Three of Taipei's four coffee shops are run by champions. You can taste which one isn't.
City Guide · 3 min read
Four reviews into Taipei, and three of the shops are run by a World Barista Champion, a Nordic Roasting Champion, or a nationally known latte artist. The coffee axis is the one place that pedigree actually shows up as a number.
Taipei has four specialty coffee reviews on record so far. Three of the shops behind them are run by people with a real competitive title: a World Barista Champion, a Nordic Roasting Champion, and a nationally known latte artist who trains competitors out of his own counter. The fourth isn't, and the coffee axis is the one place on this site where that difference actually shows up as a number, not just a bio.
Three of Taipei's four reviewed shops are run by competition-credentialed baristas or roasters. Their coffee scores average 8.97. The fourth averages 7.0.
The pedigree
Simple Kaffa's Huashan flagship is run by Berg Wu, Taiwan's first World Barista Champion, who won the title in Dublin in 2016. The pour-over program at the flagship carries that same precision into the cup, single-origin filter work worth the wait for a seat inside Huashan 1914 Creative Park. It scores 9.5 on coffee, the highest of the four.
A few minutes away in the Minsheng Community, Shawn Coffee gives almost nothing away from the street. Inside, the counter is run by a nationally known latte art figure who has hosted Taiwan's own latte art and pour-over competitions and trains competitors from the same room. The latte scores 9.2.
- Simple Kaffa Huashan Flagship Store Steep PickHuashan, Zhongzheng · Taipei · Steep Index 8.5/10
Berg Wu became Taiwan's first World Barista Champion in 2016. The Huashan flagship is the room where that reputation is poured into a cup, inside one of Taipei's most atmospheric creative spaces. The brunch is excellent. There will be a queue. It is worth it.
- Shawn Coffee Steep PickMinsheng Community, Songshan · Taipei · Steep Index 8.5/10
A specialty cafe down a quiet lane in Taipei's Minsheng Community, unassuming from the street but run by a nationally known latte art figure whose pours are the real draw.
- Fika Fika CafeZhongshan · Taipei · Steep Index 8.4/10
A Nordic-influenced specialty cafe on Yitong Street with a communal table at its centre and a pace that does not ask you to leave. The sandwiches are better than expected. The coffee is exactly what you hoped for.
- CAMA COFFEE ROASTERS 豆留文青Xinyi · Taipei · Steep Index 7.3/10
A beautifully reused building in Xinyi with its own roasters on site and a visual identity that outpaces the cup.
Fika Fika Cafe is a different kind of credential. Founder James Chen won the 2013 Nordic Roaster Competition, both the espresso category and the overall title, the first person from outside the Nordic countries to do it in the competition's ten-year history. The room on Yitong Street doesn't trade on that the way the other two do. It's a communal-table neighbourhood cafe with a Nordic light-roast program that scores 8.2, the softest of the three pedigree shops but still well clear of the fourth.
The one that isn't
CAMA COFFEE ROASTERS occupies a genuinely striking reused building in Xinyi, its own roasters visible from the street. It is the most photogenic of the four and the one that leads hardest with its own roasting operation. Its coffee scores 7.0, the lowest of the four by a clear margin, and the review on file calls the cup competent and clean and not much more.
That isn't proof on a four-venue sample. But a World Barista Champion, a Nordic Roasting Champion, and a trained competitor's latte all landing within a point of each other, and the one shop with no claimed title landing two points lower, is exactly the kind of gap the Steep Index exists to catch. A star rating averages all of that into one number and hides it. Splitting coffee out as its own axis is what makes a claim like "the credentialed ones are actually better" checkable instead of just a nice story.
What four reviews suggest
Four venues is too small to call a rule, but it's a real head start for a city whose scene is about to grow. For now: go to Simple Kaffa for the pour-over and expect a queue, go to Shawn Coffee for the latte and expect to walk past the door twice before you find it, and go to Fika Fika if you want the version of this that isn't trying to impress you. Go to CAMA for the building, and know what you're getting into on the cup.