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What’s perhaps the most incredible Dutch Formosa The Botan Tribe Incident
is the stellar performance of Taiwanese The history of coffee in Taiwan In 1871, a group of Okinawan fish-
coffee professionals at international coffee could be traced back to the so-called Dutch ermen were cast away by a typhoon. They
competitions. Since 2013, young Taiwanese Formosa from 1624 to 1662. At the time, drifted to Pingtong, located in the southern
coffee makers have been receiving top Taiwan, or the Island of Formosa, was under region of Taiwan, and were attacked and
honors in all kinds of contests. In 2013, the control of Dutch East India Company, killed by the local tribal Payuan headhunters.
Bill Jian of Opikr placed second and Lulu and the local Dutch often brought roasted After Japan’s negotiation for compensation
Wang of Just Go Coffee placed third in the coffee with them to the island in order to with the Qing government of China, which
World Coffee Brewer’s Cup Championship. satisfy their coffee cravings. There were had by then defeated the Ming loyalists
That same year, James Chen of Fika Fika even known instances of Dutch missionar- and claimed Taiwan as its own, failed, it
Cafe won first place in the Nordic Roast- ies’ treating the ill on the Island of Penghu launched a military operation to the island,
ers Championship. In 2014, Jacky Lai won with coffee. Yet, only roasted beans were mobilizing soldiers and storming the Botan
the World Coffee Roasting Championship, imported onto the island. No known record region of Pingtong. Eventually, the Qing
Pang-Yu Liu won the World Cup Tasters indicates any seed or seedling being actually government made monetary compensations
Championship, Juying Wei took fifth place planted or transplanted during this period. and ended the conflicts. Ding Yichang,
in the World Brewer’s Championship, and Though some would to this day ardently the governor of Fujian region, which was
Berg Wu took seventh place in the World maintain the belief that the Dutch were the the jurisdictive body of Taiwan, declared
Barista Championship. first to introduce coffee plants to Taiwan, I the “21 Articles of Tribal Management and
think the chances of that are slight. Historic Tribal Development” in an attempt to reduce
records abroad clearly indicates that the conflicts originating with the various Native
Dutch only successfully transplanted coffee Taiwanese tribes. The articles detailed the
after 1695, when they took seedlings from state’s intent to support tribal farming re-
Sri Lanka and India to Java, Indonesia. It forms, encouraging the natives to plant tea,
would be unlikely for there to be earlier, yet cotton, sandalwood, and coffee. The goal of
undocumented, successes of coffee cultiva- the reforms was to hasten the assimilation
tion in Taiwan by the Dutch. of the native tribal cultures into the then
more main stream cultures of China. The “21
Articles of Tribal Management and Tribal
Development” was the earliest Taiwanese
document to actually use the term “coffee.”
However, Mainland China then was filled
with strife and instability, and the state never
actualized its intended plans nor planted
any coffee on island.
In 1884, the British became the first
people to actually bring coffee seedlings to
Surrender of Fort Zeelandia in Formosa, Taiwan, bringing them from Manila to Taipei
1662 Sanxia. However, the relatively low tem-
perature of northern Taiwan inhibited the
Photo from Neglected Formosa, published in 1675
growth of coffee and made coffee planting
a rather unsuccessful endeavor. No further
development of coffee in Taiwan would
occur until after the period of Japanese oc-
cupation.
Starting here, Taiwan coffee farming
would go through three significant peaks.
These peaks occurred during the 50 years of
Japanese occupation, the period of American
aid, and after the millennium. Coffee produc-
tion in Taiwan faced different challenges
Berg Wu, Jacky Lai, Ju-Ying LuLu Wei and took on different aspects during these
(right), Pang-Yu Liu, some of Taiwanese The Portrait of three time periods.
on the international stages. Koxinga
Photos by World Coffee Event Photo from First Peak: Japanese occupation
National Taiwan (1895-1945)
Museum After losing The First Sino-Japanese
Taiwan is but a small island with a War in 1894, the Qing Dynasty of China
small population, yet it has been quite the In 1662, Ming loyalist and renowned had to cede the island of Taiwan to Japan
star at recent green bean or coffee compe- military leader Koxinga defeated the Dutch per the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
titions. This, I believe, is due to its firmly and claimed the island of Formosa as his base This was the beginning of the 50 years
established coffee industry. If we look at the of operations against the Qing Dynasty, the of Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The
development of Taiwanese coffee culture in then ruling dynasty of China. Taiwan’s link Japanese government deemed the climate
the last 100 years, we can see its incredible to coffee was severed for the following 200 of Taiwan to be suitable for coffee farm-
resilience. years. ing, and consequently introduced three
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