Coffee Culture in Taiwan

Taiwan is a small island state that regularly punches above its weight in the artisanal coffee sector. Natives of the country regularly place in international barista contests and have taken home a number of wins in the past ten years.

Besides the ubiquitous 7–11 and Family Mart stores selling cheap espresso coffee drinks 24–7, there seems to be a fancy boutique cafe on every corner in any major city in Taiwan, in which a high-profile and world-class artisanal coffee culture is brewing.

Baristas in Taiwan range from those with professional ambitions to participate in national and international contests to those who have a more casual interest in introducing the culture of fine coffee to the average Taiwanese.

We talked to a coffee distributor and a barista who owns a coffee trike to learn more about Taiwan’s gourmet coffee culture, the factors underlying it, and where it’s heading.

Taiwan’s History of Coffee

Although Taiwan’s first coffee plantations were established by the Dutch as early as 1624, its cafe culture began under Japanese rule with the introduction of the Kissaten (喫茶店) or coffee house in the 19th century.

These kissatens pretty much reflected coffee culture in Japan, where elites gathered to discuss politics, art, and other intellectual matters. By 1949, Japanese rule had collapsed, and the KMT fled from Mainland China to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communist Party and established military rule.

This may have slowed down the growth of coffee culture in Taiwan, as the Chinese elites who migrated from the Mainland with KMT were wedded to drinking tea. However, by the 1990s, the coffee shop mania that had taken over the U.S. since the 1970s finally reached the shores of Taiwan.

This mania was quickly adopted in Taiwan, and local coffee chain stores, such as Mr. Brown Coffee, became a hit among Taiwanese. However, local coffee shops like Mr. Brown Coffee did not exactly deal with artisanal or specialty coffee.

It was instead more like a Taiwanese spin on second-wave American cafe chain stores like Dunkin Donuts, and it used mixed and low-quality beans that were dark roasted to even out the taste.

Then, in 1998, Starbucks finally opened its first branch on the island–the first sign that the era of specialty coffee culture had finally arrived in Taiwan.

Modern Specialty Coffee Culture In Taiwan

Increasingly, small boutique cafes selling specialty coffee are defining the coffee scene in Taiwan. These establishments vary in character. There are small cafes that can fit no more than three persons or even coffee trikes, which are little more than a coffee stand on a bike.

They are run by owners who seem fuelled by nothing but love for artisanal coffee and the passion to teach Taiwanese about the fine art of coffee. We spoke to one of them.

Vic owns a small coffee bicycle cart from which he sells cold coffee brews called N2 Coffee Bike. He talks about just how much barista culture in Taiwan has changed in the past ten years in terms of coffee selection.

He explains, “Before . . . [dark roasted] coffee beans with a bitter taste [were preferred], because they [were] often used with dairy products or sugar.

“But now consumers are more diverse, and [some] do not [like adding] milk or sugar [at all]. So . . . light-roasted coffee beans with fruity acid [flavors have gained more popularity]. Baristas have a wider [bean] selection and prefer [trying] beans from more countries.”

This shift has been the basis of the switch from espresso-based coffee making to pour-over coffee. Vic explains, “Semi-automatic espresso machines have always been used by most coffee shops, but now more and more shops use pour-over coffee . . .80 percent [of coffee shops now] use this method” to achieve a more “authentic flavor.”

Then, there are the larger boutique cafes that serve specialty single-origin coffee, which are quite unabashed about taking commercial advantage of the Taiwanese hyper-obsession with Instagram and selfie culture.

They often have what I call an Instagram section–that is, a prop or setup that can be used as a backdrop for pictures to look cool on Instagram.

An Abundance of Choice for the Taiwanese Coffee Drinker

However, these boutique cafes do not account for the amount of coffee being guzzled by the average Taiwanese. That honor goes to the convenience stores that supply Taiwanese with coffee as fuel for work.

This type of coffee is drunk first thing in the morning and throughout the workday. That’s understandable. The country, after all, has some of the longest working hours in the world, ranking №4. globally. The ubiquitous 711, Family Mart, and OK stores throughout Taiwan, which are open 24–7 cater to the needs of such coffee drinkers.

The average Taiwanese drinks 200 cups of freshly brewed coffee every year. And spending only a few minutes in any big Taiwanese city makes it easy to see why these convenience stores account for the vast majority of the coffee guzzled in Taiwan.

These stores are everywhere, literally on every street corner, and often only a stone’s throw away from each other. Plus, they’re open 24–7. It also must be said just how cheap the coffee they sell is–The average price of a medium latte is around $1.45 USD at most.

In addition to the boutique cafe and convenience stores, the third type would be specialty chain stores. This includes both foreign brands like Starbucks and local coffee specialty chains, such as Kama, 85C, and Louisa.

These local chain stores, especially Louisa, have emerged as a just-as-chic and even more affordable alternative to Starbucks. Louisa, with its striking logo of an oranged-hair lady in a black profile, aims for the same “third place” atmosphere as Starbucks.

This chain store tries its best to create a cool and relaxed vibe that is perfect for attracting students, remote workers, office workers on their breaks, and other casual coffee drinkers. Plus, their near-perfect matcha lattes are legendary.

This chain store seems almost as ambitious as Starbucks or rather the local 7–11s in its attempt to open branches every few blocks in every major city.

The deep and wide-ranging Taiwanese love for the dark brew appears to be fertile ground for a robust caffeine-fuelled industry.

Taiwan’s Ambitious Artisanal Coffee Culture

There are levels to artisanal coffee, and in Taiwan, a certain class of Taiwanese baristas are aiming for the stars. They rely on a two-pronged strategy–sourcing the most premium coffee beans from across the world and using innovative methods to emphasize the unique flavor profiles of rare and expensive coffee varieties.

And the results speak for themselves. A number of Taiwanese have taken home international wins in barista contests. Berg Wu won the 2016 World Barista Championships, Chad Wang won the 2017 World Brewers Cup Championship, and, as recently as October 2022, Sherry Hsu also won the World Brewers Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

Berg Wu, the trained engineer turned barista, famously experimented with the idea of infusing essential oil into his coffee and cooling down his hot portafilters to create a more aromatic coffee. And both he and the winner of the 2017 World Brewers Cup, Sherry Hsu, used exclusive and highly prized Geisha coffee varietals to secure their wins.

Aven Lin is a coffee distributor and a local organizer of coffee contests in Taiwan, and he expresses pride and confidence in the rapid development of Taiwanese artisanal coffee culture, especially compared to Japan, the gold standard in the East.

He says, “In Japan, it took like 150 years, while in Taiwan and China, it took like 20 years to develop [a] high-class coffee culture.”

Based on the rapid and impressive development of the island’s artisanal culture and the wins they have racked up so far, we should expect Taiwan to remain a force to reckon with in the world of gourmet coffee.