What to Buy in Taiwan Supermarkets

This is a list of all the best foods and snacks to buy from supermarkets and hypermarkets in Taiwan. Read on to learn more.

I’ve lived in Taiwan for over 5 years and have tried most snacks from Taiwanese supermarkets. I want to help any shoppers — whether tourists or expats — find the best munchies to buy.

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Buy These Items While at Taiwanese Supermarkets

The following sections will cover all my recommendations for buying snacks at Taiwanese supermarkets and hypermarkets. If you’re after general food souvenirs, I have a separate guide for that.

I’ve tried all the foods on this list, but not all the alcoholic drinks. Everyone’s taste preferences will differ, but so long as you’re not allergic to anything, I recommend at least trying it.

Mind you, many of these items will only list their ingredients in Chinese characters and not English. Consider this if you have allergies or dietary restrictions (e.g., kosher).

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1. Taiwan-Based Spirits

• Avg. Price: NT$35 – 3,000

Various brewing companies and distilleries originate from Taiwan and produce some great-tasting spirits. Kavalan, for instance, is an award-winning malt liquor.

18 years old is the legal drinking age in Taiwan as of 2024 [1]. Research the legal drinking age just in case this information becomes outdated.

If you buy drinks here, prepare to present the cashier with your passport or ARC (if you live here). If you’re coming from a country where the drinking age requirement is higher, practice caution when buying from Taiwan.

I don’t know how all customs agents will act, but I recommend against bringing alcohol from Taiwan to your home country if you’re considered “underage” at home.

Famous Liquor & Beer Brands from Taiwan

Brand	Chinese Name
Kavalan	噶瑪蘭酒廠
Omar	NA
Kinmen Kaoliang	高粱酒
Yusan Kaoliang Chiew	玉山高粱酒
Matsu Tunnel 88 Kaoliang Liquor	馬祖八八坑道高粱酒
Chyi Leh Wei	琪樂薇酒廠
Taiwan Beer	台灣啤酒
SUNMAI	金色三麥
Taiwan Ale Brewery	台灣艾爾
Taihu Brewing	臺虎精釀
Bucksin	金車柏克金
Long Chuan	龍泉
Le Blé d’Or	金色三麥
Jolly Brewery+Restaurant	卓莉手工醸啤酒泰食餐廳

The characters 臺 and 台 are the same word (Tai; like Tai-wan). 台 is the Simplified Chinese variation of 臺. Companies and organizations will use these characters interchangeably, which could often lead to confusion among foreigners.

“Kaoliang” is a distilled liquor made from fermented sorghum with a light aroma. Companies that make this type of liquor will have “Kaoliang” in their names.

Most of the beer companies listed (except Taiwan Beer) are craft beers. Taiwan Beer is the most common and cheapest beer in the country.

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2. Pineapple & Sun Cakes

Not all supermarkets sell packages of pineapple cakes. They’re hit or miss.

And if you find them available, only buy if you don’t have enough money for higher-end, better-tasting cakes like those from Chia Te or Pan’s Cake. The former is a Taipei specialty. The latter is a specialty of Banqiao (New Taipei).

You can also order these cakes online:

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3. Sweet Spicy Chili Sauce

If you’re looking for something to induce acid reflux or an unpleasant morning on the toilet, look no further. In all seriousness, this sauce tastes terrific. If I could eat spicy stuff, I’d use it with every meal.

Treat yourself if you’re a spicy food lover, or gift it to someone who appreciates setting their stomach on fire.

This sauce isn’t actually that spicy. I’d say it’s mild.

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4. Taiwanese Mochi

Taiwanese mochi is a mixture of water, sugar, rice flour, and glutinous rice flour. It comes in various flavors, including peanut (my favorite), red bean, matcha, and more.

An excellent treat for anyone who wants a great-tasting snack that isn’t too rich.

The specific box I got is Halal. If that’s a souvenir you’re after, there you go.

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5. Instant Coffee

In my experience, Taiwan has a massive variety of instant and bottled coffee compared to what’s available back in the States. One brand I’ve never seen in the US is Mr. Brown (a Taiwanese brand).

I hate their coffee’s taste, but taste is subjective. If you, or someone you know, loves instant coffee, buy these.

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6. Crispy Pork Paper

Crispy pork paper, or pork jerky, is dried pork that’s often mixed with almonds and apples. You’ll need to use an image translator app like Google Translate to see whether you’re looking at pork or beef jerky.

Most of the packaging I found only has Chinese characters, making differentiating the meats difficult.

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7. Instant Noodles

Taiwan is famous for its massive variety of instant noodles. Whether in Taiwanese, Chinese, ramen, or Korean styles, you’ll find noodles with various makeups. More expensive ones include real meat, while some super cheap ones don’t require water to make.

Fun fact. Though, the inventor of instant noodles (Momofuku Ando, AKA Go Pek-hok / 吳百福 ) lived in Japan, he was a Taiwanese immigrant [2].

Grocery stores sell many instant noodles in packs of 4 or more. If you want to experiment with flavors or save money, buy individual packs from convenience stores, such as 7-Eleven and Family Mart.

Best Taiwan Instant Noodles

Let’s compare all Taiwan’s best instant noodles:

Noodle Name (EN)	Name (ZH)	Avg Price
Wei Lih Men	維力炸醬麵	NT$20
Shuang Xiang Pao	雙響泡鹽味豚骨	NT$28
Tung-I	統一蔥燒牛肉碗	NT$19
Ke Xue Mian	統一科學麵	NT$30
Ah Q Tong Mian	統一阿Q	NT$30
Man Han Da Can	統一滿漢蔥燒牛	NT$51
Shui Yuan Vegetarian	味丹隨緣素肉骨	NT$78
Hua Diao Ji Mian	台酒花雕雞麵	NT$48
Wei Wang Prince Noodles	味王王子麵	NT$31
Science Noodles	科學麵	NT$10

The Shui Yuan Vegetarian noodles are vegetarian. I couldn’t find single packets of Science Noodles at supermarkets, only at convenience stores. But they’re around NT$50 for a pack of 4 or 5.

I used to have individual images of all the instant noodles to identify them easily. But the images got corrupted and I didn’t keep backups of the files… You’ll need to compare the Chinese and English characters on the table to the images above.

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8. Taiwanese Nougat Candies

Taiwanese nougats are traditional candies that come in varying flavors, such as peanut and green tea. Salico is a popular brand you may find in supermarkets.

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9. Kuai Kuai Corn Puff Snacks

These creamy, crunchy corn puff snacks taste pretty good, but most Taiwanese buy them for their superstitious value. Look beside computers, servers, and other monitoring systems throughout Taiwan, and you’ll see a bag of these crackers sitting beside it.

乖乖 (guai guai) translates to “well-behaved.” It’s believed that these snacks make electronics behave. Partially due to the bag being green. Since green lights on electronics (e.g., routers) indicate it’s properly working.

Whether you get the Kuai Kuai for superstitious value or not, ensure you get the green ones. When experimenting with flavors, also try the yellow and red ones.

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10. Dried Shredded Squid

Think of shredded squid as squid jerky. If you like squid, or seafood in general, try these. Look for any packaging in the jerky aisle that has a squid on it.

I don’t recommend any particular brand from supermarkets.

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11. I-Mei Snacks

I-Mei is a Taiwan-based snack company with many stores throughout the country. Their candies don’t have the most varying tastes, but they’re great snacks for kids or adults who want an ass load of sugar.

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12. Loose-leaf Tea

• Avg. Price: <NT$100

You’re better off buying loose tea from any of the thousands of tea shops throughout Taiwan. They often don’t cost too much and have more flavor and aroma.

Get the tea there if you’re after something cheap and find yourself at a supermarket.

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13. Unique Coca-Cola Flavors

• Avg. Price: NT$30 – 35

Coca-Cola frequently releases unique flavors in Taiwan, and grocery stores will keep them in stock. For instance, the Coca-Cola and Bleach (anime) collaboration was for the Soul Blast drink. All that artificial sweetener really blasted my soul.

Find these in the drink aisles. Taiwan doesn’t often keep drinks by cash registers like many western stores for impulse buys.

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14. Taiwanese Fruit Jelly

Fruit jelly packets come in varying flavors (I got guava) and are an excellent snack for someone who wants a fruit-like snack that doesn’t taste too sugary.

I recommend leaving these in the fridge several hours before eating. They’ll taste better when chilled.

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15. Green Onion Crackers

These green onion crackers taste great, are inexpensive, and make nice snacks on a flight or bus ride. They’re typically made of yeast, baking soda, white flour, flavoring, and sea salt.

They’re also not vegan, as some contain milk. Pay attention to the packaging if you have dietary restrictions. Some of them will have English translations.

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16. Yakult Gummy Candies

Yakult is a yogurt drink commonly found around Taiwan. To allegedly make more money, the company made these into bite-sized snacks and sprinkled them with sugar to “enhance” their “health” benefits.

I was very disappointed by the number of gummies I received in my pack (around 5) and don’t recommend them. Since they’re unique, I placed them on this list as something for you to consider.

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Supermarkets & Hypermarkets Found in Taiwan

Supermarket chains in Taiwan are as follows:

• Wellcome (owned by Carrefour)
• Jasons Market Place (owned by Carrefour)
• Citysuper
• Carrefour Market (small Carrefour)
• PX Mart
• Simple Mart

PX Mart is the most common store (as it’s Taiwanese). Simple Mart is mostly in alleys. They don’t have anything special. City Super and Jasons are usually in basements of department stores.

Both stores typically focus on Western imports.

Carrefour Market is an excellent alternative to PX Mart if there’s not one around. And I believe Carrefour has replaced most Wellcome locations with Carrefour Markets.

Taiwan’s list of hypermarkets include:

• Carrefour Taiwan
• A-Mart
• Costco Taiwan
• RT Mart
• Don Don Donki Taiwan

Folks with Costco memberships outside of Taiwan can use their cards in Taiwan warehouses. Though, some folks from the States have said that they could use their card if they go to membership services and get a “local” card.

You’ll sometimes find Taiwan-specific items in Costco. But it’s obviously in bulk and not ideal to transport in luggage.

A-Mart is basically the same as PX Mart in terms of inventory. I haven’t been to RT Mart because there are so few. Carrefour is a great place to find everything.

And Don Don Donki (Don Quijote) is technically not a hypermarket. It’s a discount store chain from Japan. I mixed it in with the hypermarkets since it has food and other items. I also cover what souvenirs to buy from Don Quijote in a separate piece.

If you’re from the US, Taiwan doesn’t have Walmart.

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Important Information

How Much Cash to Carry	At least NT$3,000
Accepted Payment Methods	Varies; usually cash, Taiwan credit cards, IC cards, digital payments
Do Stores Have Self-Checkout?	Only Carrefour
Do Stores Offer Shopping Bags?	You have to buy them
Are There Loyalty Programs for Tourists?	No
Is English Spoken at Supermarkets?	Seldom; it depends

I used to use cash at grocery stores for every purchase, but now I’ll load an EasyCard with NT$3,000 and make purchases with that. I got tired of dealing with change.

You could also buy gift cards from KKday and/or KLOOK and load them onto Google Wallet (and maybe Apple Wallet). That way, you could build up points from those platforms.

Here are some gift cards to consider:

• Carrefour: KKday or KLOOK
• RT Mart: KKday

Most other digital payment methods are solely for locals. As they require Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) or Taiwan ID numbers.

Many of these places will accept major credit card providers. Since they’re not mom and pop stands. If you’re trying to build up card rewards, that could be a good way to pay for purchases.

FYI, integrated circuit (IC) cards are these cards:

• EasyCard (most popular)
• iPASS
• iCash 2.0

Folks will mostly use them for public transportation. But they’re great to use when paying for items at grocery stores. It beats carrying around change.

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Regarding Tourist Tax Refunds

Some stores will offer a tax refund on NT$2,000 or more purchases at a single location. So long as they have a sign with this label:

Many stores (e.g., Don Don Donki) will have this sign at the entrance. I have a separate guide if you don’t know where or how to claim the refund.

Ensure you don’t open any of the goods you want a refund for if the store participates in the program.

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Sources

1. Ministry of Justice, R.O.C. (Taiwan), Nationality Act
2. Overseas Community Affairs Council, R.O.C. (Taiwan), Nationality of the Republic of China