As I explained in my previous blog about my recent trip to Taiwan, the oldest part of Taipei is home to a number of reassuringly traditional, established tea stores that have been trading for many years, but in the more modern streets of this busy town, a number of stylish and strikingly contemporary tea stores and tea rooms are now buzzing with enthusiastic customers.  During my visit in May, I took a stroll with my companion Jackson Huang of ABC Tea to explore both types of shop.

The traditional stores are usually family owned and run and so, while father or grandfather sit at the wooden brewing table chatting with regular clients, and the womenfolk serve behind the counter, children or grandchildren often sit doing homework or watching television in a back room, happily entertaining themselves but under the watchful eye of the older generation.  There is an inevitable and perfectly natural overlap between business and home, and tea encompasses family life.  When familiar customers arrive to buy tea, the children often wander through to the front of the shop to say hello to these valued family friends.

Ranged on the shelves of the stores we find brightly coloured packets and tins of pouchongs, fragrant semi-balled oolongs and Taiwan’s prized ‘Oriental Beauty’ teas, those wonderful, honeyed, open-leafed oolongs that are made in the early summer after the little green leaf hoppers that visit each year have bitten the leaf and worked their magic to give the tea its powerful floral sweetness.  

There too on the shelves are stacks of Chinese Puerh tea, wrapped in bamboo leaves or tissue paper and marked with all the manufacturer’s details, while shop windows are the ideal showcase for pretty porcelain tea bowls and jugs, carved wooden scoops, and earthenware tea pots.

Sometimes, customers ask for the darker-leafed, baked oolongs that have been allowed to slowly dry out in a special baking oven where the caffeine content is reduced and the sweet fragrant aroma and flavour becomes richer and more complex, with satisfying tones of burnt caramel, sticky treacle, liquorice, chocolate and charcoal. 

One merchant in this old part of the city who is famous for his baked teas is Mr Lin and we go next to visit his store.  As we walk in, the rich aroma of the roasted leaf fills the air and we go through to the room at the back of the shop where he bakes the large quantities of these teas in a tall electric oven.  The charcoal used traditionally is no longer in ready supply so most merchants rely on electricity to produce their lightly baked and heavy baked oolongs.  Mr Lin selects one or two fresh, fragrant oolongs from his stock and a couple of baked varieties and brews them for us so that I can compare the character of the two, very different types.  The floral aroma and flavour of the fragrant oolongs is always stunning but the roasted character of the baked teas is mouth-filling and intriguing.

Away from these ancient streets, we wander through the noisy modern shopping centres to discover the newer tea stores that, following the trend we are seeing all over the world at the moment, have opened in the past couple of years.  The first we visit in Chang-Chun Road is Wang De Chuan Tea Company, a beautiful Chinese-style store with references to ancient traditions in its décor but with a carefully styled modern minimalism that is totally charming and alluring.  The company has opened four new tea shops in the past three years and, with excellent quality products and kind, helpful, and informed staff, is doing extremely well. 

The girls behind the counter in this branch greet us with smiles and immediately offer bowls of tea while they explain the range of products they offer - High Mountain oolongs, Iron Goddess of Mercy teas, Wuyi Rock oolongs from China, aged teas, green teas, Chinese black, white, yellow, puerh and flower teas, hand-wrapped teabags and some exquisite porcelain tea wares.

 Against one wall there are also two long bundles of ancient straw-wrapped compressed tea called Chen Lian Cha from China’s Hunan province.  This very expensive aged tea has been made there for hundreds of years and was originally wrapped in bamboo matting to protect it on its journey by horse or camel to customers in other parts of China. Before we leave, I wander upstairs to a room where special exhibitions are held and find tables arranged with perfect little bonsai trees - delicate miniature versions of their much grander forest relatives.

A few shops away on the same street, we find Geow Yong Tea Hong Trading Company, where again, we are offered little bowls of tea to sip while we wander around the store.  The mood here is one of modern charm and appeal; vivid orchids decorate the shelves and packaging is bright, colourful, eye-catching and tempting.  At the back of the shop is a table around which customers are offered the opportunity to taste some of the teas before deciding what to buy.  Everyone smiles and offers thoughtful assistance.

Now it’s time for an early evening snack so we walk a little further along Chang-Chun Road to the King Pin Best Tea Company to drink tea and nibble some of the shop’s delicious dim sum.  Behind a large glass screen that divides shop from kitchen, the chef and his team craft hundreds of little dumplings ready to cook and serve steaming hot to the steady stream of hungry customers.  We tuck into ours with relish and wash them down with bowls of yet more golden oolong tea. 

In another part of town, the Ten Ren Cha Company is also famous for its extensive list of quality Chinese and Taiwanese teas and the three floor branch that we visited has a retail department on the ground floor, a restaurant on the second and a private dining area and tea school on the third.  This is an Aladdin’s cave of tea wares, brewing equipment, books and information.  Packaging is rich and bright, the menu of both food and teas is enticing and satisfying, and the knowledge and expertise impressive.

As we drove and walked around Taipei during my stay, it was clear that on most streets, new and established tea stores offer the local people all the teas they could possibly wish for.  You don’t have to go very far to find just what you want.

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