Happy Lemon

Bubble tea.  Definitely a huge trend, one I even succumbed to, about 10 years ago.  As I said in a post back then of Quickly:

I'm currently obsessed with taro bubble teas, in all variations.  It started a year or so ago with a simple taro milk tea with tapioca from Quickly, and then I upped the ante with a taro milk tea with taro pudding from Quickly, and then sorta forgot about taro teas, after a disappointing one from Out The Door.  But then I had the taro smoothie with tapioca from Miss Saigon, which was a creation entirely of its own, and delicious.  So I went back to standard taro bubble teas, trying a fairly mediocre one from Little Garden, and both hot and cold versions with assorted jellies from Chai Yo.  I crave them all the time now.

Back then, in 2014, taro milk tea/slush/smoothies were novel to me, and basically, I got them everywhere.  Then I stopped getting these kind of sugary dessert-drinks, except a few isolated times like Sharetea or Teaspoon, always because a friend wanted to go.  For some reason, likely because I just don't find the weather in San Francisco that bubble tea inspiring, I rarely get it these days ... in San Francisco (in Sydney, that's another story.  They have excellent bubble tea, and even more excellent yogurt drinks, there, zomg).

Anyway, San Francisco had a rare couple hot days (<3 September!) and, along with plenty of ice cream, I decided to seek out bubble tea drinks again.  My ventures lead me to Happy Lemon, an international chain based in Taiwan, with a few locations around in San Francisco.  I had their goodies a few years ago at a catered event, which I reviewed then, but this was my first time ordering items that I picked out.

Milk Tea

I started with the basics, milk tea.  Happy Lemon makes both green and black tea bases.

Milk Tea (w/ Boba). $6.

The most basic drink at Happy Lemon is their milk tea, made with black tea.  This was the default recipe full sweet, non-dairy creamer.  I'd normally go 50% sweet, or even less, but, I wanted to try their basic, signature drink.

It was pretty standard milk tea - decent tea flavor, creamy.  Sweeter than I'd like, but a nice change.  The boba were nicely chewy, and the quantity was good - sometimes I get sick of it after a while, but this was just right.  I saved a little, and the boba were not too gross after overnight.

Pretty good execution of a basic drink.  ***+.

Jasmine Milk Tea (w/ Boba). $6.

Next up, the same thing, just with jasmine green tea instead of black, slightly less caffeine.  Again default recipe, with boba.

It too was sweet and creamy, and the jasmine tea flavor was nice.  I didn't really notice much difference between the green and black tea to be honest, so again, good execution of a basic drink.  ***+.

Yakults

I'm going to admit it.  I've been to Tokyo several times, and I'm well aware of Yakult, but I've never had it.  Not on its own, and certainly not in a tea shop drink.  If you aren't familiar, Yakult is a Japanese sweetened probiotic milk, I think kinda like a thin yogurt?  Anyway, Happy Lemon has an entire line of Yakult based drinks.  I randomly tried one.

Grapefruit & Yakult. 0% Sweet, 0% Ice. $6.
Add Aloe ($0.75), Fresh Taro ($0.75), Salted Cheese ($1).

It was a strangely hot day in San Francisco, and I was craving something refreshing.  I also wasn't feeling great, and didn't want something very heavy.  So, very out of character, I opted for a drink that wasn't milk (or creamer) based.  Yup, I went for the Grapefruit & Yakult, one of the their best selling items.  I got it without ice so I could split it in half and save half for later, with 0% sweet as I wanted refreshing, not sweet, and I added in aloe so I'd have something to suck up, and taro ... because I couldn't resist (even though after I ordered I realized that it would likely be a strange combination).  And, um, of course I still wanted the salted cheese topping, although I asked for it on the side (again, so I could split it at home and add on as I pleased).

This drink was actually exactly what I was looking for.  It was very refreshing.  It wasn't very sweet, with a nice tartness from the grapefruit (and I suspect, the Yakult).  It had pieces of seemingly fresh grapefruit floating on top.  It certainly needed to be iced down, which I did with no problem.

As for my mix-ins, the aloe was a good pick, it felt healthier than standard jellies, and likely not as sweet either, and again, made it fairly refreshing.  I liked having something to suck up.  The fresh taro, yeah, that didn't really make sense here, it wasn't cubes, but rather, just mashed taro, which was hard to suck up, and not really a complimentary flavor.  Oops.  I mostly let it settle to the bottom and then scooped it out later.

The cheese foam was glorious.  I really do love that stuff.  Slightly savory, slightly sweet, oddly thick but in a way that works well when scooped on top of the drinks ... just, delicious.  I actually decided not to add it to my drink, but I think a lighter, refreshing drink like this, sipped through the cheese foam, would actually be fairly tasty.

Overall, I was quite glad to branch outside my norm, and this drink, besides the taro, was a complete success, and I'd consider it again if I was craving refreshing and healthy.  ***+.

Smoothies

Happy Lemon, like most shops of its kind, has a range of smoothies.  Several contain Yakult, and I almost ordered the Dragon Fruit Yakult Smoothie, but instead, my love of taro couldn't be bypassed.

Taro Milkshake. 25% Sweet. $7.25.
Add Boba. ($0.75).

For my smoothie, I opted for 25% sweet, still wanting some sweetness since I knew Happy Lemon uses real taro and not powder in the drinks, and I added boba, to have something to suck up.

The drink was ok.  It was decently blended, no ice chunks, but, the blended part, and the fresh taro mash, weren't really mixed together all that well, as you can see here.  It had tons, and I mean tons, of fresh mashed taro.  I liked the mashed taro, but, this was kinda more like a blended icee drink and taro mash, just, in a cup together, with some boba on the bottom.

My friend who was with me, looked at it confused, and said, "Wait, I thought taro was purple?"  I explained that it has a purple hue, but is really kinda brownish.  He was still confused, "But what about all the taro milk teas I get? Do they die those purple somehow?"  Alas, I had to burst his vision of taro, and let him know he was drinking powders all those times.  He tried this smoothie, and didn't like it at all.  He wanted sweet bright purple powder, not this.  So, beware, if you are in the powder camp, this drink will not please you.

The boba were fairly average, nice chew, some sweet syrup they were stored in.

Overall, this was a meh for me, but, I give them credit for so much taro. **.

Side: Fresh Taro. $0.75.

I also asked for extra fresh taro, on the side.  I did that thinking the drink might not have all that much taro and I might want to add more in, but, ha, yeah, that wasn't necessary, obviously.  I did like being able to taste the taro on its own.  It was, well, mashed taro, but I quite liked it.  Great smooth texture with some little bits, strong taro flavor, clearly, legit, fresh mashed taro.   I actually used it with dinner the next day, heating it up just like mashed potatoes, and kinda loved it.  ****.

Seasonal Drinks

Every season, Happy Lemon launches a handful of special drinks.  These range from special milk teas, like the "teddy bear" with puff cream and graham crackers (!), to refreshing fruit slushies or green teas, to berry milkshakes in the summer.

Ube Milk Tea w/ Taro Puff Cream & Taro Balls. $7.
0% Sweet, 0% Ice, Soy Milk (+$1).

When I saw the "D6" on the menu ("D" is the milk tea line), I knew I had to get it.  Um, it had two things I love, ube and taro, together, AND it had not just puff cream but *taro* puff cream, AND it had taro balls?  ZOMG, right?

I've wanted to try "puff cream" from a tea shop for years now, but I've never actually done it, and still had only a vague idea of what it would be.  I fully understand cheese foam (or any of its spin-offs), which are toppings on top.  I fully understand puddings that are mixed in like boba.  I think I kinda even understand brulee bits or brulee toppings.  But puff cream?  I still didn't quite get it, but I knew it would be integrated into the drink.  Happy Lemon has regular puff cream, but they also have a taro puff cream, presumably, taro flavored, which this used.

The puff cream, was, well, um, puffs of cream?  Lol.  No wonder I haven't ever really been able to find a good description of it before.  Its hard to describe!  Basically, big pockets (er, puffs) of, well, cream.  Not as light and airy as whipped cream, which would obviously just deflate amongst the weight of the rest of the drink.  But no where near a thick as a pudding.  So hard to describe.  But the puffs were very very rich, being full cream after all.  Fascinating.  And I think I liked them?  That said, I think I'd just go for cheese foam in the future.

The base of the drink was the ube milk tea, black tea based, and I asked for soy milk instead of the regular dairy.  I also did 0% sweet as is my standard.  The tea base was much like I remembered from before, good tea flavor, creamy.  I didn't taste soy in particular, but I'll trust that they used it.  I did hope to taste stronger soy, as I think soy and taro are a great combination.  I suspect the cream from the puff cream just drowned it out?  As for the ube ... um, I didn't taste it at all.  

And then there was the taro balls, fairly standard froyo shop/bubble tea shop likely mass produced taro balls, not freshly made.  Sorta like a slightly firmer mochi / less firm boba, in little balls, vaguely taro flavored.  The fresh taro from the other drinks had a far stronger taro taste.  These were nice to suck up though.

Overall, I'm not sure how I felt about this.  I didn't taste ube, nor the soy milk.  The taro elements weren't particularly compelling either, the puff cream didn't really seem to taste of taro, and the balls weren't fresh taro.  But I enjoyed trying crazy puff cream, and I do like their milk tea base.  I'll put this one solidly in the "sounds better than it tastes" and "I'm glad I tried that, but I won't get it again" camp.  ***.