The best tea house in Taiwan (in my opinion) is a place called "Chun Shui Tang" (春水堂 in Chinese, the website is http://www.icetea.com.tw/). Every tea that I've tried at this restaurant has been good, and I particularly like their green tea and their "jen ju nai cha" (bubble tea).
I was a bit surprised when Christy informed me that there was a "Taiwan-style" tea house right here in the Austin area, just a 15 minute drive north in a city called Pflugerville. She told me that the owners were Taiwanese, and they even had their own website (doesn't everyone these days?). I scanned their website, http://www.drinkarttea.com/, and I thought the place looked kinda cool, like the tea houses I used to go to in Taiwan.
So, this past weekend, we decided to check the place out. My first impression was that it seemed out of place in the suburban city of Pflugerville. It was located in one the many small strip malls you see everywhere, next to a haircut shop and a Mexican restaurant. When we walked in, we were the only customers (this was a Saturday afternoon). If they had set up their tea house in Austin's Chinatown, the place probably would have been packed.
The place itself was pretty nice, and had the look of a real Taiwan tea house. We all decided to order the "jen ju nai cha" (bubble tea). Since I've been back to America, I haven't really liked any of the bubble tea that I've tried here. Either it's too sweet or it's watered down or it just simply tastes bad. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to report, the bubble tea at the Formosa Art Tea House sucked. Just plain sucked. It was given to us in a plastic cup like you would get from a take-out tea store. The taste wasn't very good either. I've had better bubble tea at a shopping mall.
To be fair, the Formosa Art Tea House does offer many different kinds of teas, not just bubble tea. They have green tea, "kung fu" tea, and at least a dozen more kinds of teas. Maybe their other tea is good, who knows. So I may give them one more chance with a different tea. My wife seemed to enjoy talking in Chinese to the manager there. I don't really have any idea what they were talking about, except that they both seemed to be complaining about things in America compared to Taiwan. That doesn't surprise me. Whenever I would get together with David in Taiwan, we would always complain about Taiwan.
The manager told us that he worked at Dell Computer during the week, and that was his "real" job. The tea house was just secondary income. Let's hope that Dell doesn't fire him.
(Pictures: 1 & 2. Outside the tea house. 3. Inside the tea house. 4 & 5. Kyle drinking the "jen ju nai cha.)
I was a bit surprised when Christy informed me that there was a "Taiwan-style" tea house right here in the Austin area, just a 15 minute drive north in a city called Pflugerville. She told me that the owners were Taiwanese, and they even had their own website (doesn't everyone these days?). I scanned their website, http://www.drinkarttea.com/, and I thought the place looked kinda cool, like the tea houses I used to go to in Taiwan.
So, this past weekend, we decided to check the place out. My first impression was that it seemed out of place in the suburban city of Pflugerville. It was located in one the many small strip malls you see everywhere, next to a haircut shop and a Mexican restaurant. When we walked in, we were the only customers (this was a Saturday afternoon). If they had set up their tea house in Austin's Chinatown, the place probably would have been packed.
The place itself was pretty nice, and had the look of a real Taiwan tea house. We all decided to order the "jen ju nai cha" (bubble tea). Since I've been back to America, I haven't really liked any of the bubble tea that I've tried here. Either it's too sweet or it's watered down or it just simply tastes bad. Unfortunately, I'm sorry to report, the bubble tea at the Formosa Art Tea House sucked. Just plain sucked. It was given to us in a plastic cup like you would get from a take-out tea store. The taste wasn't very good either. I've had better bubble tea at a shopping mall.
To be fair, the Formosa Art Tea House does offer many different kinds of teas, not just bubble tea. They have green tea, "kung fu" tea, and at least a dozen more kinds of teas. Maybe their other tea is good, who knows. So I may give them one more chance with a different tea. My wife seemed to enjoy talking in Chinese to the manager there. I don't really have any idea what they were talking about, except that they both seemed to be complaining about things in America compared to Taiwan. That doesn't surprise me. Whenever I would get together with David in Taiwan, we would always complain about Taiwan.
The manager told us that he worked at Dell Computer during the week, and that was his "real" job. The tea house was just secondary income. Let's hope that Dell doesn't fire him.
(Pictures: 1 & 2. Outside the tea house. 3. Inside the tea house. 4 & 5. Kyle drinking the "jen ju nai cha.)
So Texan Taiwanese food is just as authentic as Taiwanese Texan food.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure 珍珠奶茶 means pearl milk tea. What is this bubble tea of which you speak?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea
ReplyDeleteEh? Never came to this place while in Austin. If you want milk tea though go to Coco's or Tapioca house on the drag. I think Coco's is more authentic, and my taiwanese friends prefered it to Coco's. Both are good xiao chis. You seem to hit up all the wrong places. Maybe make some Taiwanese or ABC friends who have been in Austin awhile, they'll know all the good places. If not your gonna keep eating shitty fast chinese food.
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