Instant “bubble tea” has become one of Taiwan’s best-known culinary exports — now a new wave of entrepreneurs hopes a high-end modern take on traditional brews will also be sipped worldwide.
Taiwan has been producing tea for more than 200 years and a cup of the nation’s famous oolong is obligatory for many visitors, but exports have been knocked by rising labor costs and bubble tea has eclipsed a carefully crafted cuppa. Often artificially flavored and loaded with milk, sugar and tapioca pearls, bubble tea has in recent years gained a global following, from Southeast Asia to the USs and Europe.
Ultra-modern tea shop Xie Xie is one business trying to turn the tide back to sophistication.
Photo: Sam Yeh, AFP
Founder Xie Yu-tung (謝雨彤), 30, comes from a family of tea producers and uses leaves grown on their plantations in Taiwan’s mountainous Dayuling (大禹嶺) and Lishan (梨山) areas.
Her sleek all-white tea boutique is stacked with teabags in book-like boxes and clear cylindrical bottles of ready-to-drink cold brews.
“I think Taiwan has the best oolong and it’s a pity that it’s not seen all over the world,” Xie said.
Xie Xie sells pure and flavored oolong — a fragrant, semi-
fermented tea.
Infused with spearmint, chamomile, rose and ginger, she hopes the pretty packaging and ready-made bottles will attract uninitiated foreign customers. At NT$680 for 10 teabags, she says it is a reasonable price for top tea.
“Every step [in producing oolong] has to be exact. I think the craftsmanship involved matches that of international luxury products,” she said.
Xie has served up her tea at the Venice film festival, Paris fashion shows and Milan design week since launching two years ago.
Other entrepreneurs are hoping to create a cafe culture that will entice younger generations. At David Huang’s (黃大衛) salons in Taipei, customers order pots of organic Taiwan-grown tea served up alongside tea-flavored French pastries.
“I don’t want to see tea-drinking fade into history because young people think it’s old-fashioned,” said Huang, who opened the salons after studying marketing in France. “It is one of the things that most represents Taiwan.”
Huang’s “Zenique” brand of pure and flavored oolong, green and black teas do not come cheap — a small tin starts at NT$409 and can cost up to NT$1,890.
Huang said it is a price worth paying for a high-quality product and he counts seasoned tea drinkers among his regular customers.
First-time salon visitor Anne Yu, 30, said she likes the “chic and tasteful” feel to the place.
“I started to drink more tea recently after I got palpitations from drinking coffee,” she said, between mouthfuls of green tea and almond cake topped with a macaron, washed down with osmanthus oolong tea.
“I like tea better now,” she said.
While industry experts say the average age of tea drinkers in Taiwan is rising, entrepreneurs like Xie and Huang are giving the business a fresh edge.
“To some young people, running a tea company is attractive and trendy; it’s like being the owner of a French vineyard,” Association of Taiwan Tea president Lin Chih-cheng said. “They feel like they are part of a creative, cultural industry.”
Huang and Xie have regular international clients and are hoping to expand the list. However, there are still those who argue that no-frills is best.
At tea store Lin Hua Tai, leaves are still processed in a factory at the back of the shop, using traditional methods unchanged for the decades it has been in business. Standing in Taipei’s once-bustling “tea street,” it is one of only a few tea stores to remain.
The shop buys raw tea from plantations across the nation and sells 100 types, from basic brews to the pricey “Oriental Beauty” oolong, which can go for more than NT$4,000 per 600 grams.
Tea leaves are stored in stainless steel barrels and packaged in plastic bags printed simply with the store’s name and contact details. The shop says its loyal clientele has been won purely by word of mouth. While it is dedicated to maintaining traditions, Lin Hua Tai is also trying to inspire younger generations by giving store tours and tea tastings to students.
“Children drink bubble tea, but they don’t know what oolong looks like, or that there are many more types of tea. When they get interested, they will grow up drinking more tea,” shop manager Joanne Kang said.
Kang said it would be easy to transform into a “pretty store” and recognizes the shop now faces trendier competition.
“But then everything would change and we would not be who we are,” she said.
CLEAR BEFORE LEAVING: Two baby boys and a woman in her 30s tested negative before departing for Japan, but tests taken after their arrival came back postive Three Taiwanese tested positive for COVID-19 when they arrived in Japan earlier this month, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday as it reported a new imported case. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), head of the center, said that one of the three cases in Japan is a Taiwanese baby under the age of one, whose parents work in Japan. The infant came to Taiwan with his parents in January, and the parents paid for the family’s COVID-19 tests on Oct. 10 ahead of their planned return to Japan on Monday last week, he said. The boy and his
‘BACKED BY ENEMY’: CTi News is one of the few channels promoting unification, the New Party chairman said, while pro-Taiwan groups called it a propaganda outlet Pan-blue camp supporters yesterday lodged a protest at the National Communications Commission (NCC) against what they say is a possible move by the government to shut down CTi News, adding that politics should not interfere with freedom of the press. Protesters included representatives from the New Party, the Blue Sky Action Alliance, the 333 Political Party Alliance and other pan-blue groups. “We stand here today because CTi News is one of the few media outlets in Taiwan that is still willing to give groups supporting unification with China a voice. If the news channel is gone, there would only be
NEW YEAR’S EVE: Examples from South Korea and Japan show that 15 local COVID-19 infections could emerge in a short period if measures are not taken The Taipei City Government would cancel its New Year’s Eve Party and all large events if 15 or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 are reported in the city within a week, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday. Addressing the Taipei Cross Border E-Commerce Annual Convention, Ko said the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many uncertainties to society, and that e-commerce is on a path of no return and would continue to grow. Many countries have not effectively controlled their COVID-19 outbreaks, and although Taiwan implements strict border controls and there have been few inbound passengers, the pandemic is unlikely to end soon,
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused CTi News of trying to mislead the public by publishing a half-page advert claiming that the party interfered in the National Communications Commission’s (NCC) review of its application for a license renewal. CTi News is distorting the commission’s review process by painting it as a political conflict and turning it into a smear campaign against the DPP, party spokeswoman Yen Juo-fang (顏若芳) said. “The NCC is an independent body, which carries out reviews and makes decisions based on its members’ professional expertise, as well as regulations and legal requirements governing media operations,” Yen said. “We condemn
RSS