The buzz on Yunlin's coffee festival

STAFF WRITER

Friday, Oct 10, 2003,Page 19

For those thinking that Starbucks was the first to popularize coffee in Taiwan, think again. The aromatic beans have been growing in the mountains of southwestern Taiwan since the 17th century. To heighten awareness of the island's caffeine legacy and drum up a bit of tourism at the same time, the Yunlin County government is sponsoring a coffee festival that will go from today through Nov. 2.

The Dutch were the first to bring coffee beans to Taiwan when they first came to the island in 1624, dedicating several hectares of what is now Yunlin County to growing them. But it was the Japanese who made the most of the southern island's excellent coffee-growing environment. During the early part of the last century, there were some 300 hectares of coffee growing in Yunlin's Kukeng Township, Huisun, and in Taichung County's Rueisuei, near Hualien, making it the main agricultural product of Taiwan's Japanese colonial period, according to the Yunlin County Culture Bureau.

The Arabica strain has historically been Taiwanese coffee grower's beans of choice, both because of they grow heartily in on the southern parts of the island and because the beans have long fetched a handsome price at market.

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