Located in Taichung's Dongshi District, the Dong Hiong Coffee Farm (東香咖啡觀光果園) is owned by a married couple. The husband, Chu Chih-cheng (朱志成), grows and harvests coffee, and conduct guided tours of the plantations. His wife, Chen Yi-chun (陳怡君), runs the town’s Dong Hiong Coffee House. She is in charge of roasting the coffee, on top of packaging, planning, and the sales pitch. In the Hakka, “dong hiong” means an aromatic smell that permeates the area.

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Coffee in Dongshi was partly introduced by missionaries who brought coffee beans with them in the early years, and also partly by seed merchants 30 years ago who travelled to and eventually lived in Dongshi. Elaborating on the history of his hometown, Chu stated that “at that time, the merchants convinced the farmers to grow coffee, promising the farmers that they would definitely purchase the harvest. However, coffee plants do not grow in a year or two. Several years later, when the coffee plants were ripe and ready to be harvested, the merchants had long left Dongshi. The poor farmers, who had nothing to show for their effort, could only turn to planting other fruits instead. Thus, though coffee had been planted in Dongshi for a long time, what remained today was only a small portion.”

Growing up in an agricultural family, Chu worked on his family’s plantation and with the coffee plants since his junior high school days, though fruits were still the main crops. It was not till 2010 when Chu, along with his wife Chen, started looking for partners, leveraging on the resources provided by the farmers’ association to seek professional help that he began to learn about modern planting, crop management, and postharvest practices, culminating in the opening of a coffee house in 2012.

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Chen on the other hand got creative, using the skin of coffee fruit – something commonly discarded – to make pickles, and even to brew tea. What is fascinating is that tea brewed this way tastes like roselle tea, with a tangy and fruity aroma. Chen commented that “many were surprised to hear that coffee is actually a fruit, and tastes sweet. The skin of the coffee fruit is filled with chlorogenic acid, an excellent antioxidant.” Roasted, coffee loses most of its chlorogenic acid; thus Chen brews coffee fruit tea in hopes of retaining the original taste of coffee.

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The flavor of a coffee is largely dependent on the environment it is planted in, the soil, the source of water, whether it is a hybrid or otherwise – all play a factor in the quality of the coffee. Chen stated that “coffee from Alishan is unique for having a stronger tea aroma. It has a unique taste that cannot be replicated by coffee planted elsewhere. As for Dongshi, an area known for its fruit crops, coffee produced here have a hint of tangerine, peach, and nutty notes. I feel that coffee from each area should have a flavor unique to its locality.”

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