Driving along the meandering mountain road of Fuxing Township, Taoyuan City, at approximately 44.3km point along Luoma Highway (County Road 118), you will see a large sign adorned with indigenous decoration indicating your destination. The entrance to Sinyuan Magao Bai Ji Sha Coffee Estate has an installation art featuring a coffee cup and coffee beans, which is a good spot to start taking photos for memories.
Introduction
Chen Duan-yu, owner of Sinyuan Magao Bai Ji Sha Coffee Estate warmly welcomes visitors and brings them to nearby coffee trees to introduce the various species of coffee and their flavors. After a fascinating farm tour, visitors will return to a café in the estate to drink a cup of pour-over coffee or experience roasting coffee beans with a ceramic roaster, immersing in the mesmerizing aroma of coffee.
Speaking of how Sinyuan Magao Bai Ji Sha Coffee Estate was established, Chen said she was previously a chef at a hotel’s coffee department and had moved permanently to Fuxing Township after her marriage. As she was unable to find a satisfactory flavor despite trying the coffee beans planted by many farmers, she decided to grow coffee herself. Having planted coffee, she wanted to allow more people to learn about coffee and the coffee flavor that can only be found locally in Fuxing Township, which is why she established the farm to promote coffee.
To allow more people to learn about coffee species, Chen not only planted Arabica variety SL34, she also planted a variety of coffee species, including Gesha, Ethiopia native variety, purple leaf, Robusta and Liberia. Visitors can learn to distinguish between the species from the appearance of coffee trees, their leaves and even the shape of their fruits.
Visitors can even participate in the coffee bean picking process – from picking, chaff removal to bean selection. They can also experience the roasting process, learn how different methods of roasting affect the flavor of coffee. After grinding, visitors can have a cup of pour-over coffee and enjoy its irresistible aroma.
From coffee harvesting to making a cup of coffee, each step of the process can derive different experiences. For instance, you can make tea out of coffee chaff and used coffee grounds can be used to make diffuser coasters.
Characteristics
Coffee
Located in Fuxing Township, Taoyuan City, Sinyuan Magao Bai Ji Sha Coffee Estate is at a higher altitude above sea level in the upstream of Shihmen Reservoir. Due to water evaporation in the morning, the area is lower in temperature and high in humidity. With more trees in the mountain, coffee trees are able to thrive under their canopy and pesticide is not required.
How coffee trees absorb nutrients also affects the flavor of their beans and this is where fertilization becomes critical. Chen said that when she first started planting coffee trees, she adopted the customary practice of purchasing fertilizers from the farmers’ association but soon realized that it caused the coffee beans to lose their area-specific unique and distinct aroma and flavor.
To differentiate from other farmers’ coffee beans, Chen greatly reduces fertilization to only once after blooming season. She also makes her own compost and uses liquid fertilizer to control diseases. The advantage is that it already contains nutrients and additional fertilization is not required. Her hope is to produce coffee beans that have distinctive local flavors.
Chen does not stop at producing flavorful coffee beans. She makes sure that her coffee beans are fully utilized. She makes a wide range of products, including facial scrub, lip balm and handmade soap, and even diffuser coaster, using used coffee grounds. Coffee chaff removed from the coffee fruits are fermented to make tea that yields a fruity note. Visitors can either purchase these products in her shop or make them personally.
Capitalizing on her past experience working in a hotel, she brings the farm-to-table experience to her farm. Visitors can savor a wide variety of coffee-theme food here, including coffee cherry chicken soup, bamboo shoot, coffee crepe cake, chiffon cake, cheese tart, and of course, aromatic pour-over coffee. By taking visitors through the process of coffee production, processing to cooking, Chen has achieved the effect of agrifood education.
