My favourite past time in Taiwan is to visit the many cafes around the city. I'm by no means a coffee connoisseur, I know nothing about the beans and don't even know how to use one of those fancy coffee machines!! What I do enjoy about the cafes here, are their characters. Many are run by the owner/barista themselves and the decor, ambience, and ethos of the cafe reflects who they are. You can't find this in the big coffee chains. Today I'd like to share with you three cafes I've visited since I've been back.
Domanycafe
This café has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first I visited when I came to Taiwan in 2016. It used to be called "The Café with No Name 沒名字的咖啡店” and was located in an old building nestled amongst private residences. There was no sign outside and many customers would walk past but not dare to enter because they thought they'd be trespassing. I wrote about it in my very first My Favourite Cafe series in Aug 2018
Last year they moved to new premises in a more commercialised area and got themselves a new name. I had a quick chat with the owner when we arrived and he even recognised hubby after our three year absence when we were back in the UK!!
Despite moving to a more commercialised area, the decor and ambient was still very similar to the previous location. I recognised the furniture, the retro armchairs and coffee tables, where I lazed around and chilled out on many afternoons previosly. It was just like coming home after being away for a long time.
I ordered my cappuccino and hubby his favourite hazelnut latte. He says they do the best ones. We also ordered the matcha crepe cake. The multi layers of crepe ozzing with matcha cream burst with flavor with every mouthful. It was absolute devine.
The owner was very busy all afternoon, and I only got to have a quick chat with him when we paid our bill. I must come back again before I leave Taiwan.
More than Coffee
Many cafes in Taiwan are located in old buildings such as this one called More than Coffee. The wooden front door is quite traditional of the old buildings. It looks a bit flimsy and not very secure, but that's a reflection of Taiwan - ie pretty safe!!!!
The decor here is simple and has what I would call a minimalistic Japanese industrial decor (yeah, I know I'm BSing as I know nothing about architecture 😁)
The 'Japanese' element comes from the tatami sitting area where people sit on the floor, as well as some low armchair and stools.
The focus of course, has to be on the coffee. Love the latte art.
Daily Collector Coffee
Minimalism is a very popular decor for Taiwan cafe, and they do it very well. Here's another one. Upon entering the Daily Collector Coffee you face the serving counter and the big coffee machine to one side and the grinder (?) next to it. The actual area to serve customers is just about 1/4 of the counter as they have seats along the front. I guess they have many regulars and some like to see the barista in action.
The whole place sits around 20 customers with a mix of wooden top tables and comfy armchairs which you can just about see on the right side of the image below. That's where I sat. There's a bench in front of the window on the other side of the cafe. There is no view outside as it faces some residential buildings, but I love the interior decor. Very instagrammable.
I ordered a hand drip coffee here. It was called Robinia pseudoacacia, I can't remember where it's from, not that it makes much difference to me as I don't know anything about coffee. I choose it because it was described as having a floral, orange and honey taste and sounded very nice. The coffee was served in a jar which you pour yourself in the little matching glass. I also got two pieces of very nice biscuits.
The thing that impressed me most was the little card on the tray with more information about the bean. Great for novices like me. I mean did you really think I remembered I ordered Robinia pseudoacacia 😄? Anyway, this particular bean uses the washed process, is medium roast and has the flavour I mentioned above. It's this level of professionalism that makes that difference to customer experience, even for novices like me.
I hope you enjoyed the little tour of some unique cafes in Taiwan, and you can be sure I'll be back with more. If you're interested in the previous cafes in Taiwan I've written about you can check them out below.
| Part 1 | Part 2 |
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| Part 3 | Part 4 |
| Part 5 | Part 6 |
| Part 7 | - |
