Chun Shui Tang is an international teahouse chain based in Taichung, Taiwan. The restaurants specializes in serving bubble tea, 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 stores that only sell bubble tea.
History
Chun Shui Tang was founded as Yangmu Tea Shop on May 20, 1983 by Han-chieh Liu on Siwei Ave in Taichung. Fascinated by formalities of Chinese tea culture, Liu was very insistent on his decor and placed old paintings and burnt incense 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, 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 poured tapioca 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, 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's West Kowloon railway station.
Menu
Chun Shui Tang specializes in bubble tea, but they also serve a wide variety of Taiwanese food, including gaifan dishes, beef noodle soup, lu wei, dougan, pig's blood cake, mochi, and more. It takes six months for a bar worker to learn to make the 80 or so drinks on the menu.
TP Tea
TP Tea, formerly known as Tea Pa Tea, is a subsidiary of Chun Shui Tang. Similar to most bubble tea shops in Taiwan, TP Tea only sells bubble tea, though snacks are sold occasionally for a limited time. The chain was founded in 2005, and has since spread to China, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, and the United States.
