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Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee (TAIPEI QUARTERLY 2016 AUTUMN Vol.05)

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Post date:2016-09-29

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Reading Design, Savoring Chic
Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee

Article _ Chung Wen-Ping
Photos _ Chic-Jen Yan

Taipei is a place that eagerly absorbs all that is best in other cultures, resulting in superb, unique culinary experiences. As with all the world’s cosmopolitan cities, it has no lack of quality cafes. In recent years, there has been a boom in privately financed small-business startups, resulting in an explosion of cafes of wonderfully varied styles. They’ve become fashionable places for local residents to gather, and many have become pilgrimage destinations for tourists. The city’s unique “coffee scenery” is something that must be savored, inviting slow, unhurried discovery.

5 Senses Café – American Industrial-Style Chic
5 Senses Cafe (五感咖啡館) is  located outside the campuses of National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University of Science and Technology (國立台灣科技大學). The high ceiling is busy with the type of industrial-style decorative elements that define the cafe – deliberately exposed utility piping. The color of the cement walls is nicely complemented by the wood bookcases, chairs, and tables, and the large windows allow full view of the play of light and shadow in the greenery outside. This brings a feeling of warmth to the space while its original rugged industrial character is maintained. Shooting for popular idol dramas such as In Time with You ( 我可能不會愛你) and Love You ( 醉後決定愛上你) has been done here, taking advantage of the stylish minimalism, and the cafe has won a special place in the hearts of area students and Gongguan residents.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ 5 Senses Café features an interior design that integrates stylish chic with industrial elements, attracting many idol-drama crews for shoots. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)

The cafe has a pronounced academic air, with the look and feel of the reading cafes one finds on college campuses. Light foods are served, with sandwiches the signature offering. Only wholewheat bread is used, and manager Zheng Yaxin (鄭雅馨) says: “This is to protect the students’ health, and is not negotiable.” The Margherita Sandwich features house-prepared sun-dried tomatoes, two-color cheese, and basil leaf. These represent the three colors – red, white, and green – of the Italian flag. Light and refreshing, it is the cafe’s most representative taste selection. The Cheese and Ham with Doritos Sandwich is, indeed, stuffed with salty, spicy, crunchy Doritos. The menu’s various zany entries invariably makes people chuckle: “Young folk really do love this one!”
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ The 5 Senses Café dessert menu is quite whimsical and free-spirited, with different treats rolled out in accordance with the seasons and available ingredients. (Photo: Chic- Jen Yan)

The most unusual item from the dessert menu is “Not Sure Today” ( 今天不確定), which changes with the seasons, the chef buying ingredients fresh each day depending on availability and the mood of the moment. Sometimes it’s a sumptuous apple tarte Tatin, sometimes a more reserved matcha chiffon, or maybe a sweet, ice-cold coffee cheesecake akin to an ice-cream bar. Each little masterpiece is crafted with great care, each customer always guaranteed happiness.

TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ Store Information
The first floor has two large square tables that can each accommodate about ten people, with a recessed area in the middle fitted with sockets. These are extremely popular with patrons dining in groups and students hauling their books to prepare for tests in groups. www.facebook.com/5senses. cafe
85, Sec. 3, Keelung Rd.( 基隆路3 段85 號)
(02)2739-9556
Weekdays 12:00~21:00; weekends and holidays 10:30~22:30; winter and summer vacations 12:00~21:00

O’Bear Coffee – Warm Rustic Style
O’Bear is on a small lane in a quiet residential neighborhood with little commercial activity. However, from blazing-hot summer days to bleak cold nights, this place is always busy with coffee and bread fans. If you’ve ever seen the Japanese drama series Pan to Soup to Neko Biyori, you’ll know that the smell of bread wafting from the kitchen can give rise to a feeling of happiness impossible to describe, which makes it difficult to resist.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ Large glass windows look out onto the greenery, and allow sun and shade to flow in, inspiring a sense of warmth while maintaining the rugged industrial feel. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)

The owner, Wang Shu-li ( 王叔俐), decided three years ago to retire from a busy career as a product manager. He found this old-style two-story townhouse, a rarity in the city, and opened the kind of shop he liked, selling the things he loved making himself–desserts, breads, coffees, and Italian pastas. The handmade decorations primarily feature natural materials, notably cotton, linen, wood, and stone. Everything is laid out in homey countryside style, and there is seating along the walls and tucked into cozy corners, designed for peace and quiet, for those who want lose themselves in their thoughts and enjoy a bit of solitude.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ O’Bear decorations feature natural materials, presenting a country-village style. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ The bitter/sweet taste experience of the coffee and handmade cookie pairing at O’Bear echoes the experience of life. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)

No instant-mix packages or canned goods are used here. All breads, and sauces, etc., are made from scratch inhouse. Ingredients are purchased on regular visits to the Binjiang Market (濱江市場). O’Bear’s signature bread meal comes with a choice of one of three entrees: smoked salmon, bacon and eggs, or fried mushrooms, accompanied by hand-kneaded bread made with old-dough fermentation methods and specially selected extra virgin olive oil free of astringency and any grassy taste, resulting in a soft, mellow texture and taste. The cafe’s polished, fragrant single-origin coffees come with handmade cookies, chiffon cake, and pie, the contrast of bitter and sweet meaningfully echoing the tastes of life.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ Store Information
The wood boxes atop the petite tables are filled with organic herbal tea bags in all kinds of colorful flavors, all available for free for customers to try at home. There’s chamomile, lavender, rosemary ... just to name a few! www.facebook.com/OBear- Cofe
19, Ln. 213, Zhongzheng Rd.( 中正路213 巷19 號)
(02)2888-1100
12:00~21:00(closed Wed)

Leisure Kaffe – Scandinavian Lohas Style
Cafe owner Lu Wei-ting ( 盧威廷) has deep affection for the wilderness and relaxed, laid-back style of Finland, Iceland, and their fellow north European lands. He also loves how different coffees pleasure one’s taste buds with novel taste journeys. Bringing these two passions together, he opened the Scandinavian-character Leisure Kaffe (樂思咖啡). From spatial design to furnishings, and from bean selection to roasting to brewing, nothing leave’s Lu’s hand.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ Leisure Kaffe is bright and open; the owner recommends the terrace seating, bathed in pleasant sunshine. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)

Leisure Kaffe features bright colors and a roomy open-concept layout. Walls and corners are embellished with photos of beautiful polar-region scenery taken by Lu himself in Finland. He has also brought back Nordic elf dolls, tableware, and accessories from his trips. “Though I can’t actually live in northern Europe,” he says, “I want to live each day in a Nordic landscape.”
The premium coffees here, all handbrewed and free of acidity, bitterness, and astringency, possess melodious richness of body and pleasant sour/ sweet balance. Lu says that his selection of coffee is dependent on the mood of the moment. If in a happy mood, it’s from the Ethiopia Worka Cooperative, the mellowness and fruit sweetness stunning. When feeling pressure, it’s a cup from the Costa Rica Tarrazu Finca Montanas del Diamante, which has a sweet, nutty, melodious lingering finish, agreeably cool and refreshing as in the moments after a rain.
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ These Nordic-inspired cookies are dense, crunchy, and creamy. (Photo: Chic-Jen Yan)

The cafe’s sweet treats are also Nordic in style, but in keeping with the healthy-eating trend that has emerged in Taipei in recent years with their sweetness half or less than half of the Nordic originals. For the Finnish cardamom pudding, natural nutmeg powder and gelatin are added and the dessert is baked, followed by the addition of lingonberry jam. This delectable is chewy, soft, and sweet. The cafe’s dense, crunchy, creamy Nordic sprite-shaped cookies served with an ice drip coffee that has hints of red wine and smokiness form the perfect pairing!
TAIPEI AUTUMN 2016 Vol.05 Experiencing Life Aesthetics Through Stylish Coffee
▲ Store Information
The wood used on the terrace brings a soft, soothing ambience. While savoring the coffee and desserts, bathe in what feels like pleasant Nordic warming sunshine. www.facebook.com/2Lets- Cafe
7, Aly. 12, Ln. 71, Sec. 5, Zhongxiao E. Rd. ( 忠孝東路5 段71 巷12 弄7 號)
(02)2767-3718
8:30~21:00

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