Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam: Coffee culture in Asia
Posted by TheShot on 05 Nov 2009 | Tagged as: Café Society, Foreign Brew, Machine, Quality Issues
Publications frequently run out of ideas, which is why the Wall Street Journal seems to be jacked on coffee articles of late. (But don’t worry — we have no plans to tell you what investments to have in your portfolio.) Just two days after making the ridiculous assertion that Illy is taking on Starbucks, the Journal published a more thoughtful piece on Asia’s “best” coffee: Ground Rules – Asia’s Best Coffee – WSJ.com.
Fortunately it’s nothing like America’s Best Coffee — one of coffee’s greatest product-naming let-downs. The article highlights the history of Taiwanese coffee culture, making mention of siphon pot coffee and last year’s salty coffee fad. The article also offers small sections on coffee culture in Japan, Malaysia, and Vietnam — offering glossaries on the coffee in each country and brief tips on where to find a decent cup.
5 Comments »
on 07 Nov 2009 at 6:09 pm +00:00T 1.keith said …
Chronicle just published an article on peerless’ history. Would love to hear your thoughts on a local company that though haven’t had many memorable cups from are still the standout coffee for cyrus and gary danko?? No need to reiterate your thoughts on restaurant coffee though … i work at foreign cinema and we rely on roma. . .
on 08 Nov 2009 at 12:12 am +00:00T 2.TheShot said …
Yes, we caught that article on Peerless Coffee.
It’s hard to say what ruins espresso shots more: Peerless Coffee, or the kind of establishment that decides to save a few bucks by serving Peerless Coffee. We recently listed Peerless as one of our forboding signs that bad espresso is ahead.
on 01 Nov 2010 at 7:37 am +00:00T 3.Enrico said …
Indonesia have a lot of distinctive coffee culture all across the provinces. I wonder what’s preventing major regional mass media to cover those places?
on 01 Nov 2010 at 8:26 am +00:00T 4.TheShot said …
Good question, Enrico. We believe there’s almost a sort of subtle stereotype when you’re considered a coffee producing nation versus when you are considered a coffee consuming one. The presumption is that coffee producers don’t have a sophisticated coffee palate.
Now we’ve experienced some of the weaker espresso standards in Hawaii, for example — an example that might back up that stereotype. But one of our most memory coffee experiences also took place there.
We know we would enjoy reading more about Indonesian coffee from a consumer perspective.
on 02 Nov 2010 at 4:19 am +00:00T 5.Enrico said …
To get a “real deal” perspective on the “coffee scene” (if that’s even a correct phrase), you might want to ask/e-mail Mr. Toni Wahid (www.cikopi.com). He’s a presence here, I mean, REAL presence. His site is mainly in Indonesian language.
Just a few years ago Indonesia established SCAI (Specialty Coffee Association of Indonesia – http://www.sca-indo.org/). They’re now actively engaging in activities and events to “…to promote and improve the quality of Arabica coffee grown in Indonesia”. This includes the first coffee auction in Indonesia (http://www.cikopi.com/2010/10/lelang-kopi-pertama-di-indonesia/), holding Indonesia Barista Competition already for a few years now (http://www.barista-indonesia.org/2011/), holding coffee discussions, etc.
Why the “arabica” part is so important? Well because the majority of coffees here are robusta, to fill the really large market of instant coffees here. Many of them are mixed with corn… So to increase volume. So drinking some off-the-shelve, instant coffees, you can see the tiny bits of corn…
And to create coffees that are synonymous with quality beans etc, well you go the arabica way. In Indonesia we got roasters who are already well established for maybe nearly a century, a kind of family business. Some like the Aroma Coffee factory, kept the coffee for 5 to 6 years before further processing. Other roasters can market their roasted beans days after roasting. So it’s very diverse.
And ironically, all this writing above is created by a person who doesn’t have a single machine aside from his grinder, haha…