Taste Testing Taiwanese Craft Beers at the Convenience Store

which local Taiwanese beer brand found at family mart is the best? let me tell you.

Location: Taipei, Taiwan

Drink: Romantic Route 3 Citrus Beer by Sunmai and Chouhua Oolong Tea Beer by Typhoon Brewing Company 

Establishment: Family Mart

Music: Family Mart in-store radio/playlist interspersed with sound of cash register

One of the great things about visiting East Asia is that you can drink beers in the convenience stores. (Or coffee, or anything they sell.) Not all, but many convenience stores have small tables and bars when you can sit down and enjoy your bounty. The Family Mart where I am doing a taste testing now even has built-in outlets on this table where I am charging my computer as I write this.

I landed in Taipei at 5 am this morning. I got started on my first taste test of beer at about 1 pm. 

It's always fun to see the different kinds of beer available at the average CVS in a new country. After perusing a couple of convenience stores, I have found that Sunmai (金色三麥) is one of the major Taiwanese craft breweries--and a tasty one--you will find in most stores. A couple of other day one observations: Taiwan has a lot of citrus-  and tea-infused beers, it has a large variety of Japanese beers and cocktails I've not seen in Korea or Thailand, and it has, randomly, Busch! 

Well, let's get down to business. Like I said, Sunmai was one of the widely available local beers that I saw at multiple convenience stores. So when I found this Family Mart with the dining and drinking area, I chose their orange beer that is named after the Provincial Highway 3, which is a popular road trip and biking route through the mountains from Taipei to Tainan.

Standing in the other corner (of the fridge): a glass of beer with a tan label and an old fashioned country manoresque depiction of a hen and a fish on its back (dying?). The beer has no English name, but its Chinese name translates to Chouhua Oolong Tea Beer (抽花烏龍茶啤酒). (Chouhua means "Chou Flower," but I could find no English equivalent for the flower; it might just be the flower that blooms on an oolong tea plant.)

First up: Romantic Route 3 Citrus Beer

Brewery: Sunmai

Cost: 145 New Taiwan Dollars (US$4.67)

ABV: 4.7%

Appearance: Orange-tinged amber, extremely orange drops in the bottom of the bottle

Smell: Strongly orange. The smell of the citrus oils are especially strong. The more you smell, it's almost like the smell of an orange cleaning solution. Not bad, but just very concentrated. 8/10.

Mouthfeel: Smooth. Not terribly creamy. Is that a little pulpy feel? 6/10.

Taste: Malty and very orange. It's got that pleasingly sour/sweet citrus taste. Honestly, it's like drinking orange juice and beer. Mixed well (the beer and OJ do not clash). The ingredients indicate this beer has two kinds of orange juice and one kind of orange skin in it as well as longyan honey. Not very hoppy at all. 

Very tasty, and I would like another, but it's not very creative or complex as far as flavors go. It's like: 'We're making an orange beer, so let's make it taste very orangey.' If that was their goal, they did a good job, and it is quite enjoyable. 8/10.

Next: Chouhua Oolong Tea Beer

Brewery: Typhoon Brewery in partnership with Mountain & Seahouse restaurant

Cost: 185 NTD ($5.96)

ABV: 5%

Appearance: Light and clear like a lager

Smell: Herbal, tea smell, but not as fragrant as the Sunmai. 7/10.

Mouthfeel: Thick and soft, feels heavier in the mouth, enjoyable to swish around. 9/10.

Taste: Slightly citrusy, more herbal. The more I drink, the more I can observe the herbal taste coming mostly from the oolong tea. It is also very light on hops. The taste becomes too much, kind of soapy, the more I drink. 6/10.

I don't think I like tea-flavored beers. (I tried another in Nanjing. It's like, what's the point? Beer already should have a bitter, spicy, or tea-like flavor if hops are used well. It should be accented with something different.) 

Honestly, when I saw the two beer bottles, I had thought the Sunmai selection would taste better. Chouhua Oolong beer (released in 2021) is the first production of the Mountain & Seahouse restaurant. Mountain & Seahouse has won Michelin stars for its approach to preserving classic Taiwanese dishes. It seems like a great restaurant (and one that is too expensive for me!), but it might be at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to beer.

Sunmai has been around since 2004 and has been winning awards at international beer festivals since 2009. It can be enjoyed at the Le Blé D'or restaurant chain and at Sunmai bars across the country, as well as at Family Mart and 7-Eleven. It is one of the most-widely available quality craft beers.

Taiwan Sights This Morning

I walked from my guesthouse by Taipei's main railway station down to Liberty Square and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. The history of the square is the history of Taiwan in a nutshell. 

It was built to honor the generalissimo and dictator who led the Kuomintang's fight against the Japanese during WWII then led their retreat to Taiwan, where he established a martial law regime that lasted 38 years, after losing the mainland to the Communists.

The square is flanked on multiple sides by the National Theatre and the National Concert Hall, beautiful traditional Chinese monuments to grandeur. On the far end is Chiang's mausoleum.

Above his statue, which is fronted by military guards, are the characters 民 and 主。Literally "people" and "rule." "Democracy" when put together. It was one of the two slogans of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. But Chiang didn't bring democracy to Taiwan. 

Democracy only came as a result of the students who sat and protested in Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Square. In 1990, after Lee Teng-hui was elected president by the National Assembly, over 20,000 Taiwanese occupied the square and demanded the right to vote. The result was the opposite of what went down in Beijing one year earlier. President Lee welcomed student representatives, promised them democracy, and followed through on it. In 1996, Lee was reelected in Taiwan's first free and fair elections despite China's attempt to intimidate Taiwan with missile launches.

In 2007, under the administration of president Chen Shui-bian, Taiwan's first Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president, the square was rechristened as Liberty Square. The square has become a site for Taiwan's government to welcome foreign heads of state and for protesters to voice their opinions on all manner of issues. It is a battleground in the history wars. During the administration of Tsai Ing-wen, the current president and also a DPP member, the Ministry of Culture announced an intention to transform the purpose of the hall towards “facing history, recognizing agony, and respecting human rights.” In 2018, independence activists threw paint on the statue of Chiang. 

Taiwan's next presidential election is on January 13, 2024. Taiwan's role engaging with the United States and the international community will be major issues. President Tsai has pushed boundaries by meeting both past and present House Speakers Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy.