Yangxian Tea House

As early as 30 years ago, popular shopping districts in Taichung City were all surrounding the train station. The Siwei Street (四維街) behind National Taichung Girl’s Senior High School (台中女中) had centralized dozens of bubble tea house. This hand-shaken bubble tea was the hottest stuff in Taichung at the time. In 1987, Yangxiang Tea House was only a typical bubble tea house as others on the street. Sooner or later, after its owner decided to add tapioca balls into bubble tea to create a brand new drink called “pearl milk tea (珍珠奶茶)”, the tea house became overwhelm popular over a night and tea houses all over Taiwan imitated the recipe one after another. A month later, the tea was renamed as “Chun Shui Tang (春水堂)” and became the known origin of world-famous pearl milk tea.

The trend of pearl milk tea spreads in worldwide scale, tea shops are opened everywhere: China, Japan, whole Asia, even Europe. Opposite to the fashion, the originating Siwei Street ran down as nearby shopping districts did. Only a couple of tea houses survived here. The original store of Chun Shui Tang here, however, has remodeled for its historical value, as pearl-milk-tea-loving tourists would come here to see their beloved drink’s origin. The old style interior is kept, with only information sector about innovation of pearl milk tea and history of the brand is added. Except for the pearl milk tea here, you probably do not want to miss a dish exclusively available in this branch: shuijingjiao (水晶餃, lit. crystal dumpling).