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Thibault Worth reports from Taiwan on a recent rise in the popularity of coffee and coffee shops on the island. This piece was produced with the help of Zing Jao.
Wei-ming Cho, who teaches aspiring baristas, demonstrating an old-fashioned coffee making device from Japan. Photo: Thibault Worth
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JEB SHARP: The Taiwanese, like their Chinese neighbors, are known for drinking tea but coffee has gotten more popular in recent years. Coffee shops are everywhere and many of them are run by young, well-educated, Taiwanese. For them running a coffee shop is as good as it gets. Thibault Worth sent us this report from Taipei.
THIBAULT WORTH: In a classroom set up to look like a coffee shop Wei-ming Cho is teaching seven students the ins and outs of running one successfully. Tonight he’s talking about roasting coffee beans. The students here pay about $530 for this 12-week course. But whether Taipei needs more trained baristas is debatable. Coffee shops have sprung up all over the capital selling everything from espressos to orange peel lattes. But for students it’s not really an issue of supply and demand; it’s about living a dream.
LUKE: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
WORTH: To me coffee represents a Western culture that is mysterious and romantic, says a student named Luke who’s in his early 20s. I’ve been dreaming of opening my own coffee shop since I was in junior high.
It’s not clear Luke and the others will succeed at this dream given all the competition. Cho admits that even though he teaches these classes he thinks many are wasting hard-earned college degrees.
WEI-MING CHO: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
WORTH: I don’t encourage my students to open coffee shops. For one thing the market is saturated in Taiwan already, he says. If you’re not innovative, you’re better off not wasting your education and money doing this.
That’s a common view among Taiwan’s older, more established business community. In fact Taiwan’s richest man, Terry Guo, has weighed in on the coffee shop debate. At an e-commerce forum last year the self-made electronics tycoon suggested young Taiwanese aren’t as ambitious as their parents.
TERRY GUO: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
TRANSLATOR: A lot of Taiwanese young people now dream of having their own coffee shops and are easily satisfied with the dream. It would be one thing if they wanted to expand further say by becoming online coffee tycoons. But most will not. I think young Taiwanese people shouldn’t have this kind of island mentality.
WORTH: Here in the Mingshen financial district 27-year-old Ying-jeng Hsu runs a franchise coffee shop with his girlfriend, Yi-feng Huang. The couple sells about 300 cups a day and Ying-jeng says he’s very happy with what he’s doing.
YING-JENG HSU: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
WORTH: Not everyone has to be like Terry Guo, he says. If everyone were the world would be a mess.
Ying-jeng has a degree in material science. He says in school he realized he didn’t like his major but it was too late to change. He says he felt pressured by his parents into a rigid path.
HSU: [SPEAKING MANDARIN]
TRANSLATOR: When students are trying to pick a major their parents intervene and tell them what to study. But four years later they realize they have no interest in it. Then what are they supposed to do?
WORTH: Thirty-six-year-old Kuo-pin Hsu is also making a living in the coffee business. He imports premium coffee beans from around the world, roasts them himself, and sells them to Taipei grocery stores. Before he started selling coffee, this former engineer designed flat-panel televisions for Sharp. When his boss asked him to relocate to China Kuo-pin says he decided to quit. In addition to his bean business he also sells cups of premium espresso from a studio workshop at about $5 a pop.
KUO-PIN HSU: My customer before they drink a lot of latte. But first time they drink my black coffee they addicted. Okay. So they come to me.
WORTH: Hsu says in the six months he’s been selling coffee full time he’s made more than he would have made in his engineering job. He says if that’s an island mentality he’s comfortable with it. For The World, I’m Thibault Worth in Taipei.
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