From bottled cold brews to cocktails, three tea entrepreneurs are combining a reverence for Taiwan’s traditions with drinks that will appeal to younger people.
While Taiwanese tea has always been transforming, the outsize influence of its tea masters saw it stop innovating for a long period, an academic says.
At first glance, it’s not clear what the sun-soaked storefront in the fashionable Xinyi district in Taipei is selling. It can easily pass for another chic cafe, or maybe, after spotting the glass flasks holding a pale amber liquid, you might assume it’s a bar specialising in whisky.
Look closer, though, and you’ll find that the flasks hold not liquor, but brewed small-leaf black tea. Jewellery dishes of loose-leaf teas invite you to pause and take a sniff. Glass contraptions hang along the main wall, making ice-drip tea…