Hawaii coffee makes inroads in Taiwan

TAIPEI >> Vujicic Heish and Mae Wei were willing to wait in line to sample Hawaii coffee at the Taiwan International Coffee Show, one of the world’s larger coffee events.

The couple, who are part of a growing group of coffee aficionados in Taiwan, are the perfect target market for specialty coffee growers. They and others like them are a reason that Hawaii’s coffee industry wants to cultivate more business in Taiwan, which has the highest per capita gross domestic product in Eastern Asia.

The Honolulu Star- Advertiser visited the coffee show, which was part of the Taiwan Food, Coffee, Tea & Wine Expo 2022, held Nov. 17-20 at the Taipei Nanang Exhibition Hall. The Hawaii delegation was there to teach coffee buyers, sellers and drinkers about their crop from a colorful Hawaii booth often manned by celebrity barista Ya-Shu Song, champion of Taiwan’s Fengjen Cup hand-drip exchange competition. The delegation also participated in the Pacific Rim Coffee Summit, where Hawaii coffees made the top-20 list.

The coffee show was the couple’s first chance to taste Hawaii coffee. There were eight coffees on exhibit from six growing regions: Kona, Kau, Puna/Hilo, Oahu, Maui and Kauai.

Wei swirled the Hawaii coffee in her cup, sniffed its aroma and then slowly sipped the brew, delving into each aspect of flavor. “We like the sweet taste (of the Hawaii coffee), which comes quickly,” she said.

Heish added that it was “less acidic” than other coffees, and said that he detected an “orange flavor.”

The pair are so serious about the brew that they like to buy green coffee beans — the more exotic and higher-end the better — and roast them at home for optimal flavor and freshness. Once upon a time, that behavior would have been kind of quirky in a country better known for its tea. Nowadays it is increasingly common to find Taiwanese pulling out all the stops for coffee.

The couple pronounced the Hawaii coffee the best of the show. That’s a big compliment as there were hundreds of exhibitor booths, including Panama Geisha, one of the world’s most coveted coffees.

Peter Zhu, founder of Pro Aroma Enterprise Coffee Co. Ltd., which had a large exposition footprint, told the Star-Advertiser that he recently auctioned off a bag of green Panama Geisha beans for about $6,800.

“I think Hawaii can do it, too,” Zhu said, adding that the first launch of Hawaii coffee was heartily embraced during the exposition.

Emily Scott, director of the Agricultural Trade Office for the American Institute in Taiwan, said coffee has played a role in making Taiwan the United States’ sixth-largest export market for food and agricultural products. Scott said her office anticipates the value of U.S. agricultural products in Taiwan this year will finish north of $4 billion, a record.

In 2021 alone, Scott said, Taiwan imported over $30 million of coffee from the U.S., which is the No. 1 supplier of roasted coffee beans to Taiwan.

In 2021 there were 3,000 newly registered coffee shops in Taiwan, not including shops that registered as eateries for tax purposes, according to a report called “Demand in Taiwan Brews Opportunities,” which was released in October by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service.

The report also cited an International Coffee Organization statistic that said the Taiwanese consume 2.85 billion cups of coffee per year, or 204 cups per person.

Scott said, “Hawaii and Taiwan are a great pairing. As we know, Hawaii coffee is very high-end. It’s not your real commercial-grade coffee. It’s not mass-produced. It really is unique — small farms, super-high quality.

“That really fits with the Taiwan consumer, and that really fits with our office’s strategy to promote high-end, you could say luxury-grade products to Taiwan.”

Scott said her office paid for Hawaii coffees to be tested against 100 coffees from around the world as part of the Pacific Rim Coffee Summit, which was held Nov. 16-17 in concert with the exposition.

Ralph Gaston, secretary of the Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council and a member of the Hawaii Coffee Association, said washed Ka‘u Typica from Isla Custom Coffees and Washed Kona Fancy from Hokukano Ranch/ Kona Hills LLC earned speciality designations making the summit’s top-20 list.

“With that speciality coffee designation, we hope Hawaii farmers realize an increased price for their products,” Scott said.

Scott is optimistic about the growth potential for Hawaii coffee in Taiwan, which historically has been famous for its tea but has seen demand for coffee growing increasingly more sophisticated.

Miguel Meza, founder of Paradise Coffee Roasters and co-owner of Isla Custom Coffees, opined that only two or three cities globally have a coffee scene as advanced as Taipei.

“I’d say Seoul, maybe Melbourne, but this is a major coffee mecca globally,” Meza said. “Seattle like in the 1990s, but I think (Taipei) is well beyond that now. I’ve been coming here for 12 years; it was already pretty advanced then, and it’s only accelerated.”

Meza said Hawaii has a shared coffee history with Taiwan as the Japanese planted Hawaii coffee seedlings when they colonized Taiwan.

But Meza said that story was more about Japan’s coffee culture than Hawaii’s. Now, Hawaii coffee growers and sellers are seizing the chance to make their own history by planting deep business roots in Taiwan.

The timing is good. Earlier this year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomed the launch of the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-century trade.The initiative is expected to mark the beginning of a new chapter in bilateral economic ties, with MOFA and other related ministries striving to steadily elevate the Taiwanese-U.S. economic and trade partnership.

Alex Lei, executive director of the State of Hawaii Office in Taipei, or SHOT, said Hawaii’s coffee industry push also will be aided by the reopening of tourism in Taiwan. Lei said direct flights between Taiwan and Hawaii are expected to be restored by March.

Greater back-and-forth tourism access could make it easier for Hawaii growers to connect with Taiwanese buyers and consumers, potentially even through agritourism trips, he said.

Madeleine Longoria Garcia, Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council board member and co-owner of Pacific Coffee Research, who was in Taiwan for the exposition, said forging connections that allow Hawaii to share stories about its coffee history and culture is important.

“We’re going to make a lot more headway by being here in person and being able to make more personal connections with folks and provide more in-depth information,” Garcia added.

Fred Cowell, Hawaii Coffee Association president and general manager of Kauai Coffee, which was featured at the exposition, said the chance to tell compelling stories is critical to the success of Hawaii coffee.

“For someone to be willing to pay the price that Hawaii coffee demands, they have to have a sense of a connection either to the origin or to a farm or to a family,” he said. “The specialness has to come through in the story. Otherwise it’s just expensive coffee.”

Gaston, co-owner of Isla Custom Coffees and Rusty’s Hawaiian Coffee, said he is bullish on the future of Hawaii coffee in Taiwan. While COVID-19 initially disrupted Hawaii’s plans, he said a virtual coffee mart with a coffee tasting in November 2020 allowed Hawaii growers to connect with Taiwanese buyers. The American Institute in Taiwan, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Foreign Agricultural Services, SHAC, SHOT and the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism provided assistance.

In 2021, Hawaii representatives could not attend the Taiwanese exposition, However, Garcia said they paid a group to run their booth and sent their products, which led to some coffee sales.

In late October the DBEDT offices helped SHAC to bring Taiwanese coffee buyers and sellers to Honolulu, Kau and Hilo for a reverse trade mission where they visited coffee growers, mills, roasteries and cafes.

The potential for Hawaii’s coffee industry in Taiwan was noted in the October U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report.

“Consumers increasingly treat their coffee as an enjoyable experience rather than a simple drink. Unique flavors, environmental attributes, and small quantities are more important factors towards making purchase decisions, making U.S. coffee a perfect match for the market, particularly unroasted beans from Hawaii.”

Scott said while other U.S. states roast coffee, Hawaii is the only one that produces green coffee beans.

Garcia said there is huge interest in importing Hawaii green coffee to Taiwan, “whether that is to distributors (in Taiwan) who then market to smaller cafe roasters or home roasters or to roasting companies themselves.”

Kelly Wang, marketing director for Green Stone Coffee in Taiwan, said demand for small-batch speciality coffees like those grown in Hawaii is ramping up in Taiwan. Wang, who visited Hawaii in October during the reverse trade mission, said she first learned about Hawaii coffee in 2017 when her mother bought a half-pound of Kona coffee from a roasting company in Taiwan.

“She paid close to $70 for it,” she said.

After visiting Hawaii as part of the DBEDT mission, Wang said she is delighted to be able to share Hawaii’s coffee story with Taiwanese consumers, who care enough about coffee to pay attention to where it is planted and picked as well as stored and roasted.

Wang said Taiwan has become such a coffee-focused culture that there are plenty of professionals and home-based coffee enthusiasts willing to pay as much as $800 and make the commitment to take one of the four- to six-week classes that she offers in roasting and brewing techniques.

Zhu, who also visited Hawaii during the October mission, shared photos of the farm with Scott and customers at the Pro Aroma booth. Zhu’s booth featured Hawaii industry reps and showcased two Hawaiian coffees, both of which sold out at the show.

Andy Chen of Then Coffee, a high-end coffee store, created a trade show buzz at the Pro Aroma booth when he started making Hawaii coffee for customers to sample. He used the pour-over method, where hot water is poured over the coffee, which slowly drains through a filter. The pour-over method is popular in Taiwan, where tea has been steeped for flavor throughout history.

Chen said coffee drinkers in Taiwan have heard positive things about Hawaii coffee, “but it’s not easy to find the coffee bean from Hawaii.”

Hawaii’s coffee industry is only now trying to expand in the Taiwan market, and is known for its small coffee production size. According to the USDA, Hawaii produces approximately 2.3 million kilograms of green bean per year, which is less than 1% of all coffee grown in the world.

Chen added that the DBEDT mission to Hawaii has helped Taiwanese consumers get better access to Hawaii coffees.

Gaston said, “Pro Aroma has already put in orders with Hawaiian coffee companies — both the companies they worked with before, and also is expanding to work with additional farms in Hawaii.”

He said other buyers who visited via the reverse trade event also followed up at the show and expressed interest in purchasing Hawaii coffees in 2023.

“So the connection of the reverse trade mission, followed closely by the booth at the (exposition) less than a month later, was a real success and allowed the buildup of momentum going from one event to the next,” Gaston said. “And the group has a real affinity for Hawaii’s coffee industry that comes best from personal visits, interactions and person-to-person connections.”