Chun Shui Tang

Chun Shui Tang began as the Yangxian Tea House, founded in Taichung in 1983; after its founder Liu Han-jie travelled to Japan and was inspired by iced tea, the shop became one of the first to serve cold-brewed tea. Around 1986 the product developer Lin Xiu-hui stirred the tapioca pearls she had loved as a child into a tea blend, creating the first bubble tea, which the house dates its formal launch to 1987.

From Taichung, bubble tea swept across Taiwan and, after the 1990s, across the world, becoming one of Taiwan's most iconic drinks; although the Hanlin Tea Room in Tainan also claims its invention, Chun Shui Tang is widely regarded as its birthplace.

Its bubble tea pairs freshly cooked brown-sugar tapioca pearls with iced milk tea, prized for fragrant tea, mellow milk and the bouncy chew of the pearls; Chun Shui Tang pioneered serving tea cold-brewed, setting the technique on which modern hand-shaken drinks are built.