Taiwan Culture

Entrepreneurs Invent New Tea-Flavored Pastry

Published

By Lim Ciu-lin/Gong Chong-men/Scott Huang/John Van Trieste

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Entrepreneurs facing losses during the COVID era invented a new tea-flavored pastry that's proving a post-pandemic hit. For the original report in Hakka: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_Jedj3apfk

Egg Yolk Pastries Help a Tea Family Thrive

 

REPORTER:  

It’s just around 12km from Taipei’s city limits, but sleepy Pinglin is a world from the urban rush. This is tea country, with the perfect climate for tea bushes to produce five crops a year. Four generations of the Feng family have made their livelihood harvesting and processing tea here—and they also run a local restaurant. For the latest generation, it was a quiet rural life—until COVID-19.

 

REPORTER:  

The pandemic shuttered the restaurant—and left its livelihood uncertain. Then, Feng Chung-yu remembered the little pastries his mother used to make for customers who came to buy tea, and an idea sparked in his head.

 

Feng Chung-yu:  

My mother made egg yolk pastries for 20 years. She gave them to customers, never sold them. She sold tea and gave the pastries to customers who bought tea. So we thought why not just sell egg yolk pastries. That year, we found they were popular and that’s what led me to think I could start a business.

 

REPORTER:  

But this wasn’t his mother’s recipe—not exactly. To give the cakes a personal and a local touch, Feng put finely ground tea leaves into them. This took away some of the excess sweetness that some people don’t like in egg yolk pastries, and added in the subtle flavors of his family’s teas. Plus, it was a good way to sell more tea leaves beyond tea connoisseurs.

 

REPORTER:  

He and his wife drove around Taipei, making deliveries to people working from home. And sometimes, the money was really good. But the fledgling business soon ran into a problem: pastries like these are seasonal treats in Taiwan.

 

REPORTER:  

They’re associated with big holidays like the Mid-Autumn Festival and the Lunar New Year, times when many people gift each other whole boxes of pastry. Plus, most customers were friends or friends of friends. Word of mouth only spread so far. Feng’s wife became concerned at the state of the accounting books. But she had an idea.

 

Feng's wife:  

During off-season months I wondered how the difference in revenue gap could be so sharp from busier times. I thought we’d have to change direction or find a different way. Later, we talked about maybe setting up a stand.

 

REPORTER:  

That idea has paid off. The vending stall is reaching more and more people, helping the tea side of the family business carry on, too, with the elegant flavors of the hills just outside Taipei reaching a broader audience.