Taiwan Asparagus Juice: How a 1968 Health Soda Became the Island’s Most Nostalgic Summer Drink

Walk into any 7-Eleven in Taiwan on a sweltering June afternoon and you’ll see them lined up in the cooler — squat green aluminum cans with retro lettering, sweating drops of condensation onto the glass shelf. Pick one up. Pop the tab. Take a sip. Now you’re drinking asparagus juice (蘆筍汁 lúsǔn zhī) — the most unlikely beverage Taiwan ever fell in love with.

If your first reaction is “vegetable… soda?” — congratulations, you’re having the exact thought every visitor has. And every Taiwanese person born after 1968 is having a completely different one: nostalgia.

How a 1960s “Health Soda” Conquered an Island

Asparagus juice landed on Taiwanese shelves in 1968, courtesy of Hey-Song Corporation (黑松) — the beverage giant that also gave the island its iconic sarsaparilla and Hey-Song Cola. Three years later, the Apollo Beverage Company (旺旺友聯) launched its own version. The two have been duking it out for the title of “Taiwan’s favorite asparagus” ever since.

The pitch was clever: in an era when Western sodas were flooding Asia, marketers sold asparagus juice as the healthier, more local alternative. Real asparagus extract, lemon, a touch of sugar. Vitamins! Fiber! The label all but whispered, “Mom would approve.”

And mom did. Generations of Taiwanese kids grew up drinking it on hot afternoons, packed into school lunchboxes, handed out at temple festivals, and pressed into your hand by aunties who insisted it would “cool your body” (降火) — that deeply Taiwanese concept that everything you eat either heats you up or cools you down.

What It Actually Tastes Like

Imagine a slightly sweet, very mild green tea — but earthier, with a faint vegetal note at the finish. Not bitter. Not weird. Honestly closer to “lightly sweetened cucumber water with a personality” than anything resembling a stalk of asparagus on your plate.

Taiwan’s asparagus juice is made from a strain of white asparagus grown specifically for canning — the same plant prized in Germany and France, just grown in Tainan instead of the Rhineland. The stalks are simmered into a concentrate, blended with cane sugar and lemon juice, then carbonated lightly (or not at all, depending on the brand).

The Cultural Weight of a Green Can

For Taiwanese in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, asparagus juice is a portal. It tastes like:

• Grandma’s living room with the fan running on high
• The taxi ride home from a temple festival, sticky fingers on the can
• That one cousin who always brought a six-pack to family gatherings
• 7-Eleven runs after cram school

It also occupies a specific slot in Taiwan’s “retro drinks pantheon” — alongside papaya milk, winter melon tea (冬瓜茶), pearl barley water (薏仁水), and Yakult-style cultured milk. None of them taste like Western soda. All of them taste like home.

Where to Find It (And How to Drink It Like a Local)

You won’t have to look hard. Every 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Hi-Life, and traditional grocery in Taiwan stocks at least one brand — usually both Hey-Song and Apollo, sometimes Wei-Chuan too. Look for green cans with bold red or yellow typography. Roughly NT$25 (about US$0.80).

Pro move: drink it ice-cold. Warm asparagus juice is an acquired taste even for Taiwanese palates. Stick it in the freezer for 10 minutes before opening if you want the full convenience-store-on-a-summer-day experience.

And if you’re already on the island in June? Skip the can and find a traditional cold-drink stall (冷飲店) — some still make asparagus juice fresh, served in a plastic bag with a straw, the way Taipei street vendors have been doing it for sixty years.

The Takeaway

Asparagus juice isn’t just a weird drink. It’s a fossil of an era when Taiwan was figuring out how to be modern without becoming Western — when a beverage company could look at a stalk of vegetable, see the future, and somehow be right.

Next time you’re in a Taiwanese convenience store, skip the Coke. Reach for the green can. You’re not just buying a soda. You’re buying a piece of Taiwanese culture in liquid form.

And if it’s not your thing? That’s fine too. The aunties will forgive you. Probably.