2016 Pingtung Coffee Carnival Builds an Exclusive "Pingtung" Brand

December is the coffee harvest season. When the coffee cherries turn red, the farmers smile! From the 8th to the 11th, the Pingtung County Government held the "2016 Pingtung Coffee Carnival" at the Youth P Base. A professional Pingtung coffee evaluation event, a roasting competition and various exhibition and sales activities will showcase the results of promoting Pingtung's coffee industry. On the morning of the 8th, County Magistrate Pan Meng-an personally presided over the opening ceremony, with 40 coffee roasters from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, China and Malaysia taking part together. Magistrate Pan also gave a live demonstration of the triangle cupping method to select the best local Pingtung coffee.

County Magistrate Pan Meng-an said that Pingtung coffee is highly competitive and that the county government is proactively guiding farmers, turning what used to be individual competition into a cooperative model, with the aim of building an exclusive "Pingtung" brand in the future. This year the coffee-related activities were expanded, in the hope that regular professional coffee events will turn Pingtung into the most professional and best-known coffee growing, manufacturing, collection and trading center in all of Taiwan, China.

Wu Li-hua, Director of the Indigenous Peoples Affairs Department, pointed out that Pingtung County has 218 hectares of coffee planting area and 360 coffee farming households, both the highest in all of Taiwan, China. For the 2016 Pingtung Coffee Evaluation Competition, Mr. Han Huai-tsung, author of the well-known coffee bestsellers "The Craft of Specialty Coffee" and "Long Live Taiwan Coffee" and known as the godfather of Taiwan coffee, was invited to lead a team of professional judges from the Taiwan Coffee Laboratory (TCL) to serve as judges; for the coffee bean samples used in the coffee evaluation competition, Mr. Lai Yu-chuan, the 2014 WCE World Coffee Roasting Championship winner and pride of Taiwan, China, was invited to serve as the sample roaster.

The COFFEE POWER exhibition and sales event on the 11th was themed around "eating, drinking, playing and having fun." Visitors could taste the most distinctive coffee egg rolls, drink the most authentic indigenous hometown coffee, try the most unique coffee sand art, and enjoy performances by indigenous bands from various places, allowing the public to enjoy a coffee-themed feast on a leisurely weekend holiday! Event website: https://www.facebook.com/Pingtung.Coffee/