[quote=“SlowRain”]
Okay, I can go to Huo Yuan Jia this Wednesday (weather permitting) .[/quote]
Nice. Let me know how you like it. They might be able to get you “green” beans. They have a VIP card which gives a decent discount if you’re a regular. If you’re interested in comparing different beans, the owner is known to give free samples with the purchase of a cup of coffee 
Stanley and Lulu are like that, too, but not Retro/The Factory or Orsir. I think the more commercial ones, or the ones with heavier ties to the US or Europe, are less likely to give anything for free. There’s a rather prominent coffee guy in the UK who wants cafe owners to stop giving out free coffee because it sends what he things to be the wrong message. He’s trying to convince people that coffee is some sort of profound experience and that giving stuff away free cheapens the image. I guess he doesn’t want people to know how cheap a cup of good coffee can really be.
Pretty cheap if you only pay the labourers $3 a day, right?
That is true, but even Fair Trade beans can still be reasonably priced. It’s the excessive renovations, the latest machines, and the expensive rent that make up a great deal of the price of a cup of coffee. Labor is a necessary and acceptable component though.
The funny thing is Fair Trade is now the whipping boy of the specialty coffee world. They say it’s not enough. They like to brag about how much more they pay for their beans. And there’s a certain kind of customer that just eats all that up.
I suppose I know what you mean. Coffee chic/snobbery. Rent always eats up profit, I aggree.
Still would like to think I’m not ripping off the labourers. That they get a fair deal.
I went to Huo Yuan Jia this afternoon. I was surprised to learn they have 5 locations, 4 in Taichung and one in Puli. The coffee I had was a dry-processed Ethiopian. I’m not sure if it was roasted too light or if it was the way it was brewed (automatic drip), but it had a weird taste to it. However, he poured it over ice, and did it ever work nicely as an iced coffee. It’s a nice, new, clean place (cleanest bathrooms I’ve ever seen in a coffee shop in Taiwan), and he offers free Wi-Fi. I think next time I’ll either try a darker roast or else ask him to do a manual drip or syphon brew. The only think I noticed is that their coffee was pretty expensive by the half-pound bag.
Two of their other locations are 242 Ying Cai Road and 227 Wu Chuan West Road, Section 1.
[quote=“SlowRain”]I went to Huo Yuan Jia this afternoon. I was surprised to learn they have 5 locations, 4 in Taichung and one in Puli. The coffee I had was a dry-processed Ethiopian. I’m not sure if it was roasted too light or if it was the way it was brewed (automatic drip), but it had a weird taste to it. However, he poured it over ice, and did it ever work nicely as an iced coffee. It’s a nice, new, clean place (cleanest bathrooms I’ve ever seen in a coffee shop in Taiwan), and he offers free Wi-Fi. I think next time I’ll either try a darker roast or else ask him to do a manual drip or syphon brew. The only think I noticed is that their coffee was pretty expensive by the half-pound bag.
Two of their other locations are 242 Ying Cai Road and 227 Wu Chuan West Road, Section 1.[/quote]
Thanks for the info!
How the company is set up is there is a guy who goes to Africa for beans and what not. This guy came up with the name but the shops are owned by different owners. The main guy probably owns some shops…The owner of the shop you went to isn’t the main guy, though. I’m not sure if you met the shop owner or his employee. The shop owner is the guy to talk to. Tell him about the flavors you’re interested in and he will recommend different kinds of beans. He is into drinks in general and particularly in coffee; in fact, he’s working on getting a license to teach drink mixing…
Yeah - the owner has talked about that bathroom with me before. It wasn’t cheap (forgot how much).
They also have South American coffee, which I think is stronger, but I prefer the African stuff, especially the beans from Kenya.
Yeah, he explained the ownership structure to me a bit. I think the guy who does the roasting and traveling owns the Ying Cai Road shop and one other one. The guy I talked to today was Steven, and it sounds like he’s the owner of that one. The Puli one has a local owner, so I’m not sure which other one is owned by the original guy.
I’ve usually stuck to Ethiopian and Central American coffees because they’re the ones I can afford. Kenya has always been out of my price range. I can give it a try in a coffee shop sometime, but I usually only try beans that I know I’ll be able to buy and roast at home.
One thing that bothered me a bit was the shop’s focus on Geisha. Geisha is a varietal from Africa that, unremarkable in its homeland, has done very, very well in Central America. However, these guys were selling Geisha from Africa at ridiculous prices just because it was Geisha. I think they’re trying to sell it to people may have heard of Geisha and its reputation, but who don’t know that it’s the Central American stuff that has the unique taste.
Just a question, could you guys identify the different breeds of coffee beans or coffee from different areas in a blind taste test? Because I have trouble differentiating, although I can tell the different level of roast or what is a good or bad brew.
Provided it’s not roasted too dark, I should be able to pick out a South American Geisha. Other than that, blueberry is usually a flavor characteristic of Ethiopia, but I’m not sure which varietals. Everything else for me would pretty much be indistinguishable. I may be able to pick out an obvious flavor sometimes, but certainly not region or varietal. At that point I’d just be saying whether I liked it or didn’t like it and maybe a half-ass reason why. However, everything pretty much tastes the same if you roast it dark.
Rubber is supposedly a characteristic of Robusta, but I don’t have any experience with it.
What bout kilimanjaro? Its been a fav cup of brew for me in Taiwan.
Called Keh Li Mund , you tried it?
Actually I can taste the difference between arabica and robusta, but thats about it at the moment.
hA MY coffee taste buds are even simpler. It falls only in two categories:
GOOD or NOT GOOD.
If GOOD< then i will order it again . IF NOT GOOD, then i wont.
Im the same with wine.
Yay or Nay
Talked to Stanley today at Sweet Café who I think said he’d try to get some Fair Trade beans… 
[quote=“trubadour”]
I’ve heard that Café Lulu is shut down and only roast batches of 5kg on request. Would be a shame if that were the only place to get fair-trade beans from. 5kgs is doable though, I suppose.[/quote]
I asked Stanley if Cafe Lulu was still open or if they only did roasting now. He said they’re still open. I think you may have Cafe Lulu confused with another cafe. The one I’m thinking of, linked to in the very first post of this thread, is a couple blocks south of Jinhua N. Rd.
another poster here told me they were closed
good thing kopi luwak is not so common in taiwan. I say FREE THE CIVETS
I have never had Kopi Luwak, nor do I ever want to. By all accounts it’s a gimmick coffee anyway. The hoopla is all about the rarity and method, not about the taste. None of the shops I’ve mentioned here would even think about selling it.
I totally echo your sentiments. I didnt have any even when recently in Jakarta.
And i wont now with the way the civets are treated. Shameful.
Stanley (Sweet Cafe) has a really interesting iced coffee. He brews it for 24 hours in one of those slow-drip towers, then he puts it in the fridge for about a week. It has a smokey, alcohol-like flavor. I had something like it first at a coffee shop in Fengyuan, but Stanley’s is less bitter than that one. It’s worth it just to try it.