Page 48 - #55 English

People

Shih Ru Wang

Famous Roaster in Taiwan

thing interesting, she shared a story about her trip to the origin,
“There was once my team and I had to talk to the farmers, we sit
in the car for 8 hours. When we reach the destination it was al-
ready in the middle of the night, there was no light, and I thought
the safest place is in the car. If we need to go to the restroom, we
had to do it right next to the car.”
More people became familiar with the coffee industry,
and Shih Ru had made some recommendations to those women
who are interested in roasting. She said women should consider the
following factors if they wish to be a roaster. First, there is some
physical difficulty they need to conquer, after all, women are likely
to be less strong. Also, women might face more problems after they
got married; for example, they have to consider when to give birth
because it is not good for pregnant women to smell all the smoke
caused by roasting. Compared to the logical and senses problem,
the physical problem is the hardest. Shih Ru told us “There are
sacrifices that need to be made. When you are truly dedicated to
the things that you are interested in, there wouldn’t be time for you
to think about gender problems. You would just go for it, and try to
reach for the best result you could. ”
Thoughts From Competition

According to 2012 Roast Magazine’s survey about the
coffee roasting industry, 87% of the roasters are male, and 13%
are female. Compare that record to 2008, the number of female
roasters had decreased by 4% (In 2008, 83% male, 17%female).
Interestingly, during the decreasing period from 2008 to 2012,
Shih Ru Wang, a Taiwanese roaster had achieved the best world
record of women roaster, she got the 2nd place in the 2011 World
Coffee Roasting Championship. The is not the end of her legend,
three years later, her student Bangyu Liu became the champion
of the World Coffee Roasting Championship. He was the first
Taiwanese ever to achieve that honor. For four consecutive years; 2013 to 2016, there was
Surprisingly, Shih Ru Wang became the representative of always a female roaster who got into the final, the best result was
women roaster who owned more than 8 restaurants. Since 1981, 2nd place, and the worst one which was still outstanding is the
th
she had been helping her father to manage those restaurants. In 4 place.
2005 was the first time she laid hands on coffee beans, and then Same as many women who got into the coffee industry,
she began to visit the origins all around the world. During the Shih Ru had encountered gender bias but she managed to walk
visitations, she had tried to roast beans by herself, and shared pass it, and focused more on competitions and management
her ideas and experiences with the Taiwanese coffee farmers. Six problem.
nd
years’ of hard work, she finally won the 2 place of the World In 2015, Shih Ru decided to step into the specialty coffee
Coffee Roasting Championship in 2011, and two years later, she field, she became a barista from a roaster. During 2015 - 2016, she
became the champion of Taiwanese Roasting Competition. had won the Taiwanese Brewers cup, and the Champion of the
Siphon competition was using her beans. In 2016, she organized
Challenges Encountered By a Female Barista the World Cup Taster Championship and she said “I saw more
It is hard to picture how such a skinny and refined and more female as a judge and a competitor. Before, I only saw
women could carry more than 10KG coffee beans for roasting all 20 out of 180 or more roasters are female in the Retreat event, but
by herself. “Different from the elegant job of a Barista, Roaster’s now the number of women is growing. ” She believe in the future
daily job would ‘get their hands dirty’.” Shih Ru told us during when there are more people prefer to roast at a small amount, the
roasting, the roaster would suffer from smoke, and if the amount number of female roaster will rise. They would roast beans at
of roasting had increased, the roaster will also have to manage home, and there is no need for much physical efforts. Shih Ru is
the beans. She said, “an amount that is less 3kg is not that hard positive about the female status in future of the coffee industry.
to manage, but from 6kg to 24kg things would get harder and To conclude, we decided to use Shih Ru’s words on her Facebook
harder; there is lesser automation you could use, and you have “If you see me as succeed and professional roaster or barista, I
to get your hands on many step all the way from supply chain to hope you could also see my failures in the past. But I did not give
roasting.” Suddenly Shih Ru laughed like she had recalled some- up, and I never will.”
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