Indonesian Unicorn Kenangan Coffee Opens First Taiwan Outlet in Taipei
April 10 - 2026
Coffee Geography Magazine
In a striking reversal of coffee's traditional trade routes, Southeast Asia's coffee unicorn Kenangan Coffee has landed in Taiwan.
The Indonesian chain opened its first Taiwan outlet in Taipei’s premier commercial district, beginning soft operations on March 28 before an official ceremony on April 7. The move is the following of the expansion into Australia and India last year. With more than 1,000 outlets across Southeast Asia and India, Kenangan plans to expand beyond Taipei to other Taiwanese regions by mid-May.
"We couldn't have picked a better place to begin," the company declared on social media.
Edward Tirtanata, CEO and Founder
The US$1.2 billion strategy appears counterintuitive—entering a nation where coffee is sacred and domestic giants dominate. But co-founder Peter Wu points to Taipei’s Indonesian community as a natural foothold, while group CEO Edward Tirtanata sees broader opportunity: Kenangan's farm-to-cup traceability system and direct sourcing from Bali and Sumatra offer supply chain efficiencies that lower specialty coffee's price barrier.
The menu features the Kenangan Latte—sweetened with natural palm sugar (gula aren) rather than white sugar—which once sold 100,000 cups daily in Indonesia. Taiwan’s-exclusive offerings include the light cloud latte series, formulated with a creamier dairy blend for local palates, and jasmine or peach Americanos with real fruit.
On the food side, Halal-certified options feature Indonesian classics adapted for the Indonesian community tastes, including beef rendang croffle and a taro-cheese croffle with white pepper.