For tea, ride the Maokong Gondola up to the tea hills on Taipei's southern edge and sit down in a teahouse with a pot of local oolong. For coffee, Taipei has a serious specialty scene, led by Simple Kaffa, the café of the 2016 World Barista Champion. And for bubble tea, you only need to walk to the nearest corner. One honest note first: the city's most famous teahouse, Wistaria, is closed for restoration.
Tea in Taipei
Tea made Taipei rich. In the 1860s merchants in Dadaocheng, by the Tamsui River, began selling Taiwan's oolong abroad, and tea drinkers as far away as New York took to it. Some of the tea traders' old houses still stand on Guide Street, a block from Dihua Street.
Maokong: tea on the hill
Maokong, in Wenshan District, is Taipei's own tea-growing area, and the place to drink tea where it grows. The two local oolongs are tieguanyin (鐵觀音) and baozhong (包種), one of the lightest oolongs, close to a green tea. Dozens of teahouses sit along the ridge, many with views back over the city, and the gondola from the Taipei Zoo gets you up there.
→ Maokong: the gondola and the teahouses
Wistaria Tea House (closed for restoration)
- Status Closed for restoration since 16 December 2024; no reopening date announced
- Address 1, Lane 16, Section 3, Xinsheng South Road, Da'an District
- MRT Taipower Building Station (Green Line, G08), about 10 minutes on foot
Wistaria Tea House (紫藤廬) is a Japanese-era wooden house, built as a residence for senior officials of the colonial government. In the 1950s it was home to David Chow, head of the customs administration, and liberal scholars gathered there; in the 1970s his son Chow Yu opened it to opposition figures and artists. Chow Yu turned it into a teahouse in 1981, named for the three old wisteria vines in the courtyard, and it became a meeting place for the opposition movement of the 1980s. When the government tried to take the house back in 1997, a campaign by artists and writers saved it as a protected historic site. The tea house closed for restoration on 16 December 2024. Check its official website for news before you go.
Bubble tea
Pearl milk tea (珍珠奶茶) is Taiwan's gift to the world, and it was born in the mid-1980s, though not in Taipei. Two teahouses claim it. Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan says its founder, Tu Tsung-ho, added white tapioca balls to milk tea in 1986. Chun Shui Tang in Taichung says its employee Lin Hsiu-hui made the first cup in 1987. The two went to court, but neither could patent the drink, and by the mid-1990s it was on teahouse menus everywhere. Curious about Hanlin's home city? See Taiwan's food capital, down south. For Chun Shui Tang's side, Inside Taichung covers the bubble tea court case and where to drink the original in Taichung.
In Taipei, bubble tea chains are on almost every corner. Order by size, sugar level (from full to none) and ice level, then add pearls. Half sugar is a good place to start.
Coffee
Taipei takes coffee seriously, from a café that has been brewing since the 1950s to some of the most decorated baristas in the world.
Simple Kaffa
- Flagship (Huashan) 27, Section 2, Zhongxiao East Road, Zhongzheng District. Open 10:00 to 17:00, daily
- MRT Zhongxiao Xinsheng Station (Blue Line, BL14; Orange Line, O07)
- Sola (Taipei 101) 88F, 7, Section 5, Xinyi Road, Xinyi District. Open 09:00 to 19:00, daily; window seats by reservation
- MRT Taipei 101/World Trade Center Station (Red Line, R03)
In 2016 Berg Wu (吳則霖) won the World Barista Championship in Dublin, the first Taiwanese and only the second Asian to take the title. His café, Simple Kaffa (興波咖啡), now has a flagship near Huashan 1914 Creative Park and Simple Kaffa Sola (天空興波), on the 88th floor of Taipei 101, where the view seats are booked ahead and the rest are walk-in. Check the shop list for current hours and for booking.
Fong Da Coffee
- Since 1956
- Address 42 Chengdu Road, Wanhua District (Ximending)
- MRT Ximen Station (Blue Line, BL11; Green Line, G12)
- Hours Check hours on Google Maps
Fong Da Coffee (蜂大咖啡) opened in Ximending in 1956 and is said to be the first café in Taiwan to serve iced coffee. It still brews cold coffee in vintage drip towers, a slow, hours-long process. Order at the counter before you sit down, biscuits included.
→ Ximending → Taiwanese breakfast → What to eat in Taipei
Want to see tea grown and made? Inside Tainan covers a day in the Alishan tea farms from the south. → Tea near Tainan
Sources
Wistaria Tea House history and closure: Wistaria Tea House official site and Taipei Times (2001). Dadaocheng tea trade: Taipei Times (2018). Maokong teas and teahouses: Taipei Times (2008). Bubble tea origin: Taipei Times (2018). Berg Wu: Focus Taiwan (2016). Simple Kaffa locations, hours and reservations: Simple Kaffa official site. Fong Da Coffee: Taipei Times (2019).
Checked October 2026.