travel blog, minus the bull$hit

Chun Shui Tang

Address: No. 30號, Siwei St, West District, Taichung City, Taiwan 403

Founded way back in 1983, Chun Shui Tang is one of two restaurants claiming to have invented the ever-so-popular bubble milk tea otherwise known as “boba” here in the US. The other restaurant claiming to have invented it first is Hanlin Tea Room, although admittedly I hear much less about this claim.

Outside of the OG restaurant, Chun Shui Tang also owns a couple local Bay Area chains under the name TP Tea located in:

• Cupertino: 10787 S Blaney Ave, Cupertino, CA 95014
• Berkeley: 2383 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA 94704
• San Mateo: 650 E 4th Avenue, San Mateo, Ca 94401 814F
• San Jose: 925 Blossom Hill Rd.Space. No. F5, San Jose, CA 95123
• Pleasanton: 1987 Santa Rita Rd B, Pleasanton, California 94566

Going sober boba to travel for boba is like restraining yourself from cheap crack only to indulge on the purest of meth.

K. Rojas, 2019

My solo trip to Taiwan back in 2019 made me realize how much of a struggle having a language barrier is. I ran all around Taipei Main Station (which is pretty damn huge) trying to find the high speed train to Taichung and ended up buying the wrong ticket for it and had to buy a completely new one! I probably had to ask at least 5 diff metro staff for help before I finally got it.

But obviously, never expect other people to have to adjust to you just because you can only speak English. Either put in the effort to learn a few words, or get creative with it! This is exactly why visuals + google translate are your saviors when in a foreign country otherwise your ass is might end up on a 3 hour train ride instead of 45 mins! Always plan ahead!

Yes, I did all this for the OG boba store.

And no, it was nothing special.

Tip for my Western audience: the home of boba does not know what it means to adjust sweetness levels. It’s all or nothing, baby!

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