Chia Te Bakery

Chen Tang-peng trained for four years in Changhua before opening his own shop in Taipei at age 26, in 1975 -- the start of what became Chia Te Bakery. The business focused from the outset on Taiwan's signature souvenir sweet, the pineapple cake, at a time when the format was still a regional specialty rather than a national export.

Chia Te's reputation firmed up through competition: its original pineapple cake took the top prize at the inaugural Taipei Pineapple Cake Festival in 2006, and its cranberry variation repeated the win the following year, 2007. Those results, alongside decades of steady output from its Songshan District storefront, helped make Chia Te one of the names most associated with the pineapple cake as Chinese New Year gift and travel souvenir.

The bakery's approach has stayed close to its founding formula -- artisanal methods and a narrow product focus -- even as pineapple cakes became one of Taiwan's most recognizable culinary exports.