Wide Living Cup

The story of Wide Living Cup starts with a streetlamp.

In September 2013, I started an occasional street busking session under "Lamppost No. 2," to the right of the main entrance of the National Chung Hsing University library. Guitar, cicadas, the air by Chung Hsing Lake, geese out for a stroll — we sat on the ground, and anyone who stopped to listen was the audience.

For a few years, the smell of coffee sometimes drifted under that lamp. We'd invite friends from the coffee club to bring their gear, and while I sang under the lamppost, they'd brew.

That's also when I met my wife. I sang, she brewed.

Looking back, that's where music and coffee first crossed paths. Neither of us imagined that over a decade later, an after-class hobby would grow into a little side business.

In September 2014, a college friend and I rented a rooftop add-on at the corner of Hezuo Street and Jiancheng Road in Taichung. The day we moved in, we held a "fridge inauguration ceremony" — we invited friends to each bring a dish to go with drinks, officially declaring "Little Cup House" open for business.

Little Cup House was an experiment in cooking and eating together. Back in college, we loved potluck dinners — everyone brought one dish, and the rest of the time was for talking. A line we wrote back then later became the spirit behind the name:

"Small occasions deserve big celebrations; a small cup can already hold a big satisfaction."

In September 2015, we moved out of Little Cup House, and the new place naturally became "Wide Living Cup." From then on, the name followed the people — it was the word we used for get-togethers in Taichung. It stayed the name of a place, and also the code word for a group of us agreeing to eat together. From 2019 to 2021, Wide Living Cup really was the home I shared with roommates, and it became the signal old friends used to recognize each other when they reunited.

Coffee really became a hands-on craft for me in Miaoli. In September 2017 I joined "Laojia Coffee / Laojia Arts & Life Space." The first question the owner asked in my interview was: "Are you a kind person?"

At Laojia I learned pour-over from scratch, under a mentor who mattered enormously to me. He was quiet, focused, light-handed, and precise — brewing looked less like technique and more like him savoring a cup's whole arc from start to finish. What he taught wasn't parameters first. It was caring about what flavors the person in front of him usually liked, picking the bean that fit the moment together, then bringing the gear to the table to brew and drink side by side.

He always said: "Coffee that brings happiness is good coffee."

It went from "your bar" to "our Laojia" — the place became the main hub of my life and livelihood in Miaoli. In July 2020 I "graduated" from Laojia and stepped away from the coffee industry for a while (Awei went off to be a PM at an old-tree conservation foundation, then HR at a top spa in Taichung — but that's another story).

But I still love drinking coffee.

Later, Laojia Coffee started an amazing association: the Taiwan Slow Living Education Association

My mentor also opened a gorgeous hidden specialty pour-over shop tucked inside a market: Pure Life

Xiaoshimei is a 1993 Ruishi light truck I brought home in June 2022 — about as old as I am.

The reason for buying her was simple: carry more people, carry more stuff, go more places, do more things. The previous owner, the guys at the repair shop, the friend who talked me into buying her, and Awei's car-savvy dad all pitched in with technical support — so over the years, she's kept running into people who love her.

Since then, car meetups, sleeping in the truck, driving deep into the mountains for volunteer story-reading at a small school — Xiaoshimei has covered more ground than I ever expected. (Total mileage so far: 360,000 km!)

In late January 2026, a few names converged on the same truck. After a few rounds of trial runs and tweaking the service flow, the "Wide Living Cup mobile coffee bar" officially launched.

Xiaoshimei is the vehicle we run the business out of. Pop-up times and locations are irregular, announced on FB, IG, and our LINE official account. It's mostly a side gig for my off hours, and a way to make friends along the way.

These days, Wide Living Cup does three things:

"Mobile pour-over, curated beans, coffee delivered to your door."

Pour-over to make friends, curated beans worth drinking, good coffee at home.

A streetlamp, a rooftop add-on, an old home, an old truck — the name has changed a few times, but what we actually do hasn't:

"Bring people together, brew a cup of coffee that brings happiness."

Coffee's always like that — it tastes better shared.

Because this is "Wide Living Cup," after all! There's plenty of coffee to go around!

(Last edited 2026.09.13)