Yi Feng A-Chuan Winter Melon Tea

Review

Yi Feng traces back to the Yi Feng winter melon factory founded in 1912 by first-generation owner Lin Huang, originally a traditional sugar workshop making rock sugar and winter melon candy. The fourth generation, Lin Ke-chuan, shifted toward selling ready-to-drink winter melon tea and named it A-Chuan to set it apart from the factory's candy-brick business. Today the main shop near Chihkan Tower often has a queue, there are branches in Tainan and Kaohsiung, and the candy can be shipped.

Drinks are sweetened with winter melon syrup instead of plain sugar water, and the candy is boiled down in big wooden vats in the factory next door. Besides plain winter melon tea there are winter melon green tea, lemon winter melon, winter melon with fresh milk, winter melon with tapioca pearls, and combinations with grass jelly and sweet potato balls. A 2013 post on a travel site gave NT$25 for a small cup and NT$35 for a large one with grass jelly and sweet potato balls; recent visitors say a cup is roughly NT$20 to NT$30, so go by the price board.

Fans call it refreshing and thirst-quenching at friendly prices, with a small discount if you bring your own container, and a summer staple in Tainan. Criticism pulls both ways: some find it too sweet, like sugar water, while one blogger found it rather light, and some recent visitors feel it is more diluted than before. Orders go through a machine, which can be tricky for travelers who do not read Chinese.

Map listings show daily hours of 9:00 to 19:00 with no fixed day off, though it is still worth checking. The address is given as No. 190 on Section 2 of Yongfu Road on the map and No. 216 on a Japanese travel site; sources differ, so confirm before you go. The shop is mainly takeaway, with longer queues on holidays and afternoons. Parking around Yongfu Road and Chihkan Tower is hard, so walk. To take some home, buy winter melon candy bricks from the factory and brew your own.

It suits anyone exploring Chihkan Tower and the Martial Temple who wants a cheap, thirst-quenching drink, and travelers looking for traditional winter melon candy as a gift. If you dislike sweetness, try winter melon green tea or lemon winter melon; for something to chew, choose the grass jelly and sweet potato ball combo. If you buy candy bricks, dissolve them in water at the ratio the shop suggests, boil, cool, and add a squeeze of lemon before drinking.