akuyayana have created a unique café deeply infused with Tsou culture.

Peisu Coffee offers mountain views and is much loved by its patrons.

A cup of Tsou culture

Mo’o ’Akuyayana, the father of Peisu Coffee owner ­Lupi’i ’Akuyayana, warmly greets us in front of the shop with a Tsou “’Aveoveoyu!”

Peisu is tucked away behind some houses in the Tsou community of Tfuya in Alishan’s Dabang Village. Lupi’i ’Akuyayana had been living in Taipei for years when she came back home to visit family. Shocked to see how much her father had aged, she decided that Taipei was too far from home and she needed to move back.

When she and her husband opened their coffee business in the village last year, her sisters came back to help her run it. With her father and younger brother also managing the fields, coffee has brought the whole family together.

Lupi’i has infused her café with elements of Tsou ­culture.

According to legend, the god Hamo left two footprints in the mountains in which the Tsou people made their homes. Tfuya, where Peisu is located, sits in the first of these footprints. Lupi’i has put together a guide to the village’s scenic spots so that her customers can learn about Tsou culture while sipping their coffee. The National Development Council has recognized her entrepreneurial drive to open a business in her hometown by designating Peisu a “youth training studio” with the goal of helping other returnees develop their own locales.

Come try a coffee at Peisu for a cozy, culturally infused cup.

Guo Zhangsheng plays around with different grafts in his experimental coffee field. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Songyue Coffee Manor sits 1,200 meters above sea level in the mountains of Gukeng. Sipping a cup of coffee in the estate’s courtyard home is really something special. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)

Songyue Coffee Manor

Winding up Caoling Road to 1,200 meters above sea level, we arrive at Caoling Village in Gukeng, “Taiwan’s coffee capital,” to visit Songyue Coffee Manor.

After parking the car, we climb the path to the Guo family’s courtyard home. “We’re a farming family through and through,” says patriarch Guo Zhangsheng. The family’s experimental coffee field is visible from the courtyard. We can also see Jiananyun Peak and other mountains of the Alishan Range rising in the distance. Sitting here sipping a cup of Taiwanese coffee is really something special!

The 60-year-old Guo has been interested in botany since he was a child and was already grafting plants by the time he was in primary school. He even traveled to Mt. Hebao as a boy just to get a coffee plant that he could attempt to grow at home.

Guo went into coffee-growing full time after the Jiji Earthquake, when Gukeng made coffee part of its identity. When he entered a competition held by the Specialty Coffee Association of America in 2010 and his coffee earned the highest rank among the Taiwanese entrants, he gained confidence in his work. Many more awards have followed.

All three of Guo’s sons have become Q Grader certified as part of the family’s efforts to improve the quality of their beans. These days, every member of the family taste-tests each coffee they harvest to select the most outstanding ones.

“Jiananyun is the nearest peak of the Alishan Range. Its coffees are distinctive for being reminiscent of oolong teas.” When Guo participated in the Ministry of Agriculture’s first ever Taiwan Coffee Assortment & Grading system (TCAGs) event in 2023, his washed-process Geisha was described as having a floral nose and sweet–sour mouthfeel. “It’s like drinking fruit juice, with a mouthfeel so clean it’s almost transparent and wide open to interpretation. The Singaporean judge even wanted to buy some.”

Drinking coffee on a Taiwanese coffee estate lets you experience the brewed essence of a lifetime of passion and dedication. It’s well worth the trip!

The owners of Songyue Coffee are farmers through and through. A few tables on their patio can transform it into an open-air café. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)