Taiwan's Coffee Godfather Huang Chongqing: Changsha Has Huge Market Potential for Specialty Coffee Development

Coffee King Huang Chongqing brewing the world's most expensive Colombian Gesha specialty coffee in a siphon pot.

Coffee King Huang Chongqing, on the right, sharing his ideas for promoting specialty coffee culture with enthusiasts in Changsha.

Reported by Chen Siyi, Red Net, Changsha

World Barista Competition Changsha Region Opens

On December 6, 2014, the World Barista Competition's Changsha regional round opened at Jiangshen Temple Front Street on Orange Isle. The world-class competition drew plenty of attention on its own, but eyes kept returning to one judge: Huang Chongqing, chairman of Taiwan Billy Coffee Industrial Co., Ltd., who is close to 70 years old. Invited by Yang Jing, president of the Changsha Coffee Industry Association, Huang had come to Changsha with freshly roasted Colombian Gesha, currently the most expensive coffee in the world, at more than 1000 RMB or 6000 Taiwan dollars for 200g. In conversation he remarked, "Changsha has enormous market potential for developing specialty coffee."

A Coffee Veteran's Journey

Huang Chongqing keeps a low profile and is cautious about publicity, rarely appearing in the media. Even so, among Taiwanese coffee operators with more than thirty years in the trade, not one is unfamiliar with this veteran. He led Taiwan's coffee market from nothing, building it from a small-scale business into the specialty coffee culture of today. Now nearly 70, he still has no plans to retire, and he speaks with visible energy about the coffee kingdom he has run for 37 years.

Changsha's Specialty Coffee Potential

It was his first visit to Changsha, and the cold weather did nothing to dampen the coffee godfather's enthusiasm for the city's coffee market. The day after he arrived, he and his eldest son Huang Weilun held an intimate session of specialty coffee cupping, tasting and knowledge sharing with more than twenty Changsha coffee enthusiasts at Moungar423 Cafe. The number of knowledgeable enthusiasts there prompted Huang Chongqing to give a thumbs-up to the development of specialty coffee in Changsha. He observed that while specialty coffee in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai is gradually maturing, excessive competition and steadily rising labor costs will make development there harder as well. Cities like Changsha and Xiamen, by contrast, have enormous potential as coffee culture and professional knowledge spread. "I believe that within ten years, specialty coffee will be fully promoted in Changsha. People's idea of coffee will not stay at the level of flavored drinks loaded with milk and saccharin. Changsha has enormous market potential for developing specialty coffee."

The World's Most Expensive Gesha Coffee

Huang Chongqing brought out the specialty Geisha coffee, also written "Gesha," that he had carried from Taiwan, brewed it in a siphon pot and shared it with everyone. Gesha coffee takes its name from Gesha Mountain in Ethiopia, where it originates. In 2005 it beat competitors from around the world at the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) competition to take the title of world champion, and it won again in 2006 and 2007. Its fruit-like sweetness and fragrance, reminiscent of lemon and strawberry, together with its high price, have made it popular worldwide in recent years. Huang Chongqing explained that the specialty Gesha being tasted was then the most expensive coffee in the world, with a market price reaching 1182 yuan per 200g. In the fragrant aroma of that expensive coffee, a coffee world we had never seen before slowly unrolled in front of us.

Origins and Coffee Destiny

Born in Kinmen County in 1950, Huang Chongqing has deep ties to Indonesia. His father, Huang Sichuan, emigrated from Kinmen to Indonesia in his early years, cleared land to plant coffee and built a successful business, and relatives and friends followed to invest in Indonesia's coffee industry. Wanting to see the father who had left for Indonesia as a young man and never returned, Huang Chongqing set foot in Indonesia in 1977, and from that moment he was bound to coffee for good. After returning to Taiwan, he founded Billy Coffee Industrial Co., Ltd., Taiwan's oldest coffee import and export company. The earliest Indonesian Mandheling coffee was also first brought to Taiwan by Huang Chongqing at that time, becoming the well-known premium coffee it is today.

The Soul Coffee Philosophy

"Everyone has a different 'soul coffee' at different stages of life. Each stage pursues a better taste, and every cup's flavor will differ according to the dedication of the barista. For me, the first cup of soul coffee that led me into the coffee world was Indonesian Mandheling." A Mandheling bean giving off a rich, intense aroma drew Huang Chongqing into coffee, and he has never escaped it since. Back when most people's impression of coffee was still shaped by instant coffee of various brands, or by the mistaken belief that glossy-looking dark-roasted coffee was good coffee, Huang Chongqing had already opened up a different kind of coffee market in Taiwan.

Building a Coffee Kingdom

From his first involvement in coffee roasting, the entire Taiwan region lacked understanding of coffee, and 15-18 tons of specialty coffee beans could not be sold in a year. The two partner shareholders of Billy Industrial blamed Huang Chongqing for being a "fool" with no market vision, and withdrew their shares one after another, leaving him to support the company alone. As one of the few coffee raw material suppliers in Taiwan at the time, and the only person from Kinmen living in Taiwan who held coffee raw materials, Huang Chongqing endured hardship in an era when coffee was a luxury, imports carried high tariffs, and the market was small with limited profit. Driven by his love of coffee, he never gave up on the trade.

To offer customers better quality, Huang Chongqing flew to Indonesia whenever he had time to learn about coffee cultivation and production. He eventually invested in coffee plantations and built long-term partnerships, gaining control over quality from harvesting and roasting through to finished packaging and market distribution, so that Taiwan's coffee community could drink specialty coffee. Thirty-seven years of effort allowed him to build a coffee kingdom of his own. Billy (Billie) has become one of Taiwan's most popular high-end coffees. Billy Blue Mountain Coffee and Sulawesi Star won the gold medal, the highest honor, at the 2000 Taiwan Coffee Competition. Besides roasting plants and retail stores in Taiwan, Billy Coffee's business has expanded to Shanghai, Xiamen and Hong Kong as well as the United States and Australia. Billy Coffee was also rated the number one Chinese coffee brand by Han Huaizong, author of "Coffee Science" and a coffee science expert.

Vision for the Future

Looking back on the 37-year coffee kingdom he built, Huang Chongqing sums it up as: the first decade devoted to simple green coffee bean trading, the second to coffee processing and packaging, and the third to promoting and popularizing specialty coffee. For the next decade he plans to focus on combining coffee culture with art. "Coffee, tea and cocoa are known as the world's three great beverage crops. Coffee is in fact a beneficial drink with effects on the human body, just like tea. Yet in Asia, most people misunderstand coffee, so its promotion remains at the level of Starbucks, Costa and other fast-consumption beverages, without forming a cultural trend." Huang Chongqing hopes to return to his home town of Kinmen and establish a coffee museum, so that more people can truly know and understand coffee. "Combine coffee with traditional Chinese culture, so that coffee is no longer simply a product of Western culture, and let it flourish in China the way tea culture has."

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation: Start Where the Godfather Started

Huang Chongqing's first "soul coffee" was Indonesian Mandheling, and it is still the most rewarding place to begin. FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling comes from Aceh in northern Sumatra and is graded G1: beans of 18 mesh or larger, fewer than three defects per 300-gram green bean sample, then hand-sorted three times. The result is a cleaner, sweeter Mandheling than most, medium-dark roasted, low in acidity, with a thick body and notes of dark chocolate and herbs. Brew it at 87-88°C, 15g to 225g of water (1:15), at a coarse-sugar grind, in three pours of 30ml, 100ml and 95ml. Prefer it wilder? FrontStreet Lintong Mandheling adds clove, woody aromatics and a minty lift.