江偉君的勵志雜記

Do you like your coffee cold? A lot of Taiwanese do.

Over the last 7 years, a number of chain coffee shops have sprung up and started to dominate junctions and street corners all across Taipei. This trend is echoed in other cities across Taiwan too. The three main chains are Crown, 85 degrees, and Donutes. They each serve a range of coffee styles as well as some styles of tea. They also have a variety of cakes too. I think the cakes at Crown are better. I haven’t tried the cakes at Donutes, but they look nice.


The quality of coffee from these outlets is open to debate. Personally, I like the coffee from Crown and Donutes. Some people would disagree and have a preference for 85 degrees or maybe some other coffee shop. There are also plenty of Starbucks around town, but they are much pricier.

There are smaller coffee shops and stands dotted around the city, and in most cases the coffee is freshly ground and brewed while you wait. In most places the menus are in English and Chinese, but the menus of some of the smaller shops and stands are only in Chinese. Either way, it certainly helps to know what a clerk might ask or say to you, and even better if you can reply back to them. If you don’t like sugar in your coffee, then let them know, as sugar is standard in most places, and if you don’t want your iced coffee overloaded with ice, then you will also need to make that clear. So to help with that, here’s a couple of useful phrases.

No Sugar: Bu Yao Tang
Not too much ice: Shao Bing

After using excessive body language to identify which item from the menu you would like to order, the clerk may ask if you want it hot or cold.

Hot: Re de (pronounced rer der)
Cold: Bing de

Most Taiwanese coffee drinkers, and particularly in Kaohsiung, like their coffee cold. Before I came to Taiwan, I always thought cold coffee was as popular as the coffee creams in a box of Cadbury’s milk tray. In other words not very popular at all. And, although I still like a hot cup of coffee every now and again, iced coffee is top of my wish list on a hot and sticky day in sunny Kaohsiung.

What drinks do you go for?