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The History of Wuhe Coffee Plantations

The estate is located in "Jialana" village on the Wuhe Terrace of Ruishui Township, Hualien. Jialana is the Amis word "Kalala," meaning "basket," which also describes the topography of this area. The village has about 400 residents, mostly Amis indigenous people, and is a community where agriculture serves as the primary economic activity. During the Japanese colonial period, Japanese national Koda Shoji was ordered by the Japanese Governor-General to develop this area. In the 1930s, he established a coffee plantation of about 400 hectares here and founded a joint-stock company for export. It was the most comprehensive base for coffee production, manufacturing, and sales in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era.

The Jilin Tea Garden in Jialana village produces about 500 kilograms annually. The coffee garden was established using old plants from the Japanese colonial period, and tea garden experience is utilized for coffee production. This batch uses fresh raw beans from the year, refined through the natural processing method, with flavor notes including strong fermentation aroma, pine, peach, roasted nuts, raw walnuts, and black tea, with a long-lasting aftertaste.

In Wuhe Township, Hualien, on the Wuhe Terrace, there is a small village called "Jialana." The name comes from the Amis word "Kalala," meaning "basket," which describes the local topography. The village has about 400 residents, mostly Amis indigenous people, and is a community where agriculture serves as the primary economic activity. From the Japanese colonial period to the present, there have been successive plantings of coffee, pineapple, and tea.

The Wuhe Terrace where Jialana is located was anciently called "Soba Terrace." "Soba" means wooden board in the Amis language. According to legend, hundreds of years ago, when the Amis people came to cultivate this land, they encountered storms and picked up nearby board-shaped objects for shelter, thus naming this place "Soba." Later during the Japanese colonial period, Japanese national Koda Shoji was ordered by the Japanese Governor-General to develop this area. With the help of local gentry such as former provincial legislator Ma Youyue, he established a coffee plantation of about 400 hectares here in the 1930s and founded "Sumita Co., Ltd." to market to Japan, also supplying it to the Emperor. It was the birthplace of Taiwan's earliest commercialized coffee cultivation.

The Decline and Revival

When the Pacific War broke out, Koda Shoji left Taiwan. After the war, Taiwan coffee lost its largest market, Japan, and Wuhe coffee gradually declined, passing several decades in obscurity. It wasn't until the recent rise of Gukeng coffee that Wuhe residents remembered this glorious history, returned to the fields to search for the coffee trees of those years, and began planting again.

Decades-old coffee trees remain vibrant in their natural environment. The Wuhe Terrace is filled with old plants left from those years, each seed carrying memories from the Japanese colonial period. As residents invested in cultivation, Wuhe coffee production increased year by year. While gradually gaining recognition, they also began to face challenges in production and marketing channels.

The water quality on Wuhe Terrace is excellent, the soil is fertile, and coffee production is quite abundant. Most Wuhe coffee farmers rely primarily on tea gardens as their main source of income, with coffee production being only a side business. Examples range from the Dongsheng Tea Garden that led the planting to the Jilin Tea Garden cooperating with Sen Takasago Coffee. Residents have made various different attempts, from developing tourist coffee farms to establishing brands. However, due to high coffee production costs and different processing methods among households, a complete production and marketing system has not yet been established. This has created a situation where despite Wuhe coffee's fame, actual sales are quite difficult. Some farmers even choose not to harvest to save costs, or sell coffee beans wholesale to other counties and cities, marketing them under the names of other producing regions.

Modern Developments

The Jilin Tea Garden in Jialana village provides an opportunity for improvement. The tea garden farmer, Mr. Peng Weixiang, is a young tea farmer who, through several years of effort, has gradually increased the estate's coffee production and independently developed many different coffee processing methods. Benefiting from tea garden experience, Mr. Peng has invested tea-making equipment in coffee production, from using fermentation rooms for dry fermentation before washing, to applying tea withering equipment for honey processing coffee. This not only creates new flavors for Wuhe coffee but also expands production capacity, providing small-scale post-processing services for nearby farmers.

The cooperation between Sen Takasago Coffee and Jilin Tea Garden has established a complete industrial chain for Wuhe coffee from production to marketing. Previously limited by geographical location, Wuhe coffee was always marketed in the form of local products. This cooperation can shorten the distance from production area to consumers, utilizing Jilin Tea Garden's flexible and unique production capabilities, combined with Sen Takasago Coffee's excellent roasting quality and marketing channels, and then expanding to other farmers. This enhances product value with the quality and image of specialty coffee, gradually expanding the benefits of Wuhe coffee as Taiwan's top-tier coffee-producing region.

Natural Processing Method

The natural processing method is one of the oldest methods for processing raw coffee beans. It is said that since the 11th century, Arabs have used this method for post-processing coffee fruits. In the natural method, harvested coffee fruits are evenly exposed to sunlight, turned several times daily until the fruits dry and the moisture content inside the coffee reaches a certain standard; after that, the dry and hard fruit peel is removed, resulting in natural processed coffee beans with strong fermentation aroma.

The natural method is extremely labor-intensive, and the loss rate of raw beans is also high, so the price is generally higher. However, since the process does not require water consumption, it is very popular in water-scarce Middle Eastern or some African producing regions. Because the entire fermentation process is completed within the coffee fruit peel, the body, fermentation aroma, and sweetness of natural processed coffee are extremely strong, with more pronounced acidity, high flavor complexity, and clearer layers.

Taiwan has more rain and less sunshine, plus labor costs are higher than other coffee-producing areas, resulting in lower production of natural processed beans. The natural processed bean varieties selected by Sen Takasago Coffee all come from farmers who have long-term cooperation with our company and have a certain scale. Their production processes and quality stability are guaranteed. Among them, some farmers use tea-making, mushroom cultivation equipment and other tools to assist in natural drying fermentation, giving Sen Takasago Coffee's natural processed bean series a special flavor different from international bean varieties.

FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee): A roastery in Guangzhou with a small shop but diverse bean varieties, where you can find both famous and lesser-known beans, while also providing online store services. https://shop104210103.taobao.com

Important Notice :

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