China's coffee industry welcomes new ‘flavour masters'
KUNMING: The challenge appeared almost impossible. It required distilling into a single cup of coffee the spirit of China's revolutionary struggle, meaning a fusion of the sacrifice, resilience and hope that defined those momentous years.
For Zhang Shaoxiong, a technician sweltering in protective gear at Yunnan Comeng Industry Co Ltd (Comeng Coffee) in Baoshan, Southwest China's Yunnan province, this quest meant sifting through dozens of locally produced beans, conducting over 100 painstaking blending trials and tweaking roasting curves.
His ultimate creation, named The Age of Awakening, is a richly layered, mellow yet profound thematic coffee that resonates emotionally and is much more than just a co-branded release by the Baoshan Coffee Association and the Memorial Hall of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China in Shanghai last year.
This blend of coffee symbolises the precision now demanded by China's soaring coffee culture, formalised in July by a new profession: a state-certified coffee processing technician.
In a nation famed for tea, a new generation of technical artisans manipulate chemistry to turn coffee beans into liquid sonata, powering an industry surging toward a one trillion yuan valuation.
The task of a state-certified coffee processing technician, one of 17 new professions recognised by China's Human Resources and Social Security Ministry, is officially defined with scientific rigour – they convert coffee cherries into green/roasted beans, final products or derivatives by operating coffee processing equipment.
The institutionalisation of this profession demonstrates the maturation of China's coffee market and signals the sector's impending transition toward specialised, precision-oriented development.
But to Zhang, what people see as simple roasting or grinding, is just the tip of the coffee iceberg.
'Coffee processing technicians are actually multi-skilled flavour masters,' he said.
'Our craft requires intimate knowledge of each bean's 'birth information,' razor-sharp sensory evaluation skills to dissect acidity, body and aftertaste across dozens of dimensions, and the ability to harness chemical reactions for targeted flavours,' Zhang said, adding that rigorous quality control and data-driven analytics guarantee product consistency and safety. — Xinhua
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