The China Post
Date: August 21, 2016
By: Amber Wang, AFP
n this picture taken on July 20, a Lin Hua Tai Tea staff member offers a cup of tea to a customer at the tea shop in Taipei. Taiwan has been producing tea for over 200 years and a cup of the island’s famous oolong tea is obligatory for many visitors, but exports have been knocked by rising labor costs and bubble tea has been eclipsed by a carefully crafted cuppa. (AFP)
TAIPEI — Cheap instant “bubble tea” has become one of Taiwan’s best-known culinary exports — now a new wave of entrepreneurs hopes a high-end modern take on traditional brews will also be sipped worldwide.
Taiwan has been producing tea for more than 200 years and a cup of the island’s famous oolong is obligatory for many visitors, but exports have been knocked by rising labor costs and bubble tea has been eclipsed by a carefully crafted cuppa.
Often artificially flavored and loaded with milk, sugar and tapioca pearls, bubble tea has in recent years gained a global following, from Southeast Asia to the United States and Europe.
Ultra-modern tea shop “Xie Xie” is one business trying to turn the tide back to sophistication.
Founder Xie Yu-tung, 30, comes from a family of tea producers and uses leaves grown on their plantations in Taiwan’s mountainous Dayuling and Lishan areas. [FULL STORY]