Coffee reached Taiwan during Japanese rule in the early twentieth century. Coffee cultivation was introduced to the island and café culture began developing in Taipei. The city’s modern coffee market gathered pace from the early 2000s, followed by a generation of independent roasters and specialist cafés.
Taipei has since produced some of coffee’s most recognised competition winners. Berg Wu won the 2016 World Barista Championship, and Chad Wang won the World Brewers Cup the following year.
Expect a strong emphasis on lighter roasting and filter coffee. But don’t worry, there’s still variety. Taipei has champion-led coffee bars, Japanese-influenced siphon specialists, tiny espresso counters and cafés serving coffee grown in Taiwan.
Long story short, you’ll find a place that matches your tastes. Places like these.
Simple Kaffa
Zhongzheng
Founder Berg Wu became Taiwan’s first World Barista Champion in 2016, and Simple Kaffa now offers several distinct Taipei experiences. The Huashan flagship occupies two floors in Zhongzheng, while Sola sits on the 88th floor of Taipei 101 Reserve a window seat – the view overlooking the city is worth it.
RUFOUS COFFEE ROASTERS 2
Zhongshan
Rufous has been roasting in Taipei in 2007, and opened its second shop on Minquan East Road in 2025. Rufous was ranked No. 85 in the 2025 World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, the only Taiwanese café in that year’s global top 100. Have the cold-drip.
VWI BY CHADWANG
Da’an
Chad Wang won the 2017 World Brewers Cup and opened VWI the following year. The name stands for Vapour, Water and Ice, reflecting Wang’s belief that water is fundamental to brewing. VWI takes that unusually far, using a five-stage filtration system and setting precise targets for mineral content and pH. The original Taipei café sits down a small Da’an alley, with its large metallic brewing counter giving the room the feel of a coffee laboratory.
Fika Fika Cafe
Zhongshan
Founder James Chen won both the espresso category and overall title at the 2013 Nordic Roaster Championship, becoming the competition’s first champion from outside the Nordics. He opened Fika Fika the same year. The Yitong Street café is the best-known Taipei location. Insider tip: go to Fika Fika Shiu Xiang across the street, a reservation-friendly concept focused on rarer coffees and tasting flights.
noon
Da’an
You can’t visit Noon and not have the signature Coffee Course 1+1+1. The coffee arrives in three forms: first to show the bean as directly as possible, then as a more familiar coffee drink, and finally rebuilt around its tasting notes. The idea grew from competition-style presentation, but the result is easy to understand even if you don’t know much about coffee. The café has occupied its discreet Rui’an Street location since 2022, hidden behind a modest entrance in a residential lane.
Oasis Coffee Roasters
Da’an
Founder Yu-ta Chu left a career in film production after a Tim Wendelboe coffee changed how he thought about the drink. He opened Oasis in 2018, naming it after the small cafés that had given him brief escapes during exhausting film shoots. The Anhe shop carries that idea into the space itself, with large sliding doors opening the café to the street. Chu has also made rare coffees a deliberate part of the business, using them to distinguish Oasis within Taipei’s crowded roasting scene.
Coffee Sweet
Zhongshan
Coffee Sweet is one of Taipei’s oldest specialty coffee institutions, run by Sidney Kao, who has been working in the city’s coffee scene for decades. The vibe here is siphon brewing. Photography is discouraged.
Instil Coffee
Datong
Instil is about single-origin espresso, with a changing seasonal menu built around lighter-roasted coffees. The dark, restrained interior is softened by a planted communal table and handmade ceramics, giving the new Zhongshan space a very different character from Instil’s former Da’an basement café.
Moonshine Coffee Roasters
Da’an
Founder Zenki worked in Australia’s specialty coffee industry before opening Moonshine in 2018. He finished second in the 2017 Australian Brewers Cup and won the Hong Kong Brewers Cup in 2023. Go to the Dunhua South Road flagship to see the roasting, brewing and retail under one roof, in an open industrial space that more like a working coffee studio than a conventional café.
MKCR / Mountain Kids Coffee Roaster
Zhongzheng
Founded in 2018, Mountain Kids’ Beimen shop is the one to go to because the second-floor window seats look directly onto Taipei’s historic North Gate, making it one of the city’s most distinctive places to sit with a coffee. It stays open until 10pm, much later than most of Taipei’s specialist cafés.
The Folks
Da’an
The Folks is a six-seat, mostly one-person operation built around a rare Kees van der Westen Slim Jim Idrocompresso lever machine. Beans are roasted on-site and the shop keeps deliberately short, morning-only hours. The tiny counter feels closer to sitting at a chef’s bar than visiting a conventional café. Come early if you want a seat.
NORMAL COFFEE
Da’an
Normal Coffee is the stripped-back sibling of All Day Roasting Company. The Ren’ai shop is built almost entirely around coffee rather than a conventional café menu. Four Marco SP9 automated brewers handle its filter programme, while the bean selection has included scarce Taiwanese-grown coffees from Alishan alongside high-end Geshas. There are only a handful of seats.
SUCRÉ BEANS Coffee Roasters
Da’an
SUCRÉ BEANS is a tiny roastery near Da’an Forest Park, run by self-taught roaster Sean Tung. Recent coffees have included washed So’ngna from Alishan and Gesha pour-overs, while the menu also ventures into drinks such as Bravagato and espresso gin tonic. It opens only Wednesday to Saturday, so plan ahead.
BEAN BARN
Datong
Founder Addie Chen discovered specialty coffee while working as a barista in Australia, then returned to Taiwan and started roasting. Bean Barn opened in 2020 inside a former trading-company warehouse near Shuanglian Station, retaining its terrazzo floors and cement walls. Chen later won the 2024 PROBAT Cup roasting competition. Tip of the day: don’t leave without trying the coffee pudding.
How to visit Taipei’s best specialty coffee shops
If you have one day
Start at The Folks when it opens. Move to noon, then VWI by CHADWANG. Continue west to Simple Kaffa Huashan and finish at Rufous Coffee Roasters 2. That gives you five very different versions of Taipei coffee without wasting the day travelling between distant districts.
If you have three days
On day one, visit The Folks, noon, VWI by CHADWANG, Normal Coffee and Oasis Coffee Roasters. On day two, start at Mountain Kids, then Simple Kaffa, Coffee Sweet, Rufous 2 and Fika Fika, which stays open later than most. On day three, visit Moonshine, SUCRÉ BEANS, Instil and Bean Barn. Schedule this final day between Wednesday and Saturday because SUCRÉ BEANS is closed Sunday through Tuesday.
If you have one week
Slow the pace to two or three cafés each day. Pair The Folks with noon; VWI with Normal and Oasis; Moonshine with SUCRÉ BEANS; Simple Kaffa with Mountain Kids; Coffee Sweet with Fika Fika; and Instil with Bean Barn. Give Rufous 2 its own final stop. A week leaves enough space to revisit somewhere rather than treating Taipei’s coffee scene as a checklist.
More specialty coffee guides
If you liked this guide, check out our lists of the best specialty coffee shops in Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
Frequently asked questions
Is Taipei good for specialty coffee?
Yes. Taipei’s modern coffee scene began expanding rapidly in the early 2000s and now includes World Coffee Championship winners, independent roasters, tiny owner-run shops and cafés serving Taiwanese-grown coffee. The density is particularly striking. Recent specialist coverage describes several high-quality cafés within short walking distance in many parts of the city.
Which specialty coffee shop should I visit first in Taipei?
Start with Simple Kaffa Huashan if you want the broadest introduction. Berg Wu’s 2016 World Barista Championship win is an important part of Taiwan’s modern coffee history, while the Huashan flagship gives you a proper seated café rather than one of Simple Kaffa’s smaller formats.
Where should I go for pour-over coffee in Taipei?
VWI by CHADWANG, noon, Oasis and Coffee Sweet offer four particularly different experiences. VWI carries Chad Wang’s competition-brewing heritage, noon serves one coffee in three forms, Oasis works around high-extraction light roasting, and Coffee Sweet is particularly associated with siphon and slower Japanese-style coffee service.
Where can I drink Taiwanese-grown coffee in Taipei?
Normal Coffee is one of the clearest places to start because it actively features coffee grown in Taiwan’s Alishan region. SUCRÉ BEANS has also served washed coffee from So’ngna in Alishan. Availability changes with individual lots and harvests, so do not assume the same Taiwanese coffee will always be on the menu.
Which Taipei coffee shops are connected to coffee competitions?
Simple Kaffa was founded by 2016 World Barista Champion Berg Wu. VWI belongs to 2017 World Brewers Cup Champion Chad Wang. Fika Fika founder James Chen won the 2013 Nordic roasting competition. Moonshine founder Zenki Ho won the 2023 Hong Kong Brewers Cup, while Bean Barn’s Addie won the 2024 PROBAT Cup roasting competition.
What is the best neighbourhood in Taipei for specialty coffee?
Da’an is the easiest place to start. The Folks, noon, VWI by CHADWANG, Oasis, Moonshine, Normal and SUCRÉ BEANS are all in the district. You could spend several days exploring Taipei coffee without leaving Da’an.
How many Taipei coffee shops should I visit in one day?
Three is comfortable. Four is possible if you order smaller drinks or share filter coffees. Five works for the one-day route above, but it is a full coffee day. Taipei is better experienced slowly, particularly at places such as noon, Coffee Sweet and VWI where the visit makes more sense when you have time to sit.
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