Spinning is an attitude — A bike café in Keelung fulfills the owner’s coffee dream

Photos & Text / Mazi Bear (Mr. Neurotic Bear Blog)  

I took a regional train in the morning and after over an hour’s ride, arrived in Keelung, a place known as the Rainy Port.

As I stepped out of the train station, the air — a mix of salty sea breeze and gasoline — hit me. To me, this is the distinctive scent of a port city, and also the smell of my hometown. I come from another port city, just as rainy as Keelung and just as mountainous. But unlike Keelung, the harbor back home is famous for its seafood, while Keelung is mainly a commercial hub for transshipment, long serving as a key transportation node in northern Taiwan.

But today, I came to Keelung not for a geography lesson, nor to reminisce about my hometown — I came for the coffee.

The owner of “Maru-Kaku Spinning Life,” Liu Jianming, originally ran a bike café in front of a Jiufen guesthouse. To hone his skills, he not only participated in the 2010 Taiwan Barista Championship but also apprenticed at a well-known café. He eventually ended up at the current location on Keelung’s Xia’er Road, where he opened this rather oddly named café.

As for “spinning,” here’s what Wikipedia says:

Spinning refers to the motion of an object rotating on its own, revolving around an axis that runs through the object itself, called the “axis of rotation.” Generally, this axis passes through the center of mass of the celestial body.
Stars and planets all spin, and most smaller celestial bodies do too. As collections of celestial bodies, galaxies also spin.

Although the café name puzzled me, I really liked the interior — it felt bright and full of artistic flair.

The color scheme was warm and bold, with lots of quirky little decorations. All in all, it’s a space that won’t bore you.

The owner seemed quite the character — really cool-looking — though at first glance a bit reserved (though maybe that’s just because we’d just met... and I might’ve been a bit reserved too). He had insights into everything from brewing to roasting coffee, not like me who just fumbles around blindly with coffee-making. He’s truly skilled at adjusting brewing techniques based on the coffee’s condition.

The tables in the café were made from the bases of sewing machines, which reminded me of the Sleeping Beauty story — the beautiful princess falling into a deep sleep after touching the spindle of a spinning wheel, only to be awakened by a prince.

Sidamo Kabeito from Ethiopia, washed process, brewed via pour-over.

The first sip revealed a rich and delicate floral complexity, followed by dried fruit notes in the mid-palate, and finishing with a clean fruitiness — the flavors were very well-balanced.

The café’s coffee-flavored crème brûlée had a strong, aromatic coffee flavor that blended beautifully with egg and vanilla notes, plus a crisp caramel crust — the taste was truly enchanting.

Just as I was nearly done with my coffee, the owner handed me a drink that looked quite mysterious, served in a traditional Japanese copper cup.

He said this drink was made by cold-brewing dried coffee cherry husks — a friend of his who helps coffee farmers in Alishan with technical improvements received these husks as gifts from the farmers, and they eventually made their way to him.

As for the taste...

When I was a kid, my grandfather planted a whole row of small shrubs with tiny white flowers in front of our old countryside house. He would pick the white blossoms, dry them, and steep a handful in boiling water to make flower tea — a regular drink in daily life. The taste of this coffee husk tea reminded me a lot of that flower tea.

I only know those little white flowers were called “Bo-bi-la,” but I could never find their official name. After growing up, those white-flowering trees never appeared in my life again.

The owner said the copper cup was brought back from Japan. I didn’t feel right asking if he’d part with it, so I just chatted casually about how someone recently brought me a Sweet Maria’s monkey cup from the U.S.

That cup was genuinely stunning.

They say spinning is an attitude.

When I think of that, the only thing that comes to mind is biking — just you, spinning round and round. Though it may look like you’re going nowhere, you’re actually steadily moving toward your goal. Maybe the process is a bit dull, but that’s precisely what highlights the value of perseverance. Or perhaps pedaling is like life — constantly oscillating between highs and lows, and we must learn to keep pushing forward amid those cycles.

The courage and perseverance to persist without giving up are also essential factors in realizing dreams.

After a lot of hard work, Liu, the boss, is now gradually making his coffee dream come true — may this dream keep spinning on.

【MaruKaku Self-Rotating Life Café】
Address: No. 28, Xiao’er Road, Keelung City
Phone: 02-2427-3028
Business Hours: (Closed every Monday)
10:00–22:00 (Tuesday to Friday)
10:00–23:00 (Saturday to Sunday)

“Maji Bear” has more great articles here: http://bear-oj.blogspot.tw/