It’s always been integral to us as globetrotters that when in Rome, you have to eat pizza al taglio until you’re fit to burst. Our belief that the best food comes from its place of origin has yet to be proven otherwise, so we make an effort to sample as much of the local fare as we can. Taiwan may be a world apart from Italy, but it’s no exception to the rule; despite its size, it’s rich in diversity, offering regional dishes and specialties that very from city to neighbouring city.

Taichung is located on the western corner of the country, with much of its city mass located a little further inland than Tainan or Kaohsiung, and accordingly focuses less on seafood. According to our research, many of the little city’s must-eats focused less on regional food rather than the best restaurants to get Taiwanese dishes, but a few reoccurring mentions kept us coming back to the same 3 foods time and time again.

Taichung, it seems, has a sweet tooth.

Let’s be honest, Taiwan in general has a sweet tooth, and being in the shape of a sweet potato doesn’t help its reputation. It’s evident in their infamous pineapple cakes, the omnipresence of their crisp, chewy, hollow QQ balls, and the national drink that you’ll find in the hands of the youngest of babies to the most stoic of bus drivers and shopkeepers: bubble tea. Which is a great place to start.

Pearl Milk Tea (珍珠奶茶) aka Bubble Tea aka Boba

Pearl milk tea has always been a popular drink, especially amongst East and Southeast Asians, but its arguable and sudden spike in monstrous popularity could be thanks to a surge in Asian culture throughout the world, beginning, say, mid-September, 2018. And, with literal millions of like-minded individuals leaping aboard a one-way train to unforeseen prominence, the resulting explosion has embedded this one drink into the hearts of even more worldwide.

Inevitably, it was at around the time of hundreds of thousands of people’s revelation of their mutual love of pearl milk tea that a good number of other people decided to monetise on it. Following that we noticed that, at least in Auckland, there was a rapid emergence of trendy tea and drink stores on every spare corner of land. The rise of pearl milk tea may have plateaued – but unlike insulin levels, it shows no signs of coming back down.

Pearl milk tea is made up of three components. Arguably there are a few more factors since its elevation into a customisable drink – quantity of ice, percentage of sugar – but we’re talking about refreshments here, not maths. So let’s focus on the obvious: the tea, the milk, and the pearls.

The tea is often some fairly low-grade generic black tea, there for flavour. Any faults in its flavour such as overwhelming astringency would be appropriately balanced by the fat of the milk, and the afore-mentioned quantity of sugar. “Milk” is a very loose term for the second component: it can be any combination of fresh milk, milk powder, condensed milk, or even coconut milk or non-dairy creamers. In any case, it needs a liquid fat, which comprises much of the drink. Fresh milk is inevitably the best, and in Taiwan is often the most expensive option.

The pearls are arguably the most important. Nowadays, there’s all sorts of alternative toppings such as crushed cookies, beans, jellies, and ambiguous, flavoured spherified liquids. Originally, there were only tapioca balls: small white “pearls” and larger black “bubbles”, both with a chewy texture, and the better ones flavoured, sweetened, and made of edible, digestible starches. The whole thing is a bomb of sugar, and usually consumed between meals.

Chun Shui Tang (春水堂)

Now let’s go back to its roots. Already in Tainan, we visited the HanLin Tea Room, one of the shops who claims the origin of pearl milk tea. Around the same time, a shop in Taichung called Chun Shui Tang happened to claim exactly the same thing, leaving a rivalry between the two shops as two who can lay claim to such a monumental time in history. While both now boast nation-wide drink chains, Chun Shui Tang is undoubtedly more famous, but who could even say why? Perhaps it’s clever marketing, or maybe it just happens to be that much better.

Of course, we had to give it a go. Our review of HanLin was neither favourable nor condemning – it had a reliable foundation and an enjoyable enough product but overall couldn’t stand up to newer, modernised items from tea shops with room to experiment. Still, it gave us a reasonable standard against which we judged Chun Shui Tang.

The ambience was promising. Rather than the common milk tea shops of the present, Chun Shui Tang also has an operating restaurant, with the gorgeous décor of an old tea room. We decided not to sit in because it was busy, opting instead to make an order on their write-on menu for takeaway.

Right off the bat, it’s a fairly expensive milk tea for its size. Though likely comparable to the one from HanLin, there’s no way of telling whether they use fresh milk (鲜奶), or any of its alternatives, unlike when we placed our order at HanLin. At NTD70 (US$2.30), it’s easily the same price as a much larger drink in any typical chain, so we were not off to a good start. It didn’t get much better – the drink was unmemorable at best, and we found the pearls to be softer and more flavourful at HanLin, making it our personal preference between the two. In addition to the huge mark-up in price, acceptable only because of its fame, it was nowhere near one of the better drinks amongst the milk teas we sampled in Taiwan.

The other drink we got was a plain tea with 30% sugar. The tieguanyin (NTD60; US$1.95) is sometimes known as “Iron Goddess Tea” – but this name can also refer to the roasting vessel rather than the tea leaf. It’s an oolong that originates from Mainland China, with a fairly strong flavour. While we thought it started nice, at 30% it became a little bitter. Whether this is from the low sugar, a poor steep, or simply the characteristic of the tea itself we could not tell.

It may be more worth it to visit the store for some food – of which there is an extensive menu – but to come all the way to the original for pearl milk tea? We wouldn’t necessarily recommend it. At the very least, we tried it.

Sun Cakes TaiYang Bing (太陽餅)

There’s a lot of places with souvenirs so famous that the city is known for them. Taichung is one of these places, known for a pastry called sun cakes (太陽餅). Comprised of a round, flat, flaky pastry filled with a sweet, chewy maltose syrup, a good shop can cause queues of people looking to get a fix or to bring home. Everyone in Taichung has their favourites or their recommendations, but these bakeries are virtually everywhere. In fact, visit Section 2, Ziyou Road, and you’ll find sun cake bakeries one after the other, all offering sun cakes in multiple flavours and fancy boxes ready to take home. They also sell other Chinese pastries such as wife cakes (sweetheart cakes; 老婆餅) and pineapple cakes, too, but they rely heavily on the fame of Taichung’s iconic pastry.

We thought – or, at least, Jos thought – it would be a great idea to have consecutive sun cakes to see if we could taste the difference. In order to remain competitive, all of the stores offer samples and the same baseline price of NTD25 (US$0.85) for a single sun cake. We started on the western end of this road with the first shop we came across and work our way east, which we figured was both systematic and a good Idea.

A typical sun cake has a flaky pastry which is fairly bland to withstand the sweet filling. The maltose is almost chewy, a thick, smooth paste in the middle. Thanks to its different chemical structure, it’s a lot less sweet than regular table sugar, allowing for a milder flavour to the overall pastry.

Amin Division Old Sun Tong Food Co. Ltd. (阿明師太陽餅店)

This store is located right on the corner at the start of the street. The sun cakes here are soft and very crumbly, with a faint, pleasant taste and aroma of soy milk. It’s a great place to start, especially with a plethora of samples to try their range of desserts. You can take a look at on their website (Chinese only) for more of their products.

Yi Fu Tang (一福堂)

Right next door is Yi Fu Tang. Despite the crisper shell of the first layer of pastry, it also has a much shorter texture. This means crumbs, and a lot of them. While there is no soy milk flavour in this sun cake, it has a milkier taste and a light fragrance of peanuts. Noms didn’t like this one as much. Perhaps next time it would be better to try their signature lemon cake (website in Chinese only).

Sun Hall Old Shop (太陽堂老舖)

Next door again is another bakery, again offering a lot of Chinese sweets in addition to the sun cake. This one had a thinner skin and much thicker maltose filling, making it overall sweeter but also blander. It was also much clumpier. Still, their other products might be better – they have a website for it (Chinese only).

Yuan Ming Store – Heart Sun Cake (元明商店–心型太陽餅)

Another 10 metres, another bakery. Like the others, this one had no indication of being any better or worse, and it turned out the latter. With a thicker, dry pastry and hardly any filling to balance it out, this was probably our least favourite sun cake of the day. Nonetheless, like the others they have a website in the case you’re interested in their other products (Chinese with English).

Nine Suns (九個太陽旗艦店–太陽餅專賣)

By far one of the most famous sun cake bakeries in the city is Nine Suns, with a huge store operating on the corner of the block. We hadn’t intended to make a stop despite knowing its popularity, but we couldn’t help but be tempted by the wafting smell of butter pouring from their vents as we walked by. Compared to the other sun cakes it was less flaky, with more of a rip than a crumble. The flavour is no better than the others – in fact, the sample is far better than the real product, something we suspect is to get people to buy it, as most tourists won’t stop to buy one cake.

You can’t tell how old the product is, which is the biggest issue when it comes to purchasing sun cakes. While Nine Suns is a reliable store for purchasing, none of them are any worse in quality. As long as one keeps this in mind, it’s a good souvenir to bring home as it lasts a couple of weeks after purchase. Check out Nine Suns website here (Chinese and English).

Miyahara

One can’t visit Taichung without stopping by at Miyahara. Once the home of a Japanese-run ophthalmology clinic in early 20^th century, it has changed hands several times following the end of Japanese colonial rule before ending up in the hands of Dawn Cake (website in Chinese), a Taiwanese pastry company. It has since been converted into an incredible gift shop selling pastry souvenirs in artsy boxes.

The building has been preserved to retain the iconic red brick exterior, though it has undergone redecoration to convert its interior into something out of a fantasy sweetshop with strong British influence. With options of ribbons for gift-wrapping and gorgeous gift boxes left and right, it’s a sight for many of us to behold.

Compared to the bakeries we’d visited earlier, Miyahara’s upscale atmosphere means that there are no samples in sight. We suppose that their quality is guaranteed such that any item will be delicious – and for the price, it likely is. Besides the pastry shop, Miyahara is also home to a (milk) tea shop – whose specialty drink includes blending a pineapple cake into your drink – and an ice cream shop right next door, and it’s here that you may be able to get a taste of the products that they offer instore.

Miyahara Ice Cream (宮原眼科)

A roped path outside the entrance of the ice cream store is a good indicator that it can be very busy. We were lucky with a relatively small queue. During the wait, a guide who spoke English and Chinese handed us a menu (multiple languages available) of all the flavours that Miyahara produces – but don’t expect every flavour every day. There are so many to choose from that they don’t have room in the store.

Once in, you are given the opportunity to sample as many of the ice creams as you’d like. They take this seriously, producing flavours from high quality ingredients such as premium teas, to local fruits, to single-origin chocolates, resulting in a diverse range to suit any palate. We advise not to take too long in consideration for others, though definitely try as many flavours as you’re up for. Each scoop comes with 1 complimentary topping of your choice, though additional toppings can also be purchased. We paid NTD90 (US$3) for one scoop.

The flavours were all more impressive than we expected – despite some repeating similarities, such as the multiple single-origin chocolate ice creams or even the 2 mangos, each has a distinctly different flavour which is a great indicator of quality. We tried as many as we could without holding up the line (though fortunately there wasn’t too much of a line to begin with), and chose the Alishan tea ice cream with a native pineapple cake as a topping. They gave us a slice of cheesecake topping for free – whether this is a limited offer is uncertain.

There are 2 kinds of pineapple cakes available, with the “native” being a sourer version of the other. It is fairly tart, so it’s a good choice for people who don’t like things too sweet. The pineapple cake is one of Jos’ favourites in all of Taiwan, and paired well with the sweet, milky tea of the ice cream. Still, regardless of any flavour you choose, it’s bound to be a delicious, cooling refresher for those warm Taiwanese days.

Taiwan loves its sugar, and Taichung is city that caters to that craving marvellously well. In between a visit to Taichung’s Second Market (臺中第二市場) for a bowl of lu rou fan (滷肉飯) or a trip to the Feng Chia Night Market (逢甲夜市) swarming with students and cheap eats, you’ll find no end to the sweet delights to get your blood sugar going until the next meal.