Taiwan — Hsu Tingyeh Zhou Wu Mountain Farm Typica (Washed, Looproom Collaboration)

Tastes Like — 🍇 Gooseberry • 💜 Violets • 🍵 Milk Tea

DETAILS

• Producer: Hsu Tingyeh
• Farm: Zhou Wu Mountain
• Region: Chashan Village, Chiayi County, Taiwan
• Varietal: Typica
• Process: Washed
• Elevation: 1,300 masl
• Collaboration: Looproom Coffee (Taipei)

INTRO Hsu Tingyeh's coffee is something to look forward to most during the off-season — the wait is over, with this season represented by two incomparable washed lots. This Typica yields an abundance of sweet, slightly tart gooseberry, bouquets of fresh-picked violets, and a distinct milk-tea creaminess with a mellow tannic quality. Given the lot's quality, complexity, and cleanliness, it made the perfect fit for this collaboration with Taipei's Looproom Coffee. In the cup: gooseberry, violets, and milk tea.

THE PRODUCER Zhou Wu Mountain farm, at 1,300 masl in Chashan Village, Chiayi County, was founded in 2001 by Tingyeh, who adapted the high-mountain oolong fields of Zhou Wu to specialty coffee cultivation. The farm now spans roughly 7 hectares, growing SL34 alongside Geisha, Typica, and Purpurascens. Everything is done in-house, from seed germination through drying and milling, placing complete control over the coffee's final cup profile in Mr. Hsu's hands.

Typica is one of the most ubiquitous varieties of C. arabica, especially in South America — high quality potential at altitude, but tall, low-yielding, and susceptible to major coffee diseases. It originated in southwestern Ethiopia, moving to Yemen in the 15th or 16th century, then India by the turn of the 18th century. Seeds taken from India's Malabar Coast in 1696 and 1699 were planted in Batavia (today's Java), providing the genetic stock for the modern Typica variety. A single plant shipped from Java to Amsterdam in 1706 eventually supplied the genetic material — via French royalty in 1714 — for Typica cultivation across Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

THE PROCESS This lot is Washed, a method that removes the fruit before fermentation and drying — allowing Typica's naturally delicate, high-altitude character to come through with clarity, building the gooseberry tartness and violet florality that define this cup.

THE CUP Delightful and complex — sweet, slightly tart gooseberry leads, with fresh-picked violet aromatics throughout, finishing on a distinct milk-tea creaminess and mellow tannic quality.

Flavour Notes 🍇 Gooseberry 💜 Violets 🍵 Milk Tea