All Day Roasting Company – Taipei (TW)

As you approach the HQ of All Day Roasting Company you are momentary mislead into thinking that the large front room of the café and roastery is a gorgeous, sunny patio until you push open the heavy wooden door and you are greeted by a wall of cool air. In the tropical heat of Taiwan it is hard to spend any time outside around midday, so in hindsight it was rather refreshing to sit in the sun without the heat.

All Day Roasting Company is by far one of the most impressively equipped and beautifully designed coffee roasteries that I came across on my recent visit to Japan and Taiwan. It’s pretty clear that no costs were spared when realizing founder Louross Kuo’s dream of owning and running one of the most ambitious specialty coffee roasteries in the country.

After settling down at one of the individual tables by the bar and being offered a delicious iced coffee to cool down my body temperature, I was given a tour of the facilities that finished with a close inspection of the roasting space at the back. Louross has only been roasting here for a few months but already his coffee lineup includes some all time favourites such as the Nano Chala, Biftu Gudina and Finca Tamana.

All of the roasting is done on a Diedrich IR series 5kg roaster. Louross explained: “I chose this particular roaster because for me as a rookie, I feel that using a Diedrich is a bit safer.” He went on to say: “In many European countries and the US people play by the book. They use stats and recipes for each coffee but I feel like here, people use their gut feel and experience more. I want to learn fast and get better at what I do but I am not as rigid about following the rules.”

So far all of the coffee roasted on site is used only at this particular location but Louross has his eyes set on supplying some of the many brilliant coffee shops in Taiwan in the near future.

Next to the exquisite coffee menu, one can also enjoy some delicious homemade cakes and simple sandwiches, but the focus is firmly on the coffee. “Until Berg Wu won the World Barista Championships this year, no one really had Taiwan on the radar when it came to specialty coffee, but the truth is, we have some really amazing specialty coffee shops here and the local population loves drinking coffee,” Louross said.

If All Day Roasting Company is an indication as to what the future of Taiwanese coffee holds then it will be a bright future, no doubt.