Coffee planting techniques: an introduction to coffee growing areas and various coffee production methods

The more people grow coffee, the more economic benefits can be gathered. This is what coffee growers expect, but there are also many sufferings in growing coffee. Let's take a look at the coffee farm of Fang Zhenglun, the "Coffee Prince" of the first Chiayi population.

The mist-shrouded Alishan, with cool air, is a good place for many people to grow alpine tea. The car climbed along the winding mountain road to the slope of 1200 meters above sea level, but there was a different landscape in front of ── rows of coffee trees of the same height bearing ripe fruit, glowing red in the sun. This is the "Zou Zhuyuan" of Leye Village, the coffee farm of Fang Zhenglun, the "Coffee Prince" of the population of Chiayi.

When it comes to experimentalists, it is always reminiscent of the character of "innovation" and "dare to try". It is more appropriate to use these key words to hold Fang's political ethics. In 1991, he began to grow coffee. Just five years later, relying on his own research, he won the first National Coffee Bean Evaluation Competition. His honey beans even scored 86.5 points this year in the CQI (International Coffee quality Evaluation Association), making it into the top 30 coffee in the world, which is the best achievement in Asia.

The youth of Zou nationality starts the second Life Alishan coffee aroma

It is hard to imagine that Fang Zhenglun, who is now famous in the coffee industry, actually did not even drink Brown coffee when he was a student. Although he graduated from the Department of Electrical Engineering, he had to inherit the tea industry because he was the only child in the family. When he was in his early 20s and looking forward to venturing, Fang Zhenglun was sentimentally attached to the colorful life down the mountain, and he envied his peers' generous salary as an engineer. His impetuous heart fell into a calm mountain forest, and he was completely estranged from the life circle of the past, and his heart was not reconciled.

Until once, when Fang Zhenglun randomly picked a fruit to taste in the coffee garden where his father planted it as a landscape tree, he was surprised to find that the fruit not only had no bitter coffee taste, but also had a fruit-like sweetness. An amazing taste, accidentally opened the second life of Fang Zhenglun. Since then, he usually works in his own family and neighboring tea factories, and spends the rest of his time experimenting with coffee.

The coffee garden run by Fang Zhenglun currently plants about 4000 coffee trees, with an annual output of nearly 2000 kilograms of raw beans.

Unlike other people who use bean baking machines to handle raw beans, Fang Zhenglun's bean baking equipment starts with the barbecue network that aborigines are most familiar with. He said with a smile: "at first it was as black as charcoal, and no one dared to drink it, but after crushing it, the taste of the coffee came out." I thought it was amazing, so I wanted to keep trying. "

The strong aroma of coffee aroused Fang's endless curiosity, and he experimented with wok, toaster and even cylinder stir-frying machine used by tea factory. Originally dreary mountain life, because of the emergence of coffee, he rekindled his enthusiasm for life. At that time, there were very few coffee shops in Chiayi, and he often took raw beans to the coffee shop in Tainan to ask them to bake beans and learn how to do them.

In 1996, with an experimental mentality, Fang Zhenglun sent his own washed raw beans to the competition. unexpectedly, he beat 7 or 80 estates in Taiwan to become the champion. The fame of World War I also kindled the career ambition of Fang Zhenglun, and the coffee shop Zou Chuyuan, which took a year to plan, also officially opened in 1998.

Zou Zhuyuan Cafe is well equipped. Fang Zhenglun uses a plug kettle to extract Alishan coffee treated by the sun, which tastes sweet and sour with fermented fruit.

Walk out of the bar station and go to the front line of the exhibition.

"when I say Zou Zhuyuan, in fact, it is a manor where the young Zou people have built their dreams. However, Fang Zhenglun's manor was ravaged by the August 8 storm in the first week of its completion, and the collapsed road blocked the business opportunities of the coffee shop. Recalling the scene at that time, Fang Zhenglun said: "happily opened a coffee shop but turned into an island, like a state of closure." "

However, the fierce wind and torrential rain could not extinguish the burning ambition of the government. Looking at the empty shop all day long, he had an idea. Since the guests were unable to come to the door, he took the initiative to look for customers. During this period, the government held a number of agricultural exhibitions and sales activities in the disaster areas, and Fang Zhenglun took the opportunity to travel north and south to promote his own coffee. Just like a strong wind, the wind blew him, who is used to making coffee behind the bar, into the front-line exhibition site and faced the customers directly.

In the past, Fang Zhenglun, who was introverted and silent, accumulated excellent interpretation skills under the frequent interaction with customers every day. For example, when he found that consumers in the south had a strong taste of coffee, Fang Zhenglun had a vivid argument to persuade them to try medium-and shallow-roasted beans: "I will tell them that only when coffee is lightly roasted can you drink the flavor of the beans themselves." Just like today when you catch bluefin tuna, you must be eating sashimi instead of braising. "

The three colors of black, red and blue, the symbol of the Zaizou nationality, represent the sun, honey treatment, and washing beans, respectively. Fang Cheng-lun, who won numerous awards, also won the Taiwan Coffee Sun Moon Lake Invitational Competition in 1995.

Coffee exploration is endless.

Although he gained a lot of exchange experience during this period, Fang Zhenglun reflected that he spent too much time on promotion and too little time on improving technology. As a result, learning is like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will fall behind, and the ranking of raw beans will decline year after year. This sense of powerlessness, eager for progress but without a clue, came to light only after Fang Cheng-lun went to Pingtung to listen to a lecture by Hawaiian coffee master R.Miguel.Meza: "it suddenly dawned on me that there are so many ways to make coffee!" "

Realizing that there is no limit to learning in the field of coffee, Fang Zhenglun has systematically participated in competitions since 1991, making samples of beans with different drying times. He said, "ranking is no longer important to me. What I want is to refer to the objective score of the competition. To adjust my processing skills. "

Today, Zou Zhuyuan has not only become a place for coffee industry at home and abroad to visit, but also coffee lovers from all over the world. While Fang Zhenglun is busy with coffee farming and shop services, he also actively shares his planting experience in local production and marketing classes. The farmers he coached, Chuang Jiarong and Luo Yucong, also won the champions of the standard washing group and other treatment groups in the national boutique coffee bean competition last year.

Fang Zhenglun said that at that time, he often couldn't find his way to coffee on his own, so he hoped that he would not share it privately, so that more people who were willing to invest in it could quickly get on track. And the more people grow coffee, the more economic benefits can be gathered. Fang Zhenglun hopes that everyone will work together to make Alishan in Taiwan a world-class coffee producing area.