Simple Kaffa

Berg Wu started selling coffee from a tricycle in 2009, two years before he opened Simple Kaffa in Taipei in 2011. In 2016 he became the first Taiwanese barista to win the World Barista Championship, a result that turned a small operation into one of Taipei's most closely watched coffee addresses.

The shop pairs a working roastery with a cafe built around a central marble bar, putting the roasting and the serving under one roof rather than splitting them across separate operations. That structure lets Simple Kaffa control its coffee from roast to cup, an approach consistent with the precision that won Wu his world title.

From a street tricycle to a world championship to a roastery-and-cafe with its own marble bar, Simple Kaffa's arc mirrors Wu's own path through competitive and specialty coffee, and the shop remains built around the same close attention to roasting and service that earned him the win.