The town of Puli in Taiwan’s central heart is Taiwan’s old brewing capital, a place with rice wine so good it was once literally deemed fit for royalty. For nearly a century, the town’s brewery reigned unchallenged as part of a government monopoly system, slaking Taiwan’s thirst and providing alcohol for celebrations big and small across the island. Recent years have thrown just about every disaster they could at Puli’s brewery- wild shifts in taste, the arrival of fierce competition, and to top things off, a catastrophic earthquake. And yet, even in today’s Taiwan, Puli still stands for brewing, and crowds of tourists still make their way to the local brewery to see where the magic happens.