Taipei is really more than night markets, pineapple pastries, hot springs and shopping. Look into any Chinese travel guides, you can discover lots of eclectic eateries and cafes. Please discard all English guidebooks on Hong Kong, Taiwan & China if you can read Chinese.
On our itinerary, my companion and I have ambitiously put in many cafes that caught our eyes from travel guides and blogs. Well, a coffee at each cafe definitely make us exceed the recommended daily caffeine intake.
One of the HG of cafe hopping: Yong Kang Street (永康街) and its vicinity - home to quaint boutiques, cafes and famous beef noodles.
First stop, 小茶栽堂 Zenique. Well, it's not a cafe but a Taiwanese tea salon that sells a wide assortment of organic tea as well as french desserts. Ground floor houses a tall wall full of tea variants which you can purchase in tins or by weight. On the other side is a pastry display with all sorts of dainty french pastries, colourful macarons and chocolates. Second floor is where we enjoy our lazy afternoon tea while waiting for the rain to be kinder to us. Well, three (ALL THREE OF THEM!) of the tea infused desserts that I had my eye on weren't available. Major disappointment.
 |
| Cookies to go with the tea. Love the teapot of my companion's genmai tea. |
 |
| The name's something osmanthus...something blanc... |
 |
| My lemongrass milk tea |
With very limited seating, a minimum spending per person applies. I can't remember how much but a dessert and a drink covers that. Mine costs NT250 or so.
小茶栽堂 Zenique
Address: 8, Alley 4, Yongkang Street, Taipei (永康街4巷 8 號)
Tel: (02) 2395-1558
Opening Hours: 11:00am~10:30pm
Website: http://www.zenique.net
If you like chilling in a quiet cafe and vintage furniture, Ecole is the place for you. The furniture in this cafe are vintage from elementary schools in Germany. From what I read from other blogs/guides, this place regularly hosts art shows and live music in its basement gallery. Not enough of vintage furniture? Hop next door to Mooi (魔椅), a vintage mid-century modern furniture shop.
 |
| Vintage tin playthings from the past. |
Ecole
Address: 6, Ln 1, Qingtian St (青田街1巷6号）
Website: http://ecole-cafe.blogspot.com
Tel: 02-2322-2725
Opening Hours: Mon - Thur 1 pm - 11 pm / Fri 1 pm - 12 am / Sat 11 am - 12 am / Sun 11 am - 11 pm
Here's another cafe with vintage school furniture. This is hidden in the mountains in Jing Tong (菁桐), which used to be a coal mining town, now a tourism destination, in Taipei outskirts. No, we did not specially track down this cafe but was a bonus discovery when we are in Pingxi (平溪) and Jing Tong (菁桐)。
 |
| 矿厂咖啡 |
 |
| Students' scrawling |
I'm glad we decided to stop for coffee because this is where I had my virgin taste of latte with sea salt! And it was quite a delectable flavour! The nutty coffee that we are familiar with is accompanied by a salty aftertaste. My companion described the taste as "sweet and salty popcorn". I'm tempted to try concocting this coffee on my own...
