The Best and Worst Taiwanese Ice Cream Flavours Imaginable at Snow King

There’s no shortage of good ice cream in Taipei, but this isn’t why Snow King should be on your radar — this ice cream shop near Beimen has been around since 1947 and boasts over 70 flavours, many of which are uniquely Taiwanese and some of which are… unique. Snow King is not afraid to experiment with ingredients that you couldn’t in your wildest dreams imagine putting in ice cream, and it makes for an unforgettable Taiwanese experience.

The shop used to be located on the first floor of a building between Beimen and Ximen MRT stations, and has since moved up to the second floor. Watch out for the small sign telling you where it is — you may miss it otherwise.

The inside is clean and modern, and despite being a relatively small space it is capable of accommodating a rather large number of people. Staff are efficient and not unpleasant, but also rather direct. They mean business here!

Grab a menu from the front or consult the chalkboard, which advertises seasonal and recommended flavours. Unfortunately, Snow King has a “no sampling” policy, probably because if samples were available they would never stop doling them out.

The menu is split into sections: fruit, nuts & beans, Chinese herb, tea, skin care, spicy, vegetable, wine, and “others.” While they cover their bases with standard flavours like chocolate, strawberry, and mango, they also offer some pretty unique additions like Chinese angelica, Oolong tea, basil, osmanthus, and date paste, to name but a few. And they don’t stop there — Snow King has more to give. Keep browsing, because there are more than a few options that are sure to raise eyebrows. For starters, their alcohol section alone is worth visiting, with flavours such as Taiwan Beer (3.5%), brandy (40%), and Kinmen Kaoliang (a whopping 58%). The real show-stoppers, though, are the savoury flavours. Sesame chicken, wasabi, chili, curry, pork knuckle and pork floss flavours are all here to ruin your day because let’s face it, it’s basically guaranteed that someone in your group will order one.

Order and pay for your ice cream at the front, and it will be served up almost immediately. Flavours range from around $70 – $150 per scoop and are priced according to their base ingredients. The more expensive the ingredient is, the more expensive the ice cream will be. As your ice cream arrives, the staff will explain the order that you should eat it in: in the same way that you would follow dinner with dessert, the savoury flavours are intended to be eaten first, followed by the sweet. Armed with the knowledge that there would be no sampling, we brought as many people as we could with us so we could go over the top with ordering – a total of eight different flavours. We strongly recommend that you do the same!

Here’s what we got. From the top left, they are: mango, wasabi, taro, chili, Kinmen Kaoliang, pork floss, Taiwan Beer, and Oolong Tea. The mango ($110) was fruity and delightful, clearly made with real fruit. There were mixed reviews on the wasabi — it was slightly sweet and not very spicy — simply because it’s an unusual flavour, and enjoyment is completely subjective. Taro ($95) was nice and creamy, not particularly flavourful, but delicious nevertheless. Chili pepper ($110) wasn’t particularly sweet and had a distinctive chili taste. The Kinmen Kaoliang ($150) was STRONG (58% alcohol, remember?), with a number of people claiming they felt a buzz after a few spoonfuls. Again, enjoyment was subjective — the overpowering alcohol taste meant that it was hard to enjoy per se, but we definitely felt that we were getting our money’s worth. Pork floss ($125) was terrible. Certain members of our group enjoyed it, but the vast majority felt it was revolting. Try it for the experience, but at your own risk. Taiwan Beer ($120) was quite light and refreshing, with a mild taste of beer that was neither unpleasant nor particularly good. Oolong tea ($105) was smooth and pleasant, but not embraced by everyone.

All in all, we were very impressed with the quality of each flavour despite there being a great number that we would never reorder. We wished we had more people so that we could have sampled more flavours that we actually thought we would enjoy, but in the end, it was completely worth the time and money to try all the weird ones.

Check out their menu above. Flavours go in and out of rotation, so every time you visit there should be something new to try. The only downside of this is that you may go on a day where the one particular thing you wanted to try isn’t available, so you may want to check ahead. The obvious upside of this is that there are a huge array of flavours out there available to try — in their entire history, Snow King’s founder estimates that there have been over 400 flavours in rotation. Who knows what flavour the ice cream wizard has in store for us next?

What’s the vibe?

Ice cream shop with a huge array of often-bizarre flavours. Some are great. Some are disgusting. You could make the case for all of them being worth trying at least once. Customers are a varied bunch, and the service staff are efficient but sometimes curt.

Worth it?

So worth it. This place is an absolute must for everyone visiting Taipei. Where else could you try pork floss ice cream?

Would you go back?

Damn right! We’ll be taking every single person we know to this place.

Snow King

Chinese Name: 雪王冰淇淋

Hours: 12pm - 8pm

Phone: 02 2331 8415

English Address: No. 65, Wuchang Street, Section 1, Zhongzheng District, Taipei City

Chinese Address: 100台北市中正區武昌街一段65號