Tea
Taiwan is well-known for its tea plantations, and while there is a huge range of tea leaves to choose from, Alishan tea is a flavour that you simply cannot miss. It is an oolong tea with a light orchid aroma and slight hints of fruits, everyone loves it. Bisides, one of the most famous brands is Ten Ren Tea which you will be able to find it in any supermarket.
Zheng noodles
The unique ribbon-like noodles have a chewy texture and differ vastly from regular instant noodles. It’s manufactured to be almost as good as slurping down hand-made noodles, and you can have it dry or with soup.
In addition, some popular flavours among Taiwanese people are ZYM (Tongyi) Beef Flavoured Noodles, Wei Lih Men or TTL (Tai Jiu) Hua Tiao Chicken Noodles.
Chia Te Pineapple Cake
Taiwan is basically the birthplace of these delicious pineapple cakes. These buttery pastries have a pineapple filing centre. There are many quite famous brands in Taiwan but Chia Te has mastered the perfect ratio of pastry and filling that satisfies all kinds of taste buds.
If you are not much of a pineapple fan, you can check out their other flavours such as cranberry, strawberry, prune and more.
Taiwanese nougats
They do things differently here in Taiwan so don’t expect the typical nougat you find in candy bars in the west. Taiwanese nougat is often quite hard and chewy and full of peanuts. Some will also have sesame too while others may have pieces of brown sugar. Nougat is the most traditional of treats in Taiwan and expect to find boxes of it everywhere especially during festivals.
Crispy pork paper
Crispy pork paper is absolutely delicious. Just think of it as paper-thin potato chips made of pork. It is super crunchy and so addictive, you can easily go through a whole bag without even noticing. The best brands to look for are Kuai Che, Pork King and Two Brothers.
Sun cakes
Tai yang bing or sun cake is a delicious dessert originated from Taichung, Taiwan. It is called what it is called because the pastry looks exactly like a sun.
The sun cake is a flaky pastry that traditionally has a sweet and sticky filling. These days though you can get many different flavors such as dried pork and even green tea.