"Alluring Scent Coffee Estate," located in Lalauya Village of Alishan, Chiayi County, is around 1,100 meters above sea level. This coffee estate is situated in a very special border area between three villages: Lalauya, Tapangu, and Niaeucna. According to roaster and the person in charge, Wu Jhao-Yun, Alluring Scent Coffee Estate is positioned in the valley; therefore, duration of sunlight is shorter compared to other coffee farms. That is the reason why he does not plant additional shade trees. Thanks to such affluent natural ecological environment in the farm, Reeves's muntjac, Crested serpent eagle, and Taiwan's smallest owl, "Collared owlet", are frequent visitors here.
Originally, Wu grew vegetables of high altitude; however, the harvest time of vegetables is quite short. That made her very stressful during harvest season. Compared to that, harvest time of coffee was longer and less stressful. During the period of catastrophic floods caused by Morakot Typhoon, access roads were heavily damaged. Farmers were greatly impacted by such disaster. Therefore, Wu started to grow coffee. At present, major varieties that she grows include Typica, SL-34, as well as a small amount of Geisha and 74110. In the future, she expects to increase the production of Geisha by grafting. Wu says that each of her family member is in charge of a part of coffee processing in "Alluring Scent Coffee Estate." Her parent is in charge of field management, her mother coffee processing, and she roasting, selling, and online marketing.
Regarding the characteristics of "Alluring Scent Coffee Estate," Wu said that it is the aroma of tropical fruits and alcohol by fermentation. This is also the reason why their coffee is so popular. Concerning coffee processing, due to its rather distant location, on-farm processing is adopted. They always do their best to use the same method and to process coffee beans in small batches in order to maintain the same taste and flavor.
Wu expresses that through the healthy competition created by the coffee tasting events, people from this industry can learn from one another; besides, it also creates chances to get to know more coffee traders and growers. She made many friends and learned the knowledge and skills about coffee during this process as well. She has a deeper understanding of field management, coffee processing, coffee roasting, sensory evaluation, and cupping. In the process of competition and learning, she knows clearly where she should go on this coffee journey.
This year, due to her parent’s health issue, Wu has to take over all the coffee production jobs by herself to fight for the chance to participate in the PCA. Last year, she couldn't make it because of the shortage of green beans in stock. This year, no matter how hard it is, she completed the batch for competition on the day before the deadline. She expects the coffee from “Alluring Scent Coffee Estate” to go onto the global stage and show coffee gourmets from around the world such wonderful specialty coffee from Taiwan.
