Taiwan Drinks – Top 10+ best Taiwanese drinks to try

Let’s raise a glass to the best Taiwan drinks – and it isn’t just bubble tea, soy milk or Taiwan beer!

We have tried a lot of Taiwan drinks in many forms, from blending our own batch of Kavalan Whisky in Yilan to visiting Taiwan’s highest coffee roasters (Simple Kaffa Sola) atop Taipei 101.

The latest Taiwan drinks trend is coriander infused liquids like cilantro gin or coriander and peanut milk tea (surprisingly good).

According to 2025 statistics, there are around 29,000 drink shops in Taiwan, of which around 16,000 are bubble tea shops – now boba still dominates.

From sublime soft drinks like sugarcane and winter melon to strong spirits like Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor (cheers / ganbei!), here is our guide to Taiwan’s best drinks to try.

Taiwan checklist

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Best drinks to try in Taiwan

Bubble Tea / Boba Tea

Possibly Taiwan’s best known drink, Taiwan bubble tea is famous for its soft and chewy tapioca balls which you suck up through a straw.

Boba tea is said to have been devised in the early 1980s by the Chun Shui Tang teahouse in Taichung – they have gone on to big things with stores and tea-shops all over Taiwan plus branches overseas like in Hong Kong and Japan. Do check out the original branch Chun Shui Tang like we did, in our Taichung guide >

In Taiwan, you will find bubble tea stores everywhere and popular chains include 50嵐 / 50 Lan / FIFTYLAN, Gong Cha, Cha Time and Ten Ren’s Tea. We asked our Taiwan Travel Tips Facebook group what their favourite bubble tea brand is and you can see the results here >

Also look out for the brown sugar boba milk tea from Xing Fu Tang Flagship store in Ximending.

Incidentally, in case you are wondering, there isn’t really any difference between bubble tea and boba tea – boba is the name of the chewy tapioca pearls. Also, boba (波霸) was a 1980’s slang term for a large-breasted woman!

Taiwan Tea

Popular across Taiwan, the famous loose leaf tea is a popular purchase from tea-growing regions like Pinglin, Shizhuo and Alishan. Plus closer to Taipei, Maokong has a huge collection of tea houses that have sealed bags to take home (plus a tea museum where you can have a free cup).

Taiwan is most famous for its oolong teas and black teas, like High Mountain Oolong and Oriental Beauty. We would recommend a visit to the HOHOCHA in Sun Moon Lake (map) to taste lots of tea types!

Created over 30 years by the Wang family, HOHOCHA is centered around a massive 3 storey tea research center which has several gift shops, museum exhibits about the history of tea-making in the region plus a beautiful tea room on the top floor (extra fees apply)

Alternatively, visit the gorgeous green tea fields of Pinglin – it is such a nice day trip from Taipei and just under one hour’s drive away.

We visited Pinglin as part of our stay at Capella Taipei, where we had a private tour of Pinglin’s Fortune Tea Garden – we were shown how to pick the freshest leaves, post production processes including drying leaves plus tasted local oolong tea.

Pinglin is known for its Wenshan Baozhong oolong tea, and there are several tea plantations, museums and tea houses where you can taste it at the source.

Check out this Pinglin tea culture and Maokong day tour from Taipei >

Check out the range of Taiwan tea on Amazon >

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Taiwan Beer

Cheers / ‘ganbae’ to the Taiwan beer scene – the drinking culture in Taiwan can be fun for foreigners, from a beer tasting tour in Taiwan’s oldest brewery to cool craft beers and ‘sweet as’ fruit beers in convenience stores.

Iconic Taiwan beers include the eponymous Taiwan Gold Medal beer, Taiwan Beer Classic and our personal favourite, the Taiwan Beer “18 Days” (18天台灣生啤酒).

Taiwan and Taipei also has a burgeoning brewery and craft beer scene – check out the best Taipei craft beer bars >

When visiting Taipei, you must visit the Jianguo Taiwan Brewery (the oldest brewery) to try Taiwan’s national beer.

The Taiwan beer brewery tour lets you explore Taiwan’s first brewery (built in 1919). As well as seeing historic bottles, exhibits and brewing vats, you’ll learn how Taiwanese beer has influenced local culture and about different Taiwan beer types, plus lots of tasting opportunities too including the iconic Taiwan Beer 18 days and Gold Medal beer.

You can also book on a Taiwan brewery tour with TourMeAway here – use our TAIWANDERERS discount code to get up to 15% off any tour.

Find out more about the Taiwan beer scene, brewery tours and more >

Kavalan Whisky

Yes, there is a burgeoning and award-winning Taiwan whisky scene. You can purchase Kavalan’s whiskies from convenience stores, supermarkets and official brand stores.

A trip to the Kavalan Distillery 金車噶瑪蘭酒廠 (map) in Yilan county is highly recommended too. From learning about the production process to tasting or even blending your own unique Kavalan whisky, this is a treat for curious travellers or seasoned whisky connoisseurs.

Yilan was chosen as the location for the Kavalan distillery due to the region’s clean water supply from the snow mountains which is used in the brewing process.

Visitors can see the production process up close, take part in various activities or just enjoy some food and drinks in the splendid Spirit Castle.

From making your own whisky to the rather excellent gift-shop (plus free souvenir ink stamps), raise your glass and check out our guide to Kavalan Distillery >

Check out this Yilan Winery day tour (Kavalan Whisky / Jim & Dad’s Brewing Company / Yilan Distillery / Shenkeng Old Street) on Klook >

Taiwan Coffee

The Taiwan coffee scene is big with local chain coffee shops like Cama Coffee, Mr Boss Coffee and Louisa Coffee. And if you love your Starbucks coffee in the morning, you can get that here too with 600 Starbucks Taiwan branches, including some very unusual branches and unique Taiwan Starbucks mugs.

For a cool coffee experience, head to Taiwan’s highest coffee shop, Simple Kaffa Sola located on the 88th floor of the Taipei 101 tower (map). Simple Kaffa 興波咖啡 has 8 coffee shops in Taiwan serving award winning coffee but this one has the ultimate Taipei brews with views.

We also rate CHLIV who have several cool coffee shops, established by Chris Lin, a latte art lover who won the World Coffee Fest Latte Art Championship 10 years ago in Tokyo.

Mr Brown seem to be opening up some stylish new cafes like the several storey Mr. Brown Coffee Nanjing Concept Store 伯朗咖啡館南京概念店 (map) we drank at in Taipei – or their epic Mr Brown Coffee Castle 伯朗咖啡館 – 城堡一門市 (map) near Toucheng in Yilan.

Aiyu jelly

We first discovered and drank / ate Taiwanese aiyu jelly in the mountain town of Fenqihu, near Alishan.

We visited a couple of Fenqihu Aiju jelly juice stalls and tried brown sugar lemon aiyu drink plus an aiyu with wild starch pearl and basil seed / brown sugar smoothie. As we were aiyu addicts, we also devoured a Alishan star puff with pink ayu jelly from a local Fenqihu cafe.

Aiyu jelly is a tasty Taiwanese drink / dessert made from local fig seeds and often manufactured by Taiwanese indigenous groups.

Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor

We had our first taste of the Taiwan Kinmen Kaoliang liquor at Keelung’s Squid Bar – and wow, it blew our socks off! Luckily we tried the 38% ABV standard version and not the stronger 58% ABV version.

Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor distillery 金門酒廠 started production in the 1950s and is a transparent high-proof traditional alcoholic drink made from fermented grains like sorghum, manufactured on the island of Kinmen in Taiwan.

This Taiwanese kaoliang 高粱gets its distinctive taste from the pure Kinmen water and is aged in old military tunnels – it tasted good to us, based on what we remember! Yes, it is strong so please drink it responsibly!

Winter Melon Tea / Dōng Guā Chá

Despite the name, Taiwan’s winter melon teas usually contain no actual tea leaves or caffeine – known as 冬瓜茶 (dōng guā chá) it is a sweet as drink made by boiling winter melon (wax gourd) with sugar.

The Taiwan winter melon tea version you’ll try at most night markets is the traditional winter melon tea 冬瓜茶 but we’ve also seen it served with boba tea / tapioca pearls too or in milk tea 冬瓜鮮奶 form in convenience stores.

We tried this at Huaxi / Monga Night Market in Taipei as part of this TourMeAway evening food tour – use our TAIWANDERERS discount code to get up to 15% OFF.

Distinctive flavoured milk / soy milk

Milk-shake it out! We were quite ‘vanilla’ in our milk choices in Taiwan so we didn’t try many of these.

Soy Milk is also very popular in Taiwan but we did manage to try flavours such as black sesame soy milk or pistachio soy milk.

You can also try flavored milks like papaya milk, mung bean milk, mango milk and sweet potato milk, which are so popular in Taiwan.

Milk teas (including tea shop collaborations)

You will find MANY milk teas in the chiller section of Taiwan convenience stores – there must be 20 or 30 different flavors in the bigger stores.

As well as the usual tea flavors like mango, winter melon, lemon and tangelo, they often have limited edition milk teas like coriander and peanut (surprisingly good) and mung bean.

Taiwan tea-shop collaborations are increasingly common too like Oolong Tea Project, Kebuke, Milksha, True Dan and more.

Expect to pay around NT$25 to $40 for a chilled milk tea in 7-Eleven Taiwan.

Taiwan Iced Coffee

There are many Taiwan iced coffees like Mr. Brown Coffee but one of the most popular appears to the Chun Cui He (純萃。喝) Latte.

Many rate this as the best iced coffee in Taiwan! And many people want to take it back home after their travels! We also really rate the ready to drink Mr Brown coffee cans.

Taiwan Coriander / Cilantro Drinks

Taiwan definitely has an obsession with coriander – and not just food but unusual drink flavors too.

We continue to find new cilantro flavoured products in the convenience stores and supermarkets, from coriander white chocolate ice-cream to the super popular and bright green coriander Doritos.

Recently, we’ve started to see Taiwan coriander / cilantro flavored drinks too like coriander gin soda (not nice!), cilantro and peanut milk tea (lovely!) and coriander and lemon soda, in a can that has a whole sliced lemon.

We also talk about more Taiwan coriander products in our unusual Taipei guide >

Our final Taiwan drink to try

Taiwan sugar cane / gānzhèzhī

Another cheap and cheerful drink at most Taiwan night markets, this sweet sugarcane drink (甘蔗汁, gānzhèzhī) is usually freshly squeezed as you order, using massive rollers – it usually costs around NT$25 – NT$50 a cup.

Such a popular local drink, a local Taiwanese gentlemen once came up to us at Jingliao Old Street 菁寮老街 near Tainan and insisted on buying us a local sugarcane drink as he wanted us to try it. Taiwanese people are so kind!