Taro Milk Tea, Santa Cruz Boardwalk

During my recent visit to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk, I indulged in ... too many things.  It started with my first Klondike bar in years (actually, quite good!), at the company picnic.  And then, uh, a Blue Bunny sundae cone (which I've reviewed before), also at the picnic.  And then ... an absolutely insane, but not tasty, apple pie funnel cake with whipped cream and ice cream from the Boardwalk concession stand.

But I wasn't satisfied.  The funnel cake was so bad it left me wanting ... something.  I really did want a soft serve cone, but, I needed to rush to the return bus, and didn't actually want to bring a cone on board.  But I recalled seeing a coffee shop that also had bubble tea on the menu, and I figured this was a great choice.  I could get a bubble tea, throw it in my bag (since it would be sealed), and bust it out in an hour or so on the bus, once my blood sugar started crashing from all my other sweets wearing off.

This plan did not work.  Mostly, because, well, this wasn't really a bubble tea shop.

Coffee Shop.

The menu was mostly made up of espresso drinks, hot, iced, and made into frappes.  They also had a Numi hot tea selection.  And bubble tea, listed on the menu, as, bubble tea.  Bubble tea was offered in 4 flavors: thai tea, green tea, taro, and mango, with or without tapioca pearls (strangely, for the same price).

I opted for taro milk tea, as I adore taro.  With pearls.  When I ordered, I was asked if I wanted whipped cream on top.  This should have been a sign.  Whipped cream on a bubble tea?  Hmm.  How does that work with the sealed cups they use?  Answer: it doesn't, they don't actually have one of those machines.

Taro Milk Tea?  $5.95.

This was not a taro milk tea.  It was more of a taro smoothie I suppose?  Not necessarily a bad thing, but, not what the menu said, and not what I thought I was getting.  I didn't actually want a blended icy beverage at this point.

It started with ice.  There was also milk (real milk, not non-dairy powder like much bubble tea).  And I guess taro powder at some point, but I never saw it.  That all went into a blender, just like they used for their frappes.  After being blended, it was poured into a plastic cup on top of the boba, before being topped with generic whipped cream from a can.

It was a total mess when it was handed to me, the contents dripping down the sides, as the person pouring it didn't do a great job actually getting it in the cup.  She kinda cleaned it up.  A regular dome lid with a big hole in the center was stuck on top.  And then it was handed over, without a word.

I asked if they had straws.  I was pointed at the regular straw dispenser on the side.  "Do you have wide straws for sucking up the boba?", I inquired further.  The worker just shrugged, said, "Those are our straws".

Well, ok then.  No idea what I was supposed to do with the boba.

So, it was a blended smoothie, in a regular cup, without a straw to suck up my boba.  It needed to be consumed then, not stashed in my bag as I planned.  I had no choice but to drink it as soon as I got on the bus.

It ... was not good.  It did not taste like taro.  At all.  It was horribly, cloyingly sweet.  The base was sweet, and the boba was absolutely covered in sweet syrup.  I couldn't suck up the boba, obviously.  They were standard size pearls, and I had a regular straw.  This does not work.  The flavor was just ... awful.

It also was not blended well.  It did not have ice chunks at least, but, it was entirely separated.  And the whipped cream?  Meh.  Just stuff from a can.

I did not like this.  But, I was stuck on a bus, with nowhere to throw it out, or even set it own.  The ride was going to be about 2.5 hours.  I couldn't really just hold onto it for that long.  So, I had to drink it.  I hated it.  So sweet, so horrible tasting.  Do not get this.

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Taro Milk Tea from R & B Cafe

Do you remember when I went through a taro milk tea phase a while ago?  You may recall a slew of reviews, all of fairly mediocre bubble tea, concluding with me deciding that basic Quickly is about the best I can find.  Well, the craving for bubble tea hit me again, and I was delighted to discover that R & B Cafe, located just a few blocks from my office, has bubble tea, and incredibly customizable bubble tea at that!

R & B Cafe offers online ordering via eat24, including through the mobile PayPal app, which I did as I headed out the door, hoping my order would be ready as I walked in.

As an aside, the PayPal app is much more stable now, it no longer crashes like when I ordered a taro milk tea from Chai Yo (spoiler: Chai Yo's version is better than R & B), although my experience wasn't as seamless as when I used it for taro milk tea from Cocoa Cafe (spoiler: Cocoa Cafe MUCH better than R & B).

As I said, I placed my order as I left the office, but unlike my pickup experience at Cocoa Cafe, my order was not ready when I arrived.  Nor was it even started.  Why?  Because they were out of the taro that I asked to have as my "topping", rather than boba (one of the many choices).  So I asked for the red bean as my next choice.  And ... they were out of that.  The only options were regular tapioca, or, popping boba in a few flavors.   Boo.  A lot of the reason I picked R & B Cafe as my source of bubble tea, besides convenient location, was the topping choices!

Anyway, service was friendly enough, and they made my drink quickly once consulting with me on adding regular boba instead, but I won't be going back.

Taro Bubble Milk Tea, Green Tea, Lightly Sweet, Honey Boba. $2.95.

R & B offers incredibly customizable milk teas.

To start, you pick a base of black or green tea.  Since I didn't want tons of caffeine, I went for green.  I can't say I tasted a difference, and many places don't even use tea in their milk teas anyway.

Next, you pick the flavor.  12 different fruity flavors were offered, but, I only wanted taro.  Like most places, a powder was used for the taro flavor.  Unfortunately, even though it was a vibrant purple color, there was somehow no taro flavor to it.  I honestly wouldn't have known it was taro.  Very disappointing.

Next, toppings.  As I mentioned, I was excited to have additional taro in my taro tea, but alas, they didn't have any.  Nor did they have red bean.  I didn't want fruity popping boba, so I went for the classic boba instead.

The tapioca were fairly awful.  Really soft and mushy, just like the horrible tapioca I had in my taro milk tea from Little Garden.  Luckily for me I guess, there really wasn't much tapioca added, which I originally thought was lame when I saw the small quantity in my large drink, but ended up appreciating this since I didn't want the tapioca.

And finally, sweetness.  I appreciated that this was an decision you had to make when you order, rather than needing to specify it separately.  "Light", "Normal", or "Very" were my options, and I wisely went for "light" remembering numerous too sweet experiences in the past.  I think I made the right choice.  It was certainly sweet enough, but not overwhelming.  Perhaps the only element of this milk tea that I actually liked.

Clearly, this was not a winner, and I won't be getting another.

The price of $2.95 was right in the middle of the range of others around town.  Interestingly, a single topping is included in the base price, rather than a $0.50 add-in like most others.  Obviously, the $1.99 Quickly version is the best deal in town, but R & B was more reasonable than $4.40 charged by Little Garden, or $3.50 from Cocoa Cafe or Chai Yo.

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Bubble Nini Tea, Sydney

Update Review, October 2019, Darling Square Location

Darling Square seems to have just sprung up since my last visit to Sydney.  

Sure, there were signs that this area was about to turn into a destination for the past year, but it was during my trip in October that I found myself in the area nearly every day, because I kept seeking it out.  Well done, city planners.  The selection is well curated.

I was quite pleased to find that Bubble Nini Tea had opened a shop in the Maker's Dozen inside The Exchange, just a 15 minute walk from my hotel, and quasi on the way home from my office.  I loved my experience at the Chippendale location, but, that was a bit far away for a random night.

Flowers!

The space inside The Exchange that Bubble Nini occupies is tiny, like all of the storefronts.  No dedicated seating, and no real sense of "space", but Bubble Nini did their best to incorporate the elements of the other shop here, notably, the flowers.  Right at the entrance is a beautiful display.

Ordering Area.

And then, this is the rest of the space.  Seriously, tiny.

This is the ordering station: just a little table, with menus on it, and a tablet set up.  A staff member wandered out to take orders when people showed up.

October 2019 Menu.

The menu has been updated to follow the latest trends, notably with a new "Pink Salt Cheese Milk Foam" series and some new additions to the Blended range featuring yogurt.  It was the yogurt drinks I zoomed in on, 3 options, two which sounded just like fruity smoothies (berry or mango/passionfruit), and the final, what I was there for: purple rice.   Yup, even Bubble Nini got into the cheese foam and yogurt rice drink crazes.

I was very curious to see how they'd do it.

Purple Rice Blended with Yogurt ($7.50)
+ Taro Pearls + Pink Salt Cheese Milk Foam. (+ $1 each).

"Purple Rice + Honey + Fresh Yogurt"

There was only one drink with rice, and interestingly, in a menu full of cute named products, it was also one of only a few with normal, descriptive names.  "Purple rice blended with yogurt".  Of course, I wanted more than just rice and yogurt, and I decided to really mix it up, instead of adding fresh taro, as I had at Koomi and The Moment (reviews coming soon!), I added taro pearls, because Bubble Nini is known for the fresh, handmade, flavored pearls.  Quality pearls, and unique flavor, so even though I've been anti-pearls lately, I wanted to give them a try.

I also asked for the foam, and, much like at The Moment, was met with a bit of "uh ....", notably, concern over it not fitting, unless I got a large.  So, a large it was. 

My drink took a few minutes, and was handed over.  It came in a standard milk tea tall plastic cup, no cute bottle like The Moment or Bengong Black.  Slightly disappointing to not add to my bottle collection, but I cared about the taste more than anything.

I'll start at the top: the pink salt cheese milk foam.  The foam was *excellent*.  It was salty, it was savory, the first to really taste like cheese actually.  It was fluffy yet dense.  The best foam I had in Sydney.  I'm very glad I added it.

The body of the drink was quite different from the others I had throughout the week, in that it was much better blended.  I guess, it *was* called "rice blended with yogurt", and it lived up to that name.  Much of the purple rice was pulverized and mixed in, which resulted in tiny bits of texture, but not the chew that I had come to love in the other drinks.  There was some near the bottom, but mostly, it was blended, more smoothie-like, just, a rice smoothie.

The yogurt was a runnier style, more like classic yogurt, and everything was sweetened with honey, which added a pleasant, not fake, sweetness, but a sweetness nonetheless.  I wasn't really wanting something so sweet, and wished I had asked to have that reduced.

It also seemed to be blended with something frozen.  Maybe the rice was frozen, like in a smoothie prep?  Or there was ice, but it didn't seem watered down.  It was definitely far colder, and ice-y like, which was really different from the others.

Really, this was a purple rice smoothie, whereas the others were sticky rice with creamy thick yogurt on top.  Just, a different thing really.  I wouldn't get this again, but I can't fault Bubble Nini for it, this is just not my style of drink.

I'll go back to their quality taro drink though, and add foam to that ...

Taro Boba.

On the bottom of the cup was the taro boba.  I didn't taste taro, and yes, the pearls were soft, not stuck together, and likely a nice quality, I didn't like them.  They were a pretty purple color.  I guess I really just am over boba entirely.  Sadly, it was hard to avoid them, since I wanted the rice chunks too. I wish I hadn't added these.

Original Review, March 2019, Chippendale location

Bubble Nini Tea is ... a bubble tea shop.  And a flower shop.  A combination bubble tea flower shop.  For realz.

This is the kind of thing made for Instagram, but, it turns out, also makes quality beverages.  Let me introduce you to Bubble Nini Tea, in Chippendale, in Sydney.  Perhaps the highest quality bubble tea I've ever had.

A Delightful Experience.

My experience at Bubble Nini Tea was delightful, all around.  And I use that word intentionally.  It wasn't just a good beverage, but, the feeling I had both being there, in the lovely flower shop, and once I left, from consuming quality goods, was ... well, delight.

I learned that this is what milk tea made without crap can be like.  It can be ... fresh tasting.  Not unhealthy.  Sydney has a slew of bubble tea shops, ranging from chains with non-dairy creamer and powders and hard boba and too sweet jellies, to places that pride themselves on the quality of the tea, steeping it in small batches, to those that distinguish themselves by innovating on the toppings/additions (cheese foam is now fairly standard, but some places offer ... flavored cheese foam! Or, bruleed tops!  And more recently, purple rice or yogurt bases).

But how many use fresh milk?  That cuts the selection down quickly.  Real taro, rather than powder.  Now the pickings are slim.  And, handmade pearls, in a variety of flavors?

Pretty sure Bubble Nini Tea is the only one that meets this profile.

Setting

Bubble Nini Tea is located a block off of Central Park, in the new development near the uni in Chippendale. 

Storefront.

From the sidewalk, there isn't much to see, just a fairly standard storefront, no outside seating even.

Ordering Counter.

Once you step inside, it still doesn't look like much, at first glance.  An ordering counter with laminated menus sitting on it, and some flowers.  A small work area is behind the counter.

Its a small place, with a homey feels.

Seating.

But the moment you breath in, you realize you aren't in a normal small bubble tea shop.  You are also .. in a flower shop.  The aroma is strong.

There is very little seating, just a counter along the one window, with stools.  I think it could seat 4-5 people total.  And, as I said, no outdoor seating.  Not really a place to stick around, which is fine, as the park is just a block away.

Flowers.

The other half of the interior is filled with the flower arrangements.  Actually, this  may have been more than half the total floor space.  It seemed like a bit of an odd setup, really.

But it made for a very tranquil, nice smelling, experience.

Drinks

Bubble Nini Tea offers only drinks, no snacks or munchies.

Menu.

The menu is broken down into 5 categories: Bubble Nini Hand Made Pearls, Pure Tea, Fresh Fruit Infused, Blended Range, and Ice Cream Floats.  Each category had fewer and fewer options.

Each drink had a cute name ("It takes two to mango" might have been my favorite), and was designed with additions and bases.  It didn't seem like modifications were really a thing, no, pick your tea, pick your add ins, look at our huge list of toppings.

The menu had a few things that made me laugh though, besides the names.

At the bottom, the featured "Instagram Favourites".  Not the ones that taste the best, or they recommend, but, the Instagram sensations.  This did worry me slightly.

The guide at the bottom also designated which were H (Hot), which were C (Cold), and which were Crown (Popular).  Ok, fine, except that ... the only ones that had a crown were the first section "Bubble Nini Hand Made Pearls", and ... every single one in that section had a crown.  Does this mean the only popular drinks are the first section, so don't bother reading the rest of the menu?  And what about the fact that one of the featured Instagram Favourites came from another section, thus, no crown?  Its a fav, but not popular?

Anyway, my selection was easy, only one featured taro, both fresh taro AND hand made taro pearls, and that is certainly what I was going for, their take on a taro milk.  If I wanted something lighter, or more refreshing, one of the sparkling options with jellies, or the very Instagram worthy "Honey, I'm Home" with chia seeds and alvo vera and mint suspended in a beautiful butterfly pea flower tea would have been my picks.

Requisite Flower Shot.

Before I left the shop, I of course felt compelled to take my photo of the fairly beautiful beverage, in front of a wall of flowers.  I wasn't going to but ... I mean, really.

I still wasn't expecting much from the bubble tea, very worried that people were just into the Instagram nature of the shop.

And then I took a sip.

Well huh.  It was good.  Very good.  And, so very different.

A Taro-bly Bad Name. Medium. $6.50. +Coconut Jellies $0.50.

"Fresh Taro + Full Cream Milk + Taro Pearls."

-Taro Pearls, +Sakura Pearls, +Coconut Jellies.

As I mentioned, Bubble Nini Tea does not use taro powder, so it wasn't the purple color you find elsewhere.  The real taro paste, smeared along the edges, even looked slightly unattractive, ugly brown mush, right?

But I didn't care how it looked.  I wanted to taste taro.  And I did.  The taro paste was quite strong, and I loved the earthy nature.  Since there is not added sweetners and junk, it wasn't too sweet at all.  I truly got to enjoy the taro taste.

The milk, quality Australian full cream milk (which, I swear, tastes sooo much better than American milk, just like the eggs ...), was rich and a nice creamy backdrop.  

There is no ice added, which meant it was not as cold as I actually would have preferred, as it was 90 degrees out, and I was looking for a cold beverage.  But it also means it didn't get watered down.

They were out of taro pearls, which come standard, so I asked for sakura pearls instead.  The pearls were unlike any others I've ever had.  I thought I didn't really like pearls, and have been opting for jellies and puddings instead elsewhere, but these proved that fresh made pearls can be amazing.  They were soft, pliable, and had a lovely floral flavor.  I also had a stray mango pearl in my cup (bonus! I almost picked mango!), and it too was an amazing texture.

I also added coconut jellies, because I was worried I'd not like the pearls per usual and want some texture.  I'm still glad I added them, as they gave another thing to slurp up and enjoy.  Unlike most places, they didn't seem totally soaked in sweet, and complimented the drink, rather than making it too sweet.

The most amazing part of this drink, besides finally getting to taste real taro, and finally enjoying pearls, is that it didn't leave me feeling gross.  So often I gulp down a bubble tea and then ... feel the effects of all the powders, high sugar content, the non-dairy powdered milk.  This just left me feeling satisfied and good.  A wondrous thing!

I really enjoyed this, perhaps more than any other taro milk in my life, and I'd gladly get another (and, would love to try some other options too ...)

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Chatime, Syndey

Update Reviews, 2018 & 2019 Visits, Multiple Locations

Yes, I've gotten a bit obsessed with bubble tea, particularly since the introduction of "crema" or "cheese" toppings, which I adore.  Most of my Sydney bubble tea focus recently has been on fancier locations, like, zomg, Bubble Nini Tea, or off the beaten path classics like Original Royaltea, but in a pinch, I go for a chain like Chatime.  If you aren't familiar with Chatime, I suggest you start with my original review of Chatime.

Sydney Airport Location, 2019 Visits

Yes, I stepped off an airplane at the Sydney airport, fresh off an overnight flight from San Francisco, and literally ordered a bubble tea upon landing.  Let's just say, my body was confused, I didn't like my onboard breakfast, and I wanted "something to make me happy."  When I remembered that Chatime had a location in the airport, landside, I made a beeline for it once I got my bags and cleared customs.  I have no explanation besides that long flights can lead to crazy decisions.

Menu.

The menu was the full Chatime menu, milk tea, fruity tea, hot or cold, with standard mix-ins and customizations.

Mix-Ins.

I appreciate that the mix-ins are all visible, so I can impulse decide I want something in particular because it looks good.

Matcha Latte Milky Iced Tea with Pearls. $7.95.

Because it was early morning, and I knew I'd have a long day of jetlag ahead of me, I wanted something to give me a bit of zing, but I already had coffee (lots of it) on my flight, so matcha seemed like a good compromise, caffeine, but not as much as a coffee.  I was too worn out to make decisions about mix-ins though, and went super boring, just boba.

This had nice matcha flavor.  I really liked the matcha milk aspect of it.  But really, it was just matcha milk.  Not really that exciting.

The tapioca pearls were large size, and kinda hard.  Not stuck together, but I didn't care for the texture.  Not worth the $1 extra.

But decent for matcha milk.

Taro Milk Tea, 30% Sugar, Coconut Jelly, Rainbow Jelly, Mousse Original. Regular.  $6.25 (base) + $1.30 (jellies) + $1.20 (mousse).

A few months later, I did it again, but went the other direction: not simple, at all.  Yes, I crafted this at 7am.

I was met with so much indecision.  Wait, what did I want, anyway?  I wanted coffee!  Oooh, look someone has a yummy looking egg sandwich.  Oh man, did you see those pastries?  Yeah, I was all over the place, but stuck to my plan, and ordered a taro milk tea from Chatime.  

I wanted mix-ins, and remembered not really liking the boba, so I opted for coconut jellies, thinking coconut and taro would be a nice combination.  And then ... I saw the rainbow jellies, and asked for those too.  Really, had I been thinking, I would have realize the rainbow jellies have coconut anyway, and I would have remembered that I liked the pudding at Chatime, and like it with taro milk tea in general, but ... yeah, I wasn't thinking.

And then I saw a sign that said I could top it off with mousse!  Regular or matcha.  I asked about that, and the server told me it was like a foam on top.  That sounded great too.  So I asked for that.  She asked which kind, and I picked matcha, but then she told me that probably wouldn't be good.  I trusted her, and went for original.

The only real smart thing I did was opt for 30% sweet, remembering that I always find these drinks way too sweet.

It actually took a fair amount of time for my drink to be prepared, by the single staff member.  She wasn't helping anyone else though, it just had a lot of steps.

I was surprised when it was handed over in a different cup that I am accustomed to from Chatime, but, that was because I got the mousse, which is added at the end, so it can't be sealed like normal. The mousse was perched on top, not what I’d ever consider “mousse” but it was fluffy and rather interesting, almost cheesy in nature.  I think salty too?  Slightly savory.  I think I liked it.

Since I picked two kinds of jellies, coconut and rainbow, it was just way too much. My drink was like half jellies.  I liked both, but, note to self, only one type of jellies. Next time, rainbow jellies, and if I want something else pudding.  Ooops.

30% sweet was still plenty sweet.  I definitely wouldn't get sweeter, and even would wish for lesser, but I believe that was the lowest option.

As for the taro, there was not much taro flavor really, because, well, it is taro powder in black tea with tons of sugar, jellies, and “mousse”. What was I expecting?  To taste real taro?

I didn’t dislike this, but, I wouldn’t get it again in this form.

Delivery, 2018, Sydney CBD Location

The next set of Chatime drinks I had weren't actually ordered, nor created, by me.  They were from an event at my office, that had ordered something like 200 random drinks, to celebrate a launch.  And they had tons of extra.  I was excited to try more drinks, and used it as an excuse to try things I'd never normally order - a great way to find new things I do indeed like!

Chocolate Milky Iced Tea, With Custard, Half Sweet. $7.95.

This was, well, chocolate milk.  Intensely chocolately.  Very enjoyable, but not as amazing as the insanely good chocolate milk from Bourke Street Bakery!

The custards you can't see here, but they were hiding in the bottom, a couple large chunks of slippery, soft, plain custard.  They actually went well with the chocolate milk and were a fun addition.

Totally different, not what I'd ever order, and kinda like a dessert

Honeydew Milky Ice Tea, with Lychee Jelly. $7.95.

Well, oops.

I'm allergic to melon, so I'd never order this honeydew milk tea.  Luckily for me, my honeydew allergy is mild, unlike my watermelon allergy.

I took one sip, and realized I what I had.  This was very clearly honeydew!  Doh.

Unfortunately, I had already walked away when I broke into it, and didn't bother going back.

The honeydew flavor was fascinating to me in a black milk tea, very unlike anything I've had before.  Fruity, but bitter black tea, but milky.  Really different.

I did love the lychee jellies, sweet, flavorful.  I had to give it to a co-worker though, since I didn't want to risk my mild allergy.

2019 Visit, CBD Location

Ok, this one is just crazy.  I went to Chatime and got ... not a bubble tea.  I'm glad the staff at the CBD location were willing to humor me.

Strawberry Popping Boba / Custard Pudding / Mousse.  $2.50.

Yeah, this one needs some explaining.  Yes, I went to a milk tea shop, and just ordered a cup of toppings.  I wasn't quite expecting what I got, but, um, it was kinda awesome.

I was walking down George Street at night, after dinner, and after already having had a dessert (or, uh, two).  But I wasn't satisfied.  I wanted just a little something more to top off my night.  So I swung by the sole DIY froyo shop, thinking I could make just a tiny froyo, but, the only flavor I really wanted (taro) was really icy and tart.  I almost made a cup of toppings, lychee, boba, jellies, mochi, and more, but then I saw flies floating in the popping boba, and a kid stick his hand into the lychee, and I left, disgusted.

But I really wanted a cup of asian dessert at that point.  And I was passing by a ChaTime.  So ... I stopped.  The signage showed the toppings I kinda wanted.  And I had memories of that delicious mousse.  So I asked if I could be crazy, and just order mix-ins, just some popping boba (I picked strawberry) and the custard pudding.  The person taking orders smiled and said that she shouldn't really do that, but, for me, she would.  She said it would cost what mix-ins normally cost, plus $0.50 for the cup.  I said that was fine.  And then I asked if I could top it with some mousse.  She laughed at this point and said sure, she'd do whatever I wanted, this was fun.  She charged me for a regular portion of mousse, not a large.

Since ChaTime has only the regular and large cups, no small cups, I knew my order would come in one of those.  I expected just a normal size scoop of boba, a normal size scoop of pudding, and a little dollop of mousse on top.  I didn't expect the cup to be FULL, nor for it to be sealed on top.  And handed over with a bubble tea straw and not a spoon.

Heh, ok.  This was a bit difficult.  I actually just wanted to eat the pudding with a spoon, like, well, custard pudding, with some boba, fresh fruit and taro cubes I had in my bag, and, a little mousse to seal the deal.  Even once I acquired a spoon, and ripped through the top, there was really no way to do that.

But I still enjoyed this very much.  The strawberry popping boba were standard, generic, popping boba, but they were sweet, fruity, and burst perfectly with fruity goodness.  Exactly what I expected.  The custard was thick and rich, and totally what I wanted.  Sometimes you just want some pudding!  

And then the mousse.  Um, ALL the mousse.  I can't believe she filled the cup with mousse like this, even though she charged me for just the regular, not even large, portion.  I guess normally the mousse is the last thing added, and, well, they fill it up?

I still have no idea what that mousse is made of.  I probably am better off not knowing.  Because its pretty delicious.  It is fluffy, it is sweet, it is savory, it is slightly salty, it is kinda everything, all at once.  Its way way too rich to eat much by the spoonful, or to sip it, but when combined with other things (like, you know, popping boba), or, as I did later, taro dumplings (!), it was glorious.

Honestly, I'm tempted to go sometime and just do a big cup of more mix-ins.  Although, I feel like I'd need some kind of rice, red bean, mochi, taro, something like that to round out just all the sweet things, at which point, um, why am I not just going to Meet Fresh?

Original Review, March 2015, Westfield Mall Location

It wasn't something I was exposed to until the past few years, but I've grown quite fond of bubble tea.  I haven't found any in San Francisco that I've loved, and I hate to admit it, but the mega-chain Quickly has been my favorite so far.

I was excited to discover that bubble tea was such a hit in Sydney, when I visited recently.  Like froyo shops in the US, bubble tea seemed to be everywhere, dominated by chains, like Chatime.

Chatime is a worldwide franchise, based in Taiwan, with over 1000 locations throughout the world, including 60 in Australia, and a slew in Sydney.

I selected Chatime as the bubble tea shop I'd visit, after reading a bit about it, mostly because they use real dairy in their milk tea.  My stomach often doesn't love non-dairy creamer, which is what most bubble teas shops use, so this is a big selling point for me.  They also use real ingredients to flavor the teas rather than powders.  The menu is focused around tea, hot or iced, including a variety of milk teas, flavored teas, and fruity fresh teas.  They also make blended frozen chillers, smothies, and tea lattes.  The standard add-ins of pearls, flavored jellys, red bean, puddings, etc are also all available.  They make a big deal out of the fact that you can customize the drinks extensively, not just the size or flavor or mix-ins, including the amount of ice and sugar.

Small Storefront.

The location I visited was inside the Westfield mall food court.  Large carafes of different teas were visible in front, but the drinks were prepared behind the small wall.  One staff member worked out front taking orders and delivering teas, and the other was hidden behind the window.  Service was friendly and efficient.

 Taro milk tea, 80% sweet, regular ice, plus coconut jelly.  $5.80.

I knew I wanted a taro milk tea, since I love taro, but I struggled a bit to decide what to add in.  I didn't just want regular tapioca.  I had a slew of other choices: aloe vera, red bean, malt, egg custard, and a slew of jellies (rainbow, lychee, coffee, and coconut).  I decided on coconut jelly, since I thought taro and coconut would go together well.

I thought that was all the decisions I had to make, but then I was asked how sweet I wanted it.  I had no idea how to calibrate my answer, so I said "not too sweet"?  My receipt read 80% sweet.  When I looked online, I saw the acceptable answers were "none - 0%", "quarter - 25%", "half - 50%", "less - 80%", "standard - 100%", "extra - 150%" or "double - 200%".  And then I was asked how much ice.  I said "uh ... regular?".  This time, the acceptable range was "none", "quarter", "half", "standard", or "extra".  I'm assuming I got "standard".

Anyway, I waited just a minute or two, and my order was handed over.

It should have been delicious, as it was clearly not fake powder, there were tiny bits of taro in it.  But the result was very chalky and I somehow didn’t actually really taste taro.

Even though I asked for less sweet, it was still way, way too sweet for me.  Even 50% sweet seems like it would have been way too much.  And I like sweets!  Next time, quarter sweet, for sure.

The coconut jellies were nice for texture, and my favorite part, but they didn’t taste anything like coconut.

A standard drink is $5.20, and the addition of the jellies was another $0.60.  Clearly higher than places like Quickly, but since they do use real milk and real taro, this isn't totally crazy.

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Happy Lemon Bubble Tea Catering

"ENJOY FRESHLY BREWED TEA & SHARE THE HAPPINESS!"

Happy Lemon is a worldwide bubble tea sensation, established in China in 2006, with 1500+ locations already, spanning China, Taiwan, South Korea, Vietname, Philippines, Japan, UAE, UK, Canada, and the US.

The menu is not nearly as extensive as many other shops, although when you visit a shop in person, there are plenty of customization: pick your drink base, your size, your sweetness, ice level, type of milk, and toppings.  They have a standard lineup of green or black tea bases for fruity or milk teas, smoothies, and a fairly small, but good, lineup of regular toppings (boba, pudding, aloe vera, lychee jelly, taro balls), and the slightly less standard Oreo mix-in, "puff cream" and very trendy cheese foam.  Notable, at least to me, is that there is no taro milk tea and no fresh taro chunks.

I did not visit a shop in person however, so my options were more limited, as we had them cater a private party.

Catering Setup.

For the catering setup, they brought only green tea, black tea, and milk tea (black) base, only boba for a mix in, and cheese foam for a topping.  There was no option to customize sweetness nor milk (green tea was unsweet, no milk, same with black, and the milk tea was non-dairy creamer and condensed milk, quite sweet, and used black tea).  These were made to order thought.

In addition, they brought a non-caffeinated option that came pre-packaged, Okinawa Milk tea, with either whole milk or soy milk, no mix-ins or toppings available, as they came sealed. 

I adore, adore, adore cheese topping on bubble tea (often known as "cheese foam", "creama", or "cheezo"), here called "salted cheese", so I was delighted that even with the limited options, we had that one.  For those unfamiliar, no, it is not like they dump cheddar cheese into your milk tea, rather, it is a fluffy topping, made from whipped cream and cream cheese (or, powders), and is usually salted, rather than sweet.  You may read all about it in many other forms that I've enjoyed: like Bubble Nini Tea in Sydney's Purple Rice Blended with Yogurt + Taro Pearls + Pink Salt Cheese Milk Foam, the Ube Marble creation from Boba Lab in Santa Monica with red bean, berry boba, lychee jelly, pudding, salted cheese foam, the simple version on my taro milk tea in Sydney at Chatime, the Royal Sesame Taro Milk + Red Rice with Cheese from the Original Royaltea also in Sydney and many, many more.

Extras!

After the serving time ended, they left all the extras (since we paid for them), so I got to try quite a few.

I was overall pleased, although there wasn't anything particularly extraordinary about their offerings.

Okinawa Fresh Milk (Soy).

The only decaf option they had was the Okinawa fresh milk, which is basically just sweet milk.  In the base of the cup was a sweet caramel like syrup, and other than that, it is just milk.  Instructions were to shake to mix it up.

Since these were pre-packaged offsite, they had no option to include boba or cheese foam.  They had both soy milk and whole milk options.  There were many of these left at the end, so I grabbed a few to stick in the fridge to try later - the Happy Lemon staff encouraged it, saying that since they didn't have boba, they'd keep fine.

I started with a soy version, as I do love soy milk.  I know I was told to shake it up, but I wanted to try it separate first.

The milk was ... uh, just milk.  It was not very soy prominent actually, less than a normal soy milk in my opinion.  As I love soy milk flavor, this was a bit of a letdown, as I wanted to taste more soy.  The syrup at the base was *extremely* sweet, and sorta reminded me of the syrup that boba comes in.  I did take a full sip of that, and wow, cloying, and not good.

Once I shook it up, the sweetness balanced out, but it was still very sweet, and the end result was basically just sweet milk, with no distinguishable soy flavor.  I was not particularly happy with this.

Okinawa Fresh Milk (Whole Milk).

Next up was the regular whole milk.  Again, syrup in the base, instructed to shake.  Here you can see the result of shaking, it looks like a black milk tea, due to all the syrup.

It tasted very similar to the soy, just more plain.  Again, very sweet, in a brown sugar sort of way.  I did like it, it was sweet and creamy, but more than a few sips quickly left me bored.  I wanted mix-ins, I wanted toppings.

I ended up using it with my morning cereal, which worked great - sweet cereal milk!

Jasmine Green Tea with Boba, Salted Cheese Foam, Matcha Powder.

For the drink that I ordered, I wanted to minimize caffeine, but didn't want just boring milk, so I went for the green tea option.  There was no milk option for this, but that was fine with me.  I added boba and cheese foam of course, and the server added matcha powder without asking.

The cheese foam, the part I was most exited for, was fine.  It wasn't as fluffy as other places, and wasn't as salty or, uh, cheesy and savory, but it also wasn't too rich, and the consistency was good.  It was good, but not extraordinary.

Green tea is something I rarely get, but I did like it - far more refreshing than I remembered, and it combined actually really nicely with the cheese foam.  It was not bitter at all.  I see why this is their most popular drink, it really does work.  You could use the straw to get a sip of just refreshing tea, or drink through the hole and get a bit of both.  I enjoyed it.

And finally, the boba.  The texture was decent, nicely chewy, although they were a bit hard, and were kinda clumped together.  Perhaps this is due to catering setup?  The boba was also extremely sweet, soak in sweet syrup, a lot of which was added with the boba.  Decent quality, a bit sweet, but worth getting if you want it.

So overall, a decent drink, and I was pretty happy with mine, and, to be honest, it was to get forced outside my standard order of taro milk.  This was my favorite of the drinks I tried.

Milk Tea (black) with Boba, Salted Cheese Foam, Matcha Powder.

When the event ended, we still had plenty pre-paid, so I tried another, this time, I went all in: the milk tea.  Made with black tea base, non-dairy creamer, and sweetened with condensed milk.  Again with the sweetened boba, and of course, cheese foam.  Basically, as decadent as you could get, and very different from the green tea.

It was very sweet.  It was very creamy.  It was ... liquid dessert.  Caffeinated liquid dessert!  Another style of drink I don't normally order, but it reminded me a lot of Thai iced tea that I used to get regularly, just with the fun additions of boba and foam.  Enjoyable for sure, although so very sweet, and it was another nice "forced" going outside my norm.  My second favorite drink.

Ice Cream Sundae with Boba & Cheese Foam!

A few hours later, after lunch, I had a bowl of ice cream.  Vanilla and chocolate.  I went to add some standard toppings, hot fudge, sprinkles, etc, etc, and realized ... the boba tea setup was still going strong.  While I didn't want another bubble tea ... I did want a bubble tea ice cream sundae!

I approached a bit sheepishly, and said something like "so, uh, I have this lovely bowl of ice cream ..." and the server was on to me in no time, "oooh, do you want boba on top?  And cheese foam?"  I was delighted that she didn't find me weird, and she told me that one of their locations is right next to a froyo shop, and people come in with froyo all the time and just order toppings for it.  Heh.

I loved my creation.  The boba, while too sweet for what I really wanted in my drinks, was perfect in all its syrup on top of my ice ream.  It added a sauce (the syrup) and a fun texture, all at once.  And the cheese foam?  Still not as lofty or thick as I wished it was, but it totally sealed the deal.  I added sprinkles too, I was so very proud of myself for this.  I loved it.

And no, I don't credit really for thinking of this ... I was drawing off my own experiences with boba sundaes, which I've had before at Devon Cafe in Sydney (both a taro soft serve version with coconut foam, boba, tapioca pudding, taro syrup, and more, and a salted caramel soft serve wit cheese foam and uh churro) and TP Tea in Tokyo (milk tea soft serve with boba).

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Home Plate Boba, AT&T Park

Update Review, September 2016

Last time I attended a ball game at AT&T Park, I discovered Home Plate Boba, and I was pretty excited.  I like bubble tea, but it is a treat I rarely splurge on (and, maybe TMI, but, my body doesn't always, uh, agree with non-dairy creamer commonly used).  On that visit, I didn't actually get a bubble tea.  It was hot and sunny, so I opted for a taro smoothie instead (and I grabbed a fruity tea to take home with me).

Both were ok, but, on this visit, I decided to mix things up a bit.

Menu / Ordering Area.

The menu at Home Plate Boba looks relatively unchanged, still featuring hot and cod milk teas, fresh fruit teas, and smoothies (I'm still confused why the hot taro milk tea has caffeine, and the cold one does not).  Options for flavors aren't extensive, and toppings only include boba, passion fruit popping boba, mango stars, and lychee jelly.  They still include one topping in the base price for every drink but drink prices have gone up $1-2 since last year.

Oreo Smoothie with Boba. $8.

Since it was a remarkably hot, sunny day, I picked a smoothie.  Last time I had a taro smoothie, and although I thought it was well made, but I made a note to get another kind next time, since the taro powder used wasn't very flavorful.  My options were strawberry banana (meh), honeydew (allergic), matcha green tea (which I'd love but I didn't want caffeine), or Oreo.

So, Oreo it was.  I'm not generally a fan of Oreo.  At least, just not the cookies.  Which I know makes my dad sad, as he loves them, and my house was always stocked with them growing up.  But, "cookies and cream" or other Oreo products I do like.  So, Oreo flavor good, form factor bad, as I just don't like cookies in general.

The Oreo flavor in this was good, and I saw bags of Oreos back in the preparation area, so I'm pretty sure they really do throw in real Oreos.  The ice was nicely blended too.  It was creamy and nicely flavored, and I liked the bits of texture from the ice and cookie.

Since I had one included topping, I wanted to add something fun, but, really, I just wanted it to be like a milkshake and have whipped cream on top.  I didn't like the boba last time, so I wanted something different.  Passionfruit popping boba seemed like it would totally not work with Oreo, and mango stars also seemed crazy, so I ordered it with lychee jellies, but the guy taking my order acted like that was crazy.  "With Oreo?", he questioned.  He talked me out of it and told me to get boba.  So I did.

The boba was not a success.  Just like last time, they were mushy and poorly cooked.  And they added tons of them.  And you just can't avoid boba once it is in a drink, they come up the straw no matter how hard you try to avoid them.

Overall, this was great, except, ruined by boba.  I'd gladly get it again and just leave the boba out entirely, sacrificing my "free" topping.

The $8 price is more than it was last year, but still seems pretty reasonable for a huge smoothie, with topping, at a ballpark.

Taro Milk Tea, No Ice, Lychee Jelly. $6.50.

As last time, I decided to grab a second drink to bring home with me, since I had a bunch of credit on my ticket.  The fruity tea last time was fine, but not particularly exciting.  I obviously couldn't bring home a hot drink or smoothie, so, regular milk tea it was.  I opted for no ice since I was bringing it home, which they questioned multiple times when I ordered.

For milk tea, I had 5 choices of flavors, but only one wasn't caffeinated (coffee, thai tea, black tea, and chai were the others).  Since I love taro anyway, that is what I would have picked, but, since I knew they use powder like in the smoothies, I wasn't super excited for it.

For a topping, I put in the lychee jellies, since enjoyed them last time, clearly didn't want boba, and lychee seemed to go better with taro than mango.

It was a very standard, made from powder, taro milk tea.  Creamy, way too sweet (they do not allow you to specify sweetness), and vaguely taro flavored.  I liked it well enough, but, it wasn't anything special.

The lychee jellies were good, ridiculously sweet, lychee flavored, and had a nice chew.  They went well with the taro, except for the fact that it was all really quite sweet.  They seemed to have made up for my lack of ice with adding even more jellies, there really were quite a few of them, but, I liked them, so I didn't mind.

I added ice and some regular milk to mellow it out when I got home and enjoyed it a bit more than way.

I'd get this again, although it was really not particularly remarkable.  I think my next version should be a taro smoothie, with lychee jellies?

Original Review, October 2015

AT&T Park has been known for having far better food options than your standard ballpark for a long time.  Several years ago, I visited for my first time, and reveled in the amazing crab salad at Crazy Crab'z.  Yes, amazing crab, at a ballpark.  I also tried many of the fan favorites, like the Chicago dog and the Gilroy garlic fries, although those didn't impress quite as much.  And of course, I had my share of margaritas from Lefty O'Doul's and wine from the slightly upscale Vintage 58 Wine Bar.

But on my visit this year, I had my sights set on something else.  Bubble tea.  Yes, bubble tea.  At a ballpark.  OMG.  You know how obsessed I get with bubble tea ...

The Space

The Stand.

It took me a while to find Home Plate Boba amongst all the concessions, but once I turned the corner and saw the sign, it was clear I had found the right place.  Bright, colorful, whimsical.  It didn't quite fit in.

Menu.

The menu includes basically everything you'd expect from a bubble tea shop.

For an all-too-typical San Francisco chilly day, they have hot drinks of coffee, tea, milk tea, and hot cocoa, all $6.

Next are classic milk teas (black, green, or jasmine tea based), plus flavored milk teas (almond, mint, taro, thai, coffee).  These all use nondairy milk.  I appreciated that they clearly marked which ones were caffeinated or not.  These are also $6.

Next come fruit based teas, all with caffeine.  They must use black tea as a base?  Or green?  No option was given, but when I asked, I was told they all definitely have caffeine.  Fruit teas are made with syrups, plus some cubes of fruit, available in lychee, mango, passion, peach, and strawberry, all $6.50.

Tempting sounding smoothies round out the drink options, available in coconut, honeydew, matcha green tea, mint oreo, oreo, strawberry banana, and taro.

All drinks included a topping for free, with a choice of standard boba, lychee jelly, or flavored popping boba.

Finally, they also offer up a few desserts: ice cream sandwiches (which one co-worker had and said was great), macaron ice cream sandwiches, and just ice cream with boba on top.

Straws.

Once you make the hard decision of choosing your drink, anther decision awaits.  The choice of straw.  Orange and black for the home team, assorted colors for visitors.  What if I just wanted a purple straw, because it matched my drink?  I didn't want to be judged for rooting for the away team, but I really would prefer a non-black or orange straw ...

Life is hard.

The Drinks

Taro Smoothie, with Boba. $7.50.

I adore taro, so my choice was fairly simple.  I wanted a taro based drink.  As for a milk tea or smoothie, that was dictated by the weather.  It was sunny and warm, thus, a more chilly smoothie seemed in order.

It was very well blended, no chunks of ice.  It had a decent light purple hue.  Not tons of taro flavor, but, what do you expect from powder?

The boba was nicely prepared, soft, not clumpy.  Clearly sweetened with honey.  For some reason, I didn't actually like the boba in my drink, and choose to drink it like a milkshake, and purposely kept my straw closed too tight to suck up boba.  But once the smoothie was gone, I gladly slurped up all the boba, like pudding.  The boba was sweet and tender, quite enjoyable.

I liked this well enough, particularly once I separated it into two parts: taro icy dessert and boba dessert.  I'd get another, but would actually likely try something different, like the mint oreo smoothie.

The $7.50 price was reasonable compared to other prices in the ballpark, but is higher than your average Quickly.  Speaking of Quickly, it reminded me a lot of the taro slush I had there once.

Mango Fruit Tea, with Lychee Jelly. $6.50.

I still had some money left on my ticket near the end of the game, so I grabbed a fruit tea to go.  With the sealed top, I could throw it in my purse, stick it in the fridge when I got home, and just add ice the next day, and enjoy it in the sun.  I'm always planning ahead.

There were 5 fruit tea choices, all of which sounded good: lychee, mango, passionfruit, peach, or strawberry.  I would have been happy with any, but decided mango sounded the best.  I haven't had much fruit tea, but way back in the day I used to enjoy the mango iced tea at Pizzeria Uno, so it inspired me.  I added lychee instead of boba, as it seemed more appropriate with the fruit based drink.

I asked for no ice, since I wasn't drinking it right away, and didn't want to dilute it.

I was pleasantly surprised when I saw chunks of mango in the drink.  I expected it to just be made with a syrup (which, I'm sure it was), but the additional fruit was most welcome.

It was sweet, fruity, with a not too bitter tea based finish.  Perfectly refreshing on a hot day.  The mango wasn't the freshest, ripest, or most flavorful, but I still give them points for putting bits of mango in it in the first place.

I really did like the lychee jelly, sweet, slimy, and easy to suck up with my big straw.  I think jellies might be my new favorite bubble tea add-in.

The $6.50 price was $1 less than a smoothie, but $0.50 more than a milk tea.  It seemed perfectly reasonable for the large size and ball park location.

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