Chun Shui Tang () is an international

teahouse A teahouse (mainly Asia) or tearoom (also tea room) is an establishment which primarily serves tea and other light refreshments. A tea room may be a room set aside in a hotel especially for serving afternoon tea, or may be an establishment whi ...

chain based in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The restaurants specializes in serving

bubble tea Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; , ) is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially ...

, but also serve other entrees and snacks. Founded in 1983 as Yanghsien Tea Shop, Chun Shui Tang is one of two Taiwanese restaurant chains that claim to have invented bubble milk tea, the other being Hanlin Tea Room. Aside from restaurants, Chun Shui Tang also owns TP Tea, another chain of

take-out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

stores that only sell bubble tea.

History

Chun Shui Tang was founded as Yangmu Tea Shop (陽羨茶館) on May 20, 1983 by Han-chieh Liu (劉漢介) on Siwei Street in Taichung. Fascinated by formalities of

Chinese tea culture Chinese tea culture (simplified Chinese: 中国茶文化; traditional Chinese: 中國茶文化) (''zhōngguó chá wénhuà'', 'Chinese tea culture') includes all facets of tea, both physical and spiritual, that significantly influenced Chinese cu ...

, Liu was very insistent on his decor and placed old paintings and burnt

incense Incense is aromatic biotic material that releases fragrant smoke when burnt. The term is used for either the material or the aroma. Incense is used for aesthetic reasons, religious worship, aromatherapy, meditation, and ceremony. It may also b ...

in his shop. In the summer months, hot tea doesn't sell as well, so Liu began experimenting with cold tea drinks using a

cocktail shaker A cocktail shaker is a device used to mix beverages (usually alcoholic) by shaking. When ice is put in the shaker, this allows for a quicker cooling of the drink before serving. Usage A shaken cocktail is made by putting the desired ingredie ...

, which sold unexpectedly well. He was inspired to serve cold tea by a trip to Japan on which he saw coffee being served cold. The chain claims to have invented bubble milk tea in March 1987 when Hsiuhwei Lin (林秀慧) poured

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...

into a tea drink on a whim. In 2013, Chun Shui Tang established their first store outside Taiwan in Daikanyama, an upscale shopping district in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan. Since then, more stores have opened in Japan, causing a boom in bubble tea's popularity in Japan. In 2018, Chun Shui Tang opened another store in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

's West Kowloon railway station. Till late 2020, Chun Shui Tang has already opened 8 branches in Hong Kong, including Causeway Bay and Mong Kok.

References

External links

* {{Food chains in Taiwan Companies based in Taichung Restaurants established in 1983 Taiwanese companies established in 1983 Restaurant chains in Taiwan Tea companies of Taiwan Bubble tea brands

History

Menu

References

External links