Ep. 283 - [Taiwan] Insights and Lessons from a Decade in Taiwan with Mai Bach, Co-Founder of Oohchacha

Today we’re interviewing Mai Bach, Co-founder and CEO of Oochacha, one of the first vegan restaurants in Taiwan that serve raw smoothies. She’s a social entrepreneur who walks the walk and talks the talk.

Mai and her husband/business partner did a 6-month trip around Asia and then settled down in Taiwan to start a vegan business. Sound familiar?

Mai is an amazing conversationalist. I didn’t even edit this episode all that much because she just spoke so eloquently and was just full of knowledge.

She talks about Taiwan being this small but big city and why she decided to set up shop here. Mai also goes through her vegan experience in Taiwan and talks about how hard it was to get nourished as a Vegan. So like all great entrepreneurs, she recognized a problem and then developed a solution which was green smoothies.

Also, why don’t Asian vegans eat garlic, onions, leeks, shallots, all the alliums? I was so confused by Mai demystifies it, it‘s apparently a Buddhist practice because alliums flare up the emotions. So if you’re ever entering the vegan Asian market, you might be at a disadvantage if you’re using garlic and onion. Wow, I don’t think I could ever cook without those.

Vegan is a relatively new term in Asia and it’s also super diverse so it’s been amazing unearthing on just how nascent the industry is 

Overall, Mai’s journey building Ochacha is a masterclass example of finding a niche, finding out how to build something in a foreign country, and just being persistent in the decade in building this amazing concept

We have a really good discussion before we actually started the podcast so I kept that in.

Sorry for the Noise, we actually do this in Mai’s café in Taipei. At lunchtime, it was packed.