2018 Taiwan Alishan Coffee | Mafei Coffee Estate | Typica Washed

FrontStreet Coffee | Single-Origin Spotlight

Taiwan Chiayi Alishan Mafei Coffee Estate Typica Washed

Bean Origin

Alishan (Alisan) micro-region

Estate Information

• Established: 2009
• Estate size: N/A
• Planting area: approximately 1.5 hectares
• Annual rainfall: approximately 3000mm
• Average temperature: 11°C
• Altitude: 1200 meters
• Coffee variety: Typica
• Soil type: clay loam
• Processing method: washed
• Harvesting method: manual harvesting

Awards

• 2018: Alishan Estate Coffee Elite Exchange Competition — Honey Process category — Gold Award
• 2018: Taiwan Domestic Specialty Coffee Bean Evaluation — Silver Award

Alishan Mafei is Taiwan's premium specialty coffee. The name comes from the language of the Tsou, the indigenous people of the Alishan mountains, and means "very delicious to drink." Alishan is the growing region, and the coffee is cultivated by the Tsou themselves, who gave it the name Mafei. The output is limited, and that scarcity is a large part of what makes it so prized.

The estate is in Leye Village, Alishan Township, Chiayi County, at an altitude of 1200 meters. Day-to-night temperature swings here are wide, and the resulting beans are large, full in aroma, smooth in the mouth, sweet and only lightly acidic.

Cultivation follows organic fertilization and natural farming methods that work with the local ecosystem. The cherries ripen between November and March of the following year, and every bean is hand-picked. After the plump, fully ripe fruit is selected, the outer skin is removed. The beans are then fermented and washed with mountain spring water, followed by natural sun-drying or machine drying, and once fully dried they go into storage. The estate owns a complete post-harvest line — fermentation tanks, a fresh-bean depulper, raw-bean dryers, a huller, polishers, graders and a color sorter. It is the only coffee estate in the Alishan region with a full set of equipment, and all the coffee it produces is sold directly by the estate.

Cupping Notes

Dry aroma:

milk chocolate, citrus blossom, ripe apple honey

Wet aroma:

cocoa, pineapple, mango, cantaloupe, hazelnut

Sipping:

A wheat aroma and brown sugar sweetness spread gradually through the mouth, with a finish that carries a subtle oolong tea fragrance.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Taiwan's Alishan Mafei shows how much character a Typica can carry when it is grown in the right place — and Typica is a thread that runs through FrontStreet Coffee's own lineup. Our Yunnan Baoshan small-bean coffee is a great starting point: washed and medium roasted, it balances a clear caramel sweetness against a touch of acidity, letting the terroir of the Yunnan growing region speak for itself.

If you want a more vivid picture of what Typica can do, step up to our 2013 Yunnan Sun-Dried Typica. Grown on FrontStreet Coffee's own Yunnan farm, it uses the oldest and most traditional post-harvest method — natural sun-drying — which gives the cup more weight and a sharper sweet-sour tension, with citrus and berry notes, a hint of fermented wine, caramel sweetness and a creamy finish.

For an espresso take on the same corner of the world, the Chocolate Black Cocoa blend pairs Yunnan washed small-bean coffee with Brazilian Cerrado. Brazil supplies mixed-nut aroma and a balanced body, while the Yunnan bean carries the chocolate and citrus, producing an Americano with sweet-sour-bitter balance and a nutty, brown-sugar sweetness, or a latte with smooth almond and cream.