From its bustling cities to dramatic landscapes, Taiwan has something for everyone. Delve into the heart of the island through its flourishing coffee and chocolate producers, innovative craft beer and cocktail makers, vibrant art scene, rich aboriginal and Hakka cultures, and the historic charm of Taipei’s Dadaocheng district.
Each of these avenues is a unique and immersive way to explore Taiwan’s multifaceted charm and vibrant spirit. The first of our five articles will cover Taiwan’s homegrown coffee and chocolates. Watch the video below to check out our interview with these makers!
Taiwanese Coffee Culture
While Taiwan is world-famous for its quality teas, it has also seen a meteoric rise in coffee culture, with local growers cultivating high-quality beans in the island’s unique microclimates. Coffee beans have been cultivated since the 19th century in Taiwan’s high mountain chain – with peaks exceeding 3,000m – running the length of the island.
Today, Taiwanese coffee is cultivated by just over 400 artisan farmers with small farms across the country, so their beans are rarely found outside of Taiwan. Many farmers actually roast their own coffee and run small cafes to generate revenue. This means that the best way to savour Taiwanese coffee is by visiting boutique cafes dotted across the island or in plantations high up in the mountains.
The flavour of Taiwan’s coffee bean is unlike the usual blends you’re used to, as most of them tend to have a fruity aroma and flavour. The preferred way of serving the coffee is the pour-over method, resulting in a fresher, cleaner, and more nuanced flavour.
Coffee is mainly produced in four counties – Tainan, Alishan, Pingtung, and Yunlin – with each region yielding slightly different flavour profiles. The harvest season runs from November to May. The largest coffee production area is Yunlin, which is home to high mountains and volcanic soil that results in coffee with nutty notes and low acidity. Pingtung’s forested mountains and Alishan’s high mountains are also popular places to sample coffee, but most visitors tend to head to Tainan’s foothills near the hot spring town of Guanziling.
The Coffee Highway
One of the most authentic places to experience Taiwan’s homegrown coffee culture is along the famous “Dongshan 175 Coffee Road” in Tainan County. This famous winding mountain road is lined with numerous coffee plantations and rustic cafes where you can sip a cup of coffee while gazing at amazing mountain views. Some cafes, like Dachu Coffee, offer coffee plantation tours where you can see the entire process from farm to cup, and then you can enjoy some fresh coffee afterwards.
The founder of Dachu Coffee, Mr Guo, has been producing coffee for over 30 years, after having taken over a plot of land that once cultivated coffee a century ago. Today, his café, perched 700 metres up in the mountains of Dongshan, is a popular spot for enjoying a cup of coffee and a meal – and playing with the cats – while taking in an unobstructed view of the mountains. You can see all the way to Kaohsiung in the south and even to Penghu Island just offshore on a clear day!
If you’re lucky, you can even get Mr. Guo to give you a tour of his coffee plantation just up the hill. His plantation cultivates 5 types of Arabica coffee, and you can learn to distinguish between washed, sun-dried, honey-processed, and other types of beans here.
If you can’t make it to the mountains, you can still enjoy Taiwanese coffee at various cafés across the island. In addition to Taiwanese coffee chains such as Louisa , 85°C or Cama Café, there are nostalgic coffee shops as well trendy cafes like Simple Kaffa where you can enjoy Taiwan’s vibrant coffee scene.
Pingtung: Chocolate County
Tucked among the palm trees and lush, subtropical landscape of Pingtung County in southern Taiwan lies an industry that is captivating consumers with its unique homegrown chocolates. In fact, Pingtung won 59 awards at the 2023 International Chocolate Awards (ICA) Asia-Pacific Bean-to-Bar and Craft Chocolatier Competition!
What’s even more remarkable is that every stage of chocolate production in Taiwan, from cocoa tree cultivation to processing, takes place within the region, resulting in the world’s shortest production and processing distance. In comparison, cocoa-producing regions like Africa and South America export raw cocoa for global processing, which often leads to significant deforestation of rainforests.
Pingtung County is home to numerous cocoa growers, and many of them offer tours of their farm (the harvest season is year-round) and chocolate-producing facility. At farm tours, you’ll get the chance to see cocoa trees, and even taste the fruit of a cocoa pod. Once cracked open, the cocoa fruit contains about 20-60 seeds surrounded by white flesh resembling mangosteens, with a sweet-tangy flavour akin to soursop or even custard apple. However, it’s the bitter seeds that are actually turned into chocolate.
From betel to chocolate
Taiwan’s cacao industry owes its existence to Chiu Ming-Song, the “father of cacao.” At 70 years old, he’s been cultivating cocoa for almost two decades after taking over his family’s betel farm. He’s since helped other farmers in the area by offering them seedlings he’s nurtured. Today, Pingtung County is home to dozens of chocolate brands, with over 200 hectares dedicated to cocoa plantations.
Mr Chiu produces chocolate under the Choose Chius brand, and he also runs a restaurant where you can have a meal and a taste of his homegrown chocolates and coffee (the coffee beans are also grown on his farm alongside cocoa). Mr. Chiu is also happy to take guests on a tour of his farm that’s attached to the restaurant.
Not far away is another popular chocolate brand, TC Choco, run by Chiu Chun-yu. Here you can not only visit the cocoa farm, but also take a glimpse at the factory where they produce small batch chocolates. While there isn’t a cafe, the shop offers tasters of their chocolates, and they even have chocolate beer and chocolate ice cream.
For Choose Chius and TC Choco, the cacao beans are sourced not just from their own cacao plantations, but also from nearby farms by contracted farmers.
The chocolate producers in Pingtung offer a range of varieties; the most common is the 100 percent cacao chocolate, which lets you experience the true taste of the beans. For those unaccustomed to pure chocolate, there are 50% – 90% versions which have added sugar. Unlike commercial chocolates you find at supermarkets, Taiwanese chocolates have a uniquely tangy-fruity flavour. Some local chocolate makers are also adding local ingredients to their chocolate – the most common include Taiwanese teas, flowers or fruits.
If you can’t make it down to Pingtung County, you can sample some Taiwan chocolates at specialty chocolate shops in Taipei. One such shop is COFE in the city’s trendy Dadaocheng district, which specialises in chocolates infused in Taiwanese tea (like Alishan Oolong, Tieguanyin, Oriental Beauty, and others) and coffee (like Alishan geisha).
