Original Royaltea, Sydney

Update Review, March 2020 Visit

No Sydney trip is complete without several yogurt rice drinks these days.

This recent trip was cut short due to international travel concerns from coronavirus, so I was only able to make it to get two yogurt rice drinks.  Stop #1 was my beloved Koomi - where I changed my plans last minute and tried the mango yogurt again, rather than the taro drink I set out to get.  It was fantastic, and it turned out, after that, mango became a constant craving for me.

So a few days later, I was ready for another mango inspired item, and although I wasn't impressed with the taro quality (or, lack of taro really) at Original Royaltea before (start with my earlier review), the rice, black sesame pearls, and cheese foam were good enough to inspire me to return.  Plus, I hadn't yet tried a yogurt drink there yet ...

My favorite thing about the menu at the Original Royaltea is that the yogurt drinks all have rice by default in addition to the flavor you pick, and all come with or without foam explicitly.  Everywhere else looks at me like I'm very complicated when I try to add foam on yogurt drinks.  That seems to not be the norm.  But at Original Royaltea, the menu has 2 prices for each item, one with foam and one without.  So getting a creation that had rice AND something else mixed in, and cheese foam on top, was all just *standard* there.  So, of course I had to add more.

Mango Sticky Rice Yogurt w/ Cheese Foam + Coconut Jellies. No Sweet.

When I originally planned to return to Original Royaltea to try a yogurt creation, I assumed it would be for taro, but, my mango cravings took over.  I was skeptical about mango there though, as they didn't really seem like a place known for high quality ingredients.  I asked if the mango was fresh (rather than frozen or pureed), and I was assured that it was.  That was enough to get me to go for the mango rice yogurt.  Yes with cheese, and yes, I added coconut jellies inside too.

The staff member went out back to fetch my portion of mango, and she did indeed come back with fresh, ripe mango.  It went into a blender with yogurt (and I think some ice?), and was blended up into a smoothie base.  While that was going,, she set about putting in a *very* generous serving of purple sticky rice and a *very* generous serving of coconut jellies into the base of the cup.  Yes, ~1/3 of the cup was just those things.  The mango yogurt was poured on top, and then the top 1/3 was finished with frothy cheese foam.

I will admit I expected to have some fresh mango chunks, not all blended, particularly given the photo on the menu with big chunks of mango on top, and I was craving serious mango, so, that was a bit not what I wanted, but otherwise, this looked pretty epic.

And it was good.  The purple rice had a nice chew to it, and went well with the yogurt.  There was really more than I wanted in a drink, and more than I wanted for a reasonable portion dessert, but, uh, if you made this a meal, it would be just right to get all your carbs :)

The coconut jellies weren't anything special, I'm sure they just purchase them, but they were sweet and added a nice texture.  Sure, fresh young coconut or palm seeds or something like that would be better, no question, but, I liked what these added.  Still, given the quantity (literally, a cup of rice, a cup of these), I think it was overkill.  I'd probably leave out in the future, or ask for a half portion of both these and the rice?

The body of the drink, the middle portion was the mango smoothie.  I'm calling it a smoothie as that is what it was, all blended up, again, not what I was expecting.  It wasn't thick and rich and very yogurt-forward as a result.  I was expecting something more like Koomi et al, that really highlight the yogurt, and that you can even save some of to have with granola for breakfast (wait, am I the only one who does that? Or gets a second one for morning?).  This was just pleasant sweet mango flavored smoothie.  Definitely not tart.  It was good, and the mango flavor was strong, but if you wanted something healthy and very apparently yogurt-y, this was not it.  I got it not sweet (or at least, I tried to order it that way) but this was certainly sweet, hopefully just from the mango and base sweet yogurt?

And then of course the cheese foam.  They do nail this element.  So rich, so fluffy, so ... cheesy and sweet and savory all at once.  And so very much of it.  It was a nice combo with the mango smoothie.

So overall, definitely a success, and I liked each element alone and combined.  Sure, it was not the healthy thick yogurt creation I thought I was getting, and sure, I didn't get to enjoy any big cubes of mango, but it was sweet, well blended, mango-y, and the rice and coconut jellies added tons of interesting texture, and the foam, well, swoon.

I'm definitely interested in returning yet again, and trying more creations.  I'd be happy to get this again, perhaps with some modifications on the mix-ins.

Original Review, May 2019

Sydney has a lot of bubble tea shops.  Seriously, bubble tea has ... exploded, everywhere.  Some neighborhoods have a bubble tea shop literally ever other storefront.  The competition is real, and the shops just keep getting trendier and trendier, innovating in all different ways.

And then ... there is Original Royaltea.  It isn't one that is heavily Instagramed.   It doesn't seem to have any particular notable thing.  It doesn't have a stunning storefront.  And it certainly doesn't have lines.  It barely even has any reviews.

But it is one of the oldest shops, started in 2011.  And seems to have an entirely different following than the other shops.  I was curious, very curious, so I went far off the highly rated beaten path to try it out.

Setting

Original Royaltea is located deep in bubble tea central, Haymarket.

Street Entrance

Unlike most of the bubble tea shops in the neighborhood, Original Royaltea is not located on street level, rather, you must go up a flight of stairs.

I can't say it has any curb appeal, with tacky red "Final Sale" signs advertising the specials.

Ordering Counter.

Once you step inside, the appeal doesn't really grow, just an ordering counter, with some digital screens, and lots more signs.  There are few seats, and charging stations.

Every single customer inside was of Asian descent, and I felt the very real feeling of looking entirely out of place.  I also took this as a very good sign perhaps?

Sticky Notes.

I'm ... not sure what this wall is about, covered in multi-colored sticky notes?  People write messages and leave them?

Drinks / Food

Original Royaltea is obviously a bubble tea shop, although they offer a few small snacks as well (fishballs, cuttlefish balls, fried beancurd, and lotus).  

The rest of the menu is drinks, both hot and cold.

Menu.

The menu had both english and Chinese, and had lots of funny additions, added on with extensions off the edges, or on top with small pieces of paper taped on, and had things removed as well.

The categories had names but no explanation, and there were many: Super Fruit Tea (cold only, I think just regular fruity infusions), Fresh Fruit Juice (just juice?), Royal Fruit Drink (cold only, just tea-less fruity drinks?  These actually had some interesting flavors, like dragonfruit, but I'm not really sure what they were, or if they used real fruit), Royal Cheese Milk Tea (hot or cold, fairly standard milk tea lineup, with cheese as the default, although you can opt for "pure drink" instead),), Royal Dirty Cup (no idea, cold only), Royal Cheese Tea (hot or cold, standard list of teas, with cheese as the default, although you can opt for "pure drink" instead), Royal Cheese Foam Special Drinks (hot or cold, cheese default, more interesting flavors like Oreo, uji matcha, red bean), and Royal Cheese Tea I'm New (uh, just more types of Royal Cheese Tea?  More interesting flavors, like Tofu Black Sesame Milk, Passion Fruit Yogurt, and Purple Sky Soda).

The topping list is the part I was most excited for, a large range of offerings, including of course standard pearls, red bean, and pudding, but also new black sesame pearls, a bunch of types of jellies (including ones I haven't seen other places like grapefruit), random things like Oreo, interesting things like aloe, and as I was excited for, taro paste.

Original Royaltea is known for the cheese topping, and is why I sought it out, as I discovered the joy of cheese topping at Chatime a few visits to Sydney ago, and I've been loving it ever since.   As you can maybe tell given that nearly ever drink defaults to having cheese, they really are all in on the cheese, offering up 4 varieties: original, baked, mango, and durian, although, when I visited, they didnt have the durian one, and I really was going to try it!

Moar Signs.

Additional signs advertised new offerings, many with badges that say "Limited 50 cups per day", which ... I'm skeptical about.  Did they really count them? Do they run out? Are they trying to create scarcity and hype?

One of the new "Series" is the Yogurt Series, on special with half off the second one if you get two.  These all feature yogurt instead of milk as the base, and I was told it was a thick Greek yogurt.  There are two other well known shops around the corner that are offering, to much hype, yogurt and rice based drinks, so Original Royaltea clearly has jumped on board.  I am interested in trying these sometime, but yogurt is never the thing I think I crave ... but if I ever do decide to try it, the taro purple rice yogurt is what I'd try ... with cheese of course.

A sign here also shows how to customize your drink, with desired ice, sweetness (the menu offers 1/3 sugar, 2/3 sugar, no sugar, more sugar), toppings, and size options, although I realized later I was never asked about these.

Royal Sesame Taro Milk + Red Rice with Cheese. $8.50.

I selected one of the new, limited to 50 cups per day, special drinks, the "Royal Sesame Taro Milk", featuring their brand new black sesame pearls and taro milk, available plain or with cheese.  I certainly wanted the cheese foam, since that is kinda what I was craving.  I added red rice, because I wanted more substance and texture, and was worried I wouldn't really like the sesame pearls, because I haven't been into pearls lately, but I wasn't ready to go for the yogurt rice drink.

I liked this, and easily finished it, but it was actually a mixed success.  It also lacked a bit in the taro and sesame departments ...

Starting at the top, I did love the cheese topping, it was thick, rich, slightly salty.  I liked the texture and flavor, and appreciated that it was more savory than sweet.

At the bottom, the sesame pearls.  These were actually pretty good, soft, decent enough sesame flavor.  However, there weren't that many, and this was the only sesame element in the "Royal Sesame Taro Milk".  I'll admit that I expected more sesame, a paste, something.

I felt the same about the taro.  I thought this drink had taro paste in it (I was told it did!), but I never found any, and I was hoping for some fresh taro chunks or something too, but, alas, it was just taro powder used to make the taro milk.  I think it was non-dairy powder for the milk base as well.  So, the taro aspect was a kinda low-end, too sugary sweet, not very intense taro flavored milk.  A few days later though I had the highest quality taro milk ever, all fresh taro and high quality full cream milk, from Bubble Nini Tea (seriously, so good).

There was also no ice (good, it wasn't watered down like some places get), but, it was also not very cold, a kinda strange lukewarm temperature actually.  I really wanted it more chilled, considered not drinking much more until I got back to the hotel and could add ice, but, alas, I had it in my hand, opened, at that point, so ... I kept drinking.

The purple rice I loved though, it added tons of texture, and went well with the slight sesame and taro flavors.  Like the pearls though, I wanted more.  It made me interested in actually trying one of the rice drinks that have more recently become popular, e.g. the ones from The Moment.

I wasn't asked about my ice or sweetness levels, I realized later, and I normally would have gone for less sweet, and, since it wound up lukewarm, I certainly would have wanted some ice.

So yes, this was a mixed bag.  It didn't deliver in the taro and sesame flavors as much as I wanted, it was low end milk tea, but, I really did like the add-ins, and loved their cheese topping.  The biggest issue was the temperature of the drink.  Maybe I should try the taro yogurt rice next time?