Uncle Zhang’s turn point on his 40th

 

Editor | A grass eating designer

 

 

 

What is the power source for communication?  

Maybe you can’t find it on Baidu, because I made it.

This time I want to talk about communication.

 

I really don’t like keep talking with people for a long time.

This is like smash my own sign,

Are all the previous conversations fake?

I have met and talked with so many people, but I didn’t like it at all?

 

No, no,no

 

Actually I can only say that I am a person that lack the communication power supply.

For example, I probably only use 20% of my power to communicate,

I like to stay away from people to charge myself, get along with myself.

(Yes, I like to stay at home)

 

Constant communication is a platform of exchange for many coffee drinkers.

Exchange of ideas are important to build your network of friends.

People who are open to communication will enjoy it.

Through each communication we will improve our communication skills

They are always full of energy, and even can be healed through communication.

 

Unfortunately, I am just the opposite.

Every time I have a communication, my"communication power" drops.  

When it is over, there will be a whole bunch of things need me to do.

You might even get a collapse state.

 

I wonder if anyone has the same power supply like me?

This time we visited a TV professional who is also engaged in film and TV.

He may spend all his time on communication every day.

Why did he end up in the coffee industry from TV professional industry?

This time let's take a look at the turning point of our coffee voyager Zhang Lei 

 

 

 

 

 Kunming’s “Heirloom”

1.jpg

 

As a native from Yunnan province, I have been living in Kunming-the capital city. It’s a laid-back city with a slow pace of life and a very livable climate all year round.

This is the "Treasure" of Kunming. You don't have to be rich to live comfortable here.

Such a slow pace of life enables me to know about coffee and learn more about coffee then falling in love with coffee.

 

 

 

Media Student

2.jpg

 

I was majoring in media in university, and after graduated I worked in a television station for six years. After that I also worked in advertising for a few years. There was a day that I have learned a little about coffee, and it was at that time I came into the coffee industry.

The TV station will give you many opportunities to get in touch with friends from all walks of life. However, after six years of working in this industry, although I have memories,I have lost my love for it. Being away from home almost the whole year, I couldn’t stay with families and friends made so sad and really wanted to go away.

And coffee brings me a different lifestyle, so that I have more time to share love and happiness with my friends. After I have learned more about coffee roasting, I couldn't help learning more about it. Although some friends did not understand why I was doing such a boring job, they could feel it after they tasted the coffee that I roasted.

Now, every time I see my friends drinking the coffee that I roasted, it's worth it!

 

 

 

 The chance of coffee 

3.jpg

 

Actually, it was one of my friend wanted to open up a cafe. I just followed my friend and the designer to visit places. "Do you need a busboy?" I joked. She said, "Yes, I do!” This kind of joke, brought me to the coffee journey, for my whole life.

 

 

 

Beijing, cognitive, go back to ‘school’

 

After that joke, I started my first coffee trip. Like many of my friends who want to open up a café now, it was a cool thing to do for me, open up a café, and to be a popular Barista. But I there were so many difficulties that I didn't expect after I tried it.

Although our café was hot in Kunming at that time, when the business went good, they needed to book a table in advance to get a seat. Because of that, I was so busy that I did't have any time for myself and my family. I felt like I was just a robot, didn’t have time to learn how to make the best coffee.

So that I decided to leave coffee industry three years later, didn’t want to touch any coffee cup, didn’t want to find any job that related to coffee because it is totally different from what I imagined.

By chance, I met a foreigner in Beijing. In his café, I had my first real taste of specialty coffee – the flavor of fruit, flower, brown sugar, tea feeling… Perfect! At that moment, I found that I fell in love with coffee again!!

After that, I often went to drink coffee with that foreigner and I have learned a lot about coffee that I did not know before from him. It turned out that coffee was much more profound than I had known before, I felt like I know nothing about coffee!

I had read a lot of books, but many of them were repetitive, for the other part, each author has their own understanding of coffee, this make me very confused.

 

 

 

 Turning Point on my 40th

5.jpg

 

When I was 40 years old, I began to learn the best and newest coffee knowledge overseas in a formal and systematic way. Not only I want to be a good barista to make a nice cup of coffee for my friends, but I also want to be adisseminator for coffee culture and spread the best, newest and most practicalcoffee knowledge to everyone who loves coffee.

Sometimes this makes me feel tired, but every time I share delicious coffee with my friends, every time when I share my knowledge of coffee to students or friends around, all the exhaustion is gone!

Coffee has now brought me not only the enjoyment of taste and smell, but also the great motivation to keep learning.

 

 

 

Why do I want to learn roast? 

6.jpg

 

The most important thing was because of the light roasted beans I have tasted in Beijing! Although I have been making coffee for a few years, I know a little about roasting, I only know about Italian espresso, subconsciously, I think all roasted beans are almost the same as espresso!

It was the very first time that I felt something completely different! That’s why I loved to drinking coffee with that foreigner, because I wanted to know more about the flavor things, wanted to listening him describe them by different roasts levels. At that time I didn't have the chance to try roasting by myself! But I also learned a lot about roasting that I didn't know before.

 

 

 

When’s my opportunity to roast?

7.jpg

 

After I came back to Kunming, I got to know a teacher who had many years of roasting experience here, and then I started to learn from him. I also had the opportunity to roast a batch of coffee by myself. In retrospect, it was very ordinary, but I did baked beans.

I was extremely exciting! After that, I decided to start my roasting life. I wanted to use my knowledge to express the awesome characteristic of coffee. I want to be the important part to connect coffee farmers and consumers.Therefore, I will try harder to learn about coffee roasting and share my experience with you.

 

 

 

 Change one-sided understanding of coffee 

What I really want to change is the one-sided understanding of coffee from the people around me, which make many people misunderstand coffee!

 

 

 

If no one drinks coffee

 

 If this doesn't happen, as long as we have the passionate of coffee and working hard, the number of people will only increase and the quality of coffee will get better and better! I have every faith in it! So we need to work harder!!

 

 

 

What do you like to do in your spare time?

9.jpg

 

 One of my favorite sports is football, especially in Kunming!! As long as time permits, I will play it every week!! And also because of my media major, so usually I’ll watch movies after work, listen to music also!

Occasionally I will play phone games with friends!! Last but not least, I do not only drink coffee -- as a native of Yunnan, it is also necessary to drink tea with friends and chat!!

 

Click to read more articles by Zhang Lei : 

How to reduce smokiness during Coffee Roasting

 

 

Everyone has their own unique perspective to meet yourself, like and dislike. It's like my strange power supply of communication. It doesn’t mean that I hate everyone, but I do feel physically drained after spending time with people, even if I don't do anything.

Compared with communicating with people, I’d rather read books. Everyone has their own hobby, but what I want to say is, can you stand up to yourself? Too many work places force you to do what you may not like? But complaining doesn't solve problems. The first step to solve problems is to be honest, and then to find solutions step by step :)

So, stand up to yourself. Keep trying. Age isn't a problem, but is the problem that blinds you to your true feelings.

 

 

The fourth generation of coffee growers – Nilton Perez

Do you like to do what you are doing now? What do you like, do not like, those questions are very subjective.

It’s like the coffee from different region has different flavor American, Asian, African, everyone has their own hobby horse.

It's not easy to conquer everyone's taste buds with just a cup of coffee 

Maybe because of many choices, the quality of coffee can never stop improving, getting better and better. 

Nothing is perfect, whether human being or coffee. Or being the one and only Mr/Ms Right. Compared to plants, people has the ability to think, to develop, to create, to change things.

Try your best to change from the thing you don’t like to whom you want to be. It is harder to keep the business than to start a business 

Today our coffee voyager, the third-generation coffee farmer from Guatemala is also a coffee planting nursery to share with us about how he grows in the coffee industry step by step and helps the family's estates to do better.

4th Generation Coffee Farmers

1.jpg

My name is Nilton Perez I am from Guatemala, I am fourth generation of coffeegrowers in Acatenango region, I have been related to coffee all my life, myfather move to the city with my mom so my brothers and I can study in a betterschool, when I finish my high school I enter to the university, to study Engineerin Agriculture, for 6 years, when I finish the university. 

I move to the farm to learn of my dad how to run a farm, he teach me all his knowledge of farming coffee. 

I was working in the farm for 5 years, and then I move to the city towork in a big company that has a lot of agricultural productions including coffee, so I notice that they produce a lot of coffee, but they don’t have any controlabout the coffee they were producing, so I propose to start a new project, of making a cupping lab and a roastery so we can have quality control and alsosell some roasted beans in the city.

3.jpg

So I start with the project and it was approved, so it was something new about thecoffee I didn’t know, so I hired a Cupper Master and he start teaching me allabout cupping coffee and Roasting coffee. 

I manage that project about eightyears when I receive an opportunity to move to another place a big andbeautiful farm in Antigua Guatemala to manage the quality control of the coffeeand the roastery so this was a beautiful experience. 

The Farm name was Filadelfia, a coffee resort that I always call theDisneyland of coffee farms,I was there for two years when I moved to the city to manage a cupping lab only for specialty coffees and micro lots, amazing coffees all around Guatemala, so I was working there when I receive a call from a good friend of mine so he ask me if I want to come to China to teach some coffee knowledge, and guess what was my answer? 

Now here I am working with coffee and having a great time sharing knowledge with different and friendly people that receive me very friendly way.

What were you doing before you ventured into the coffee industry?

I always have been involved in coffee, sobefore coming here I was selling roasted beans in the city from my farm and I’m still doing it and I was in charge of a cupping lab of quality control ofspecialty coffees of Guatemala, beans that where exported to different parts ofthe world

 Why “coffee”?

I think because is in my DNA all my family has coffee in our veins, for us islife. we love coffee and all the family is dedicated to coffee, my grandfatherstarts buying land to plant coffee and there was the beginning of a tradition. 

It’s been a beautiful experience working with coffee, giving work to a lot offamilies that depend on coffee, helping them to have better lives for theirfamilies, and working and believing that my family is blessed by God, to permit us to work with this amazing productthat is coffee. 

Not only to our families coffee is very important but for thehall Country is the main product that creates work and international incomes tothe country and also help the country environment because coffee farms are artificial forest that create a lot of pure oxygen and helps to the soil to keep it in good shape and for the water resources.

 I enjoy the roasting the most!

I think I love so much working with coffee but my favorite moment is when I’mroasting is the most relaxing and happy experience in coffee industry, I think all coffee chain is very important in all aspects but the part of the chain that I enjoy the most is roasting.

It is when coffee suffers a lot of changes and develop all the amazing characteristics it has inside is like he is sharing with us all the effort of the farmer and all the nature characteristics that God has created inside that beautiful bean, not only for the color the smelland all the sounds he make while the people is roasting the coffee, it’s nicejust by roasting you can tell that the coffee will give you all the amazingattributes that you can taste in a cup of coffee.

From your journey in the coffee industry, have you noticed anything that you would like to change?

Maybe some details related to standard things here everyone is toostrict with standards and sometimes with coffee we need to be more flexible and let coffee talk to us yes we need to understand coffee, is a natural productthat is constantly changing and the better way to understand coffee is to feel it, for an example when you are roasting coffee just to see the color sent the aroma you can notice that coffee is going to be good, a lot of changes areoccurring inside that bean and not always if works always the same way, so that’swhy I mean to be more flexible with standard and feel more the coffee.

 What would you be if everyone were to stop drinking coffee? why?

I would be roasting coffee and trying to convince people again that drinkingcoffee is not only a pleasure but a lifestyle. 

Also is very important to mention that we need to appreciate good coffees , weather is changing allaround the world and this is affecting a lot the quality for coffee, high temperatures, less rain water, not in time, diseases that were out of highland coffee farms now they are affecting quality in coffee.

11.jpg

So, in some years maybe in some countries is going to be hard to find specialty coffees so we need to appreciate the effort of all the people that is involved in the coffee chain because it really is a titanic effort to bring you a perfect and tasty cup ofcoffee.

Play football

I always like to practice some sports and my favorite sport would be play football with my friends.