Where to Buy Tea in Taipei: My Most Recommended Tea Shops

Taiwan is known for producing some of the highest quality artisanal teas in the world, especially high mountain oolongs.

After sharing my favorite traditional tea houses in Taipei, where you can partake in gongfu tea ceremony, now I want to introduce the best places to actually buy tea in Taipei, including the country’s most famous kind, Alishan High Mountain tea.

Taiwanese teas make the perfect souvenir to take home from your trip (see my other recommended Taiwan souvenirs and snack souvenirs). Every time I visit Taiwan, I return home with at least a dozen bags of teas – this is my favorite kind of shopping in Taipei!

Without further ado, here are my favorite places to buy tea in Taipei!

Jing Sheng Yu

Jing Sheng Yu (京盛宇, here, official site) is a relatively new teashop just off Yongkang Street, an area famous for its many Taiwanese restaurants and traditional teahouses.

The shop came to my attention because one of my best friends tutors the owner, Lin Yu-cheng (林昱丞), in English. According to my friend, Lin and his wife, who run the shop together, are wonderful people and extremely passionate about tea. Watch an interview with the owner here.

Jing Sheng Yu has a modern and a gorgeously designed interior, with a long, tiled bar where the teas are displayed and prepared. It feels like you’re a guest in an upscale tea lover’s kitchen.

Guests can take a seat on a high stool and enjoy complimentary samples of tea which are prepared using Zisha teapots (紫砂壺, also called Yixing teapots or 宜興壺). Chinese tea enthusiasts the world over consider these the optimal vessel for brewing tea.

Various teas are laid out so you can smell, taste, and learn all about the different varietals. This is ideal for anyone who is less familiar with tea but wants to know more.

Unlike other more traditional tea shops I will recommend below, Jing Sheng Yu offers more varied products including high quality teabags, iced teas, decaffeinated teas, and of course regular loose tealeaves.

If you’re looking for a nice gift to purchase for someone back home, there are some elegant gift boxes containing multiple teas.

If you’d like a tea to enjoy on the spot, there’s a menu of over a dozen teas to choose from, which you can take hot, iced, or cold brewed (TWD 110-220). The tea comes with a pineapple cake from SunnyHills, one of the most famous brands of pineapple cake in Taiwan.

Lin Mao Sen Tea Co.

Lin Mao Sen Tea Co. (林茂森茶行, here, see official site) has for many years been my go-to place to buy bulk tea in Taiwan.

The tea company has origins going all the way back to 1883, when it was started by a tea farmer named Lin Wan-xing (林萬興) from Shiding district in New Taipei City. The current owner is the 5th generation descendent, and the name Lin Mao Sen is his father’s. Some family drama has resulted in a second shop opening next door (see next entry below).

The tea shop is located in historic Dadaocheng, a few blocks from Dihua street, the “oldest street in Taipei”. Tea and other dried goods have been sold in this area ever since the city’s founding.

Despite the age, Lin Mao Sen is newly renovated, so it has a handsome interior, with rows of dozens of huge metal barrels of loose tealeaves, the same way the teas have been sold since the very beginning.

When I say “bulk” tea, it means that you purchase tealeaves by weight. The prices displayed are for one jin (斤) of tea, a traditional Chinese measurement equivalent to 600 grams. Minimum purchase for a bag of tea is a quarter of a jin, or 150 grams.

Some lower quality teas, for example imported black tea from India, go for as low as TWD 60 per jin.

For common Taiwanese teas, such as Baozhong (包種), Tieguayin (鐵觀音 or “Iron Goddess”), Oriental Beauty (東方美人), or Alishan High Mountain tea (阿里山高山茶), they come in a range of qualities, for example 800, 1600, 2400, or 4000 per jin.

Unless you are a serious tea connoisseur, the 2^nd or 3^rd highest quality is probably good enough for you.

One major plus is that the staff at Lin Mao Sen speak excellent English and they take credit cards. On the downside, if you’re buying teas as gifts, they don’t come in the nicest bags.

They also sell some lovely tea pots and tea sets here. I bought the tea set that I use every day here. But for the ultimate selection, though, you’ll want to visit Yingge Pottery Street in New Taipei City.

Lin Hua Tai Tea

Next door to Lin Mao Sen, Lin Hua Tai (林華泰茶行, here, official site) is very similar to Lin Mao Sen but with an older feel.

In fact, Lin Hua Tai is the original tea shop dating to 1883, while Lin Mao Sen (now the more famous of the two) was split off and formed by the eldest brother of the 4th generation descendants. This two sides even went to court over it, as reported in this 2014 article, and now they just co-exist side by side.

The tea shops looks like Lin Mao Sen probably did before being renovated, with an older, more traditional vibe.

There is a similar range of teas, and helpful staff can also speak English and provide samples. This one does NOT take credit cards.

Mingxinfang High Mountain Tea

On my most recent trip to Taiwan, I visiting Mingxinfang High Mountain Tea (茗心坊台灣高山烏龍茶, here) near Da’an MRT station. Their official site is here.

My two kids and I were warmly greeted by the owner, Lin Gui-song (林貴松), who was seated at a traditional tea brewing station at the side. Lin invited us to sit as he began to prepare gongfu tea samples for us. He was very kind to my kids and offered them candies.

Lin is clearly extremely devoted to his craft. As the water boiled, he showed us his huge book of notes about teas and a hand-drawn map showing the elevations of various Taiwanese teas. Lin gladly gave me a copy of this map and other informational papers about Taiwanese teas.

All the tea bags in his shop come with sleaves that he has personally done calligraphy characters on.

According to Lin, he uses a unique roasting method for all his teas and they are all organic. This means that they can preserve their flavor longer and don’t need to be rinsed before brewing.

Lin told me that he believes Taiwan’s Lishan tea (梨山茶) is the sweet spot of quality vs cost and is his most recommended tea. He also has Dongding (凍頂茶), Pu’er (普洱茶) cakes, and a few others.

Due to the unique preparation method and high quality of the teas at Mingxingfang, they aren’t the cheapest. A quarter jin (150 gram) bag of the Lishan goes for TWD 1100, while the same size of Dongding is 800.

Lin told me he doesn’t speak much English (we were conversing in Mandarin), but he has a staff member on hand who can.

Wang Tea Refinery Tea Factory

Another tea shop in the Dadaocheng & Dihua Street area is Wang Tea (有記名茶茶廠, here, official site). You’ll find it facing Chaoyang Tea Park, which is named for the many traditional tea shops in the area.

The tea shop also has well over 100 years of history. It was initally founded in Xiamen, China in 1890. The current owner’s great-grandfather moved to Taiwan in 1935 and re-established the shop in 1949.

You wouldn’t guess the age from the lovely interior, but a dead giveaway is the traditional tea roasting room at the back of the shop, where teas are roasted on site over coals.

This is the only tea shop in Taipei where you can see such a thing – just ask the staff if you can take a look at the room. But please note that there are times when they are not actively roasting teas, so you have to be a little lucky to see it.

When I entered the shop, I instantly noticed the fantastic smell from the roasting teas.

As long as you visit when one of their English-speaking staff members is present, you’ll be given a mini tour, lesson about their history and teas, and you can sample a few of them. Their specialties are baozhong and high mountain oolongs.

Besides looseleaf teas in gift-worthy packaging, they also sell some tea pots and tea sets.

Other Tea Shops Worth Seeking Out

• Chengpion (埕畔茶坊, here): This tea shop near Ningxia NM offers a full sampling session to help you find the tea for you. They ask that you reserve a spot at least one hour in advance.

• Ten Ren’s Tea (天仁茗茶): A tea shop chain with at least a dozen locations in Taipei. You can purchase various decent to high quality tealeaves, while some branches have seating areas to enjoy your tea there or hot and cold teas to take away.

• Sheng Xiang Tea Shop (昇祥茶行, here): A traditional, family-run teashop near Linsen Park in Zhongshan district.

• Heji Tea Shop (合記茶行, here): Traditional tea shop near Taipei Main Station with female boss.

• Taiwan Treasure Teas (臺灣之寶茗茶, here): Traditional tea shop in Ximending.

• Expo Farmer’s Market (花博農民市集, here): There are usually a few vendors selling teas at the weekend-only Expo Farmer’s Market at Yuanshan, just outside Maji Square open air dining street.