Literature Review
Historical Background of Taiwan's Iced Treats Development
Taiwan is situated in the tropical and subtropical areas. People have iced treats as a comfort food for the hot weather. Iced treats date back to the Japanese era (1895-1915) and they were popular. After 50 years of colonial rule over Taiwan, Taiwanese people started developing and selling iced treats. They added different sauces and ingredients to them. In the modern days, different types of ice treats have started popping up in Taiwan. Now, you can find various types of them everywhere.
Development of Taiwan Ice Products
Taiwanese people no longer needed to endure the hardship of making ice. Refrigerators capable of chilling and freezing have been around since 1834. Based on the relevant principles of refrigeration, ice-making machines have also emerged successively. Before the appearance of ice shavers, the older generation used knives or chisels to shave ice from large blocks, and then added sugar water or ingredients like starfruit and preserved plum syrup to make icy treats.
In the past, people mainly relied on shade or cold water to maintain ice at low temperatures, simply calling it “cool water.” It wasn’t until the past fifty years that iced treats truly entered every household, becoming a delicious treat easily accessible on every street corner.
1834: The refrigerator appeared, followed by the emergence of ice-making machines.
1926-1970: Various icy treats emerged, with the earliest banana shaved ice.
Around 1950: Western-style iced treats became popular.
Development History of Linkou Ice Products
Linkou is a district in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Meanwhile, our school is a part of this neighborhood, which connects us to the development of Linkou ice products.
The earliest Linkou ice products can be traced back to Taipower Linkou Power Plant’s Ki-a-ping. It was founded in 1966 and started selling ice cream. The plant originally provided community welfare services for employees and was then opened to the general public in July, 2021. Everyone buys popsicles from the power plant. The cheap, delicious and real popsicles are loved by local people, and they usually buy large packs at a time. Interestingly, the traditional flavors attract people to buy a lot at once. The flavors include milk, sweet potato, pineapple, and so much more. Besides, they offer good deals.
Until now, Linkous ice products have continued to increase and continue to allow more people in Linkou to eat various traditional ice cream.
Ice-Making Technology
In the Japanese colonial period, Japanese introduced ice maker and making technology, so Taiwan’s Ice products bring epoch-making changes. At first ice came from Hong Kong or Japan so it was expensive, in 1896 British businessman Cooperated with tea merchants they built the first ice making plant in Taiwan, then the Japanese made more ice making plants. In the beginning, the Japanese ice factory was used to provide ice cubes for fish preservation, but Taiwan weather is too hot, so they process ice cubes into ice products and sell them on the market.
At first, chopping ice involves manually cutting the ice cubes from the ice factory into crushed ice and ice flakes using tools such as milling cutters and chisels, but later the time Taiwan’s first ice-chopping machine manufacturer, launches cast-iron hand-operated ice-chopping machine it make production simple and convenient.