Since founding the Japanese boutique coffee brand Pokka Coffee in 1991, President Pauline Wong has been dedicated to the improvement of coffee bean quality and coffee preparation technique, and to promoting boutique coffee culture in Hong Kong. In 2013, she founded Institute of Boutique Coffee Consultants.

Specialty coffee does not always mean expensive coffee, and Pauline defines specialty coffee as ‘quality coffee chosen from meticulous selection’. Through professional coffee grading, the origin of a coffee and factors affecting its flavors are discerned, as the quality coffee beans is stabilized. She believes that only by selecting and roasting each coffee bean by hand can one present the best premium coffees to consumers. While the hand-picking of coffee beans consumes considerable time and resources, she insists on doing the task herself.

Few people may know that coffee beans are highly susceptible to the external environment in their handling, such as being eaten by insects, going moldy, or becoming faulty from drying up. All these will affect the coffee’s flavor and texture, and the coffee beans should be examined carefully. If faulty beans and taints are not removed from the coffee beans, the coffee will not only taste acidic and repugnant, but may also cause undesirable bodily reactions like palpitations and stomachache. On the contrary, a cup of finely brewed coffee from meticulously selected beans will captivate the consumer with its intricate textures.