Rent a scooter for the afternoon and scoot up to MaoKong from the Zoo, but make sure to stop at LyTea along the way.
That’s not a bad view from LyTea, agreed?
And the LyTea menu is also in English, too.
I’ve had the tea here, before. It is good, and certainly worth doing if you’re only in Taipei for a short time, as the tea ceremony is something to truly enjoy and savour. Check out this tea video on youtube for more information (this is not my video, I just share it as an example of what I believe to be a good example of a Chinese tea ceremony).
1. 鐵觀音拿鐵 TieGuanYin (Iron Buddha) Latte $180
We went for the Iron Buddha, or TieGuanYin tea. This is a tea known to be grown in the MuZha area of Taipei, where MaoKong is situated. This tea isn’t brewed in the special way in which the others are, however, it is still adequate for your tea fix. It can be a little sweet, if your latte is made using the standard amount (over the top amount) of sugar that a lot of the Taiwanese enjoy. So, be sure to get either 微糖 Less Sugar (wēi táng) or 無糖 No Sugar (wú táng).
This is one of the reasons why LyTea got a 6/10 for cleanliness. Don’t serve anyone a broken anything: be it a bowl, plate, cup or glass. How are we to know whether it was broken during the dishing up process, cleaning process or some other time? I fished around at the bottom, first, until I could be sure that there was no shards inside the dish – fortunately, there wasn’t.
As for the taste: it was really quite nice. The crab roe made the soup broth quite thick and tasty. There wasn’t an overpowering crab flavour I thought there could have been upon seeing the colour of the fish. However, the flavour was mild and pleasant. The tofu had a softness inside with a nice resistant skin on the outside. It’s pretty good, actually!
Another reason why this place only receives a 6/10 for cleanliness, check out the top of the bowl: Poor form.
Tea leaves serve as a good addition to a light oil for these noodles to be cooked in for a brief moment. They are served with a little extra oil over the top with garlic and roasted onions. They’re quite good, but they are also a little soggy. I’ve had better tea oil noodles from the other side of the MaoKong valley (yet to blog, though).
Overall, LyTea is certainly less visited than other more popular spots at the top of MaoKong. It would only be 10-15mins walk from the top, too! Take a stroll on a nice day and get a good view of the Taipei basin in all its glory.
