TP Tea, Tokyo

When in Tokyo ... seek out Instagram worthy trendy items?  It appears so.

But I really wasn't intending that, exactly.

Storefront.

My destination: TP TEA in the Hillside mall in Roppongi.

TP TEA is a chain from Taiwan, founded way back in 1983, which, does sound old for bubble tea years.  They now have 250+ stores worldwide, including the one I visited, which was newly opened.

I didn't do any research really before visiting, but I now know that TP stands for "Taiwan Professional".  Ok.

Anyway, I was drawn in, amusingly, not for the bubble tea.

No, it was 93* out, and I wanted one thing: ice cream.  Soft serve ice cream to be exact.  In a cone, to be even more exact.  It didn't matter than I knew nothing about the soft serve at TP Tea, it just mattered that they had it.

English Menu.

I stepped up to order, and was quite pleased when the cashier flipped the menu over, revealing an English menu.  Phew.

I glanced quickly over the options, pausing slightly to consider a taro milk tea, or a bubble tea parfait, but I knew what I wanted.  Soft-serve ice cream.  The menu had two options: cup or waffle cone.  Single size.  It didn't say what flavor the soft serve was.  And both seemed to have tapioca on them.  Well, that then.

After ordering I was given a buzzer, and had a longer wait than I expected.  My cone I'm sure was fast, but, I had to wait for all the more elaborate teas and noodle dishes ahead of me to be prepared.  Eventually, my buzzer went off. 

Bubble Milk Soft Serve Ice Cream, Waffle Cone. 550yen.

"Original soft-serve ice cream with fragrant tea leaves and sticky tapioca."
I could tell just from looking at the soft serve that it was not the texture I was hoping for.

Tokyo is home to some really incredible soft serve (although both my favorites from my last trip, Silkream and Mother Milk Farm, have closed), where the soft serve is just sooo perfectly creamy and rich.  This, I could tell, was not.

But I still dug in.

The flavor was milk tea, which I guess I could have expected.  The tea flavor was indeed good.  But the ice cream was just not very smooth.  It melted nicely though, and got much better as it melted, basically turing into, um, milk tea.  Which perhaps I should have just gotten in the first place.

The cone was a waffle cone, large size, well made, but clearly not very fresh.  Meh on the cone too.

And finally, the tapioca, which I expected to be stars given the venue, I really did not like at all.  They were a smaller style ball than is more standard, but they were kinda hard, and had a flavor I didn't care for.

So overall, this really wasn't much of a winner.  The tea flavor was good, but the rest of it ... not so much.

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Peroni Bar, Sydney International Airport

Another day, another few hours spent in an airport, this time in Sydney.  I don't often buy much at airport concessions, as the prices are high and quality generally low, but Peroni drew me in, as it looked like a classier place.  Or maybe I was just bored.

Storefront.

Peroni is located in a food court near the Air New Zealand gates, with a fairly nice exterior.  Bar and table seating is available on the side, but you order everything at the register.

Peroni Bar has a fairly boring food menu, with pizza, pasta, burgers and salad for lunch/dinner, a couple starters (fried calamari, olives, pretzels, chips).  I didn't try any of that, opting only to get items to go.

Beverages

Peroni is a bar, but, since I was there at 10am, I didn't opt to try any of their wine or cocktails, although these seemed to be a main attraction.

Beverage Menu.

The beverage menu strangely doesn't list any of their morning drinks, only the beer, wine, and cocktails.

Beer, Mini Bottles.

I almost did get a mini bottle of wine to go, but I realized I'd need to drink it right then, since I couldn't bring through security at my next transit point (Auckland).

Decaf Long Black, Large.  $4.

I did order a decaf long black, with no expectations of it being very good, but I don't really care for the coffee in the Air New Zealand lounge (my next stop).

I was pleasantly surprised.  It was not harsh, no funk, and better than most of the decaf I had at fancy places all over Sydney.

I'd gladly get this again, and likely will, en route to the lounge.

Update: I did get this again, and got two in fact, stashing one in my travel coffee mug to enjoy on my flight.  #protip.  It isn't the best coffee ever, but, it really wasn't bad at all.

Baked Goods

A small variety of baked goods was available, morning appropriate, none looked awesome, and this place is clearly not a bakery.  Still, you know me and baked goods.

Danishes, Banana Bread.

I skipped the danishes as they looked pretty bad, and banana bread since I don't care for it.

Muffins.

Muffins were all large size, wrapped in plastic wrap.  None looked great, but I tried them all.

They were ... clearly not fresh items made with care.  Certainly mass produced, probably purchased wholesale as frozen items.  Or at least made with extended shelf life.

Double Chocolate.

The double chocolate was shockingly boring.  The chocolate base had no real flavor to it at all.  The cake was not moist nor dry exactly, it just was what it was.  So commercial, processed. I did like the chocolate chips on top for some crunch, and there were bits that were kinda gummy, like they were underbaked, that were slightly better than the fully cooked parts.

But really, this just was not a good muffin.  If you were expecting chocolatey goodness, you would not find it here.

Orange Poppyseed.

I liked the orange poppyseed even less.

The base was again this strange not moist-not dry, kinda commercial, chemical taste, sweet.  It had an essence of orange, not something I'd ever pick.

I do sometimes adore muffins of this pedigree, like Costco muffins, particularly the almond poppyseed, but this just wasn't worth a second bite.

Blueberry.

The blueberry was definitely the best, but it was also certainly a very generic, convinience store quality, muffin.  The kind that clearly isn't fresh, is loaded with preservatives, has a slightly gummy top, is very sweet, and yet, you kinda like it?  That's exactly what this was.

The blueberries were reasonably well distributed, but weren't fresh juicy berries, rather, they were more like dried berries.

This was very similar to the one from Better Burger.

Snacks

They also have bags of Red Rock potato chips (assorted flavors), Nobby's packaged snacks (cashews, peanuts, and pork crackle).  I grabbed some Nobby's to munch on later.

Pork Crackle.

I thought pork crackle sounded awesome, but alas, I didn't care for this.  It just tasted greasy and fried, in a stale old oil sort of way, and it stuck to my mouth.  It made me sad how much I didn't like it, and kept trying more and more of it, but alas, not good. 

I shared with a couple others, and they too were excited by the prospect, but didn't like it at all.

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