You’ll struggle to find a Starbucks as fancy as this anywhere else!

Dihua Street is the oldest wholesale street in Taipei and a must-see spot if you find yourself in Taiwan, full of stores selling dried fruits, Taiwanese tea, Chinese shoes, and restaurants serving traditional Taiwanese cuisine.

But as much as we love to grab a bargain or two on our travels, we were there to find something else.

Take a walk near Dihua Street and you’ll find a building with Baroque-looking architecture, renovated from a historic red brick building.

A five minute walk from Taipei Metro’s Daqiaotou Station brought us to the building, which had the aura of a fancy hotel. But it’s not a hotel — look closely at the bottom left, and you can see the familiar logo of Starbucks!

The building was originally the residence of Ye Jin-tu, a famous Taiwanese pineapple merchant, who was known as the Pineapple King. If you look closely at the exterior, you can even see some pineapples on the walls.

These days, it functions as a Starbucks, but even the entrance still has a retro feel to it, and our Taiwan-based reporter Yui Imai, who had gone to check it out, was already feeling excited.

The first floor was where Yui made her order, but to get to the second floor she had to make her way up a winding staircase to get upstairs, where she found…

…an impressive looking seating area. The large windows let in lots of light, even with a massive Starbucks logo covering some of it.

There was one more floor to check out, and the third floor was even more stylish, with retro looking windows across the walls.

It was here that Yui spotted an open sofa seat, so she sat down to try her Taiwan exclusive drink…

▼ …The Sesame Apricot Kernel Tofu Frappuccino!

Priced at 140 Taiwanese yuan (US$4.57) for a tall size, this drink is 100-percent exclusive to Taiwan, and seems to have been a staple during summers here since it was first released in 2020.

The Frappuccino is drizzled in a rich sesame sauce and contains lots of apricot bean curd, and according to Yui, it’s super delicious!

There are other Taiwan-exclusive Starbucks drinks, such as Ruby Grapefruit Alishan Oolong Tea and the Peach Apple Cold Foam Oolong. And if they’re anything like Starbucks Taiwan’s Melon Pan burger, they’re sure to be amazing.

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