Tea Makers

Tea Makers is one of my absolute favorite finds from the summer of the Paze promotion*.  I likely wouldn't have stumbled in otherwise, I am I glad I discovered it, driven by of course the freebies.

*If you are unfamiliar, Paze is a digital wallet system (like Paypal or Google Pay) that you can use to check out with some merchants.  In the summer of 2026, when they launched, they had a promotion with most major credit cards and banks to give you back a $10 credit, up to 10 times, per card/account, if you spent $10 and paid with Paze.  One of their launch partners was Clover, the company behind many restaurant POS systems, so if you ordered online through their Clover storefront, and paid with Paze, you got $10 free (over and over, again, 10 times per card/account).  Tax, tip, it all counts towards the $10, so you could get something <$10, and just tip up to the $10 to trigger the credit.  I love a freebie, and I love excuses to check out places that I wouldn't normally stumble into, so I used Clover and Paze to go on little missions every weekend, gettings $100s in free food along the way.

Setting

The Manhattan location is in Koreatown, right along a busy street, really a great vibe.  They also have a location in Brooklyn.

Window.

It would be very easy to miss Tea Makers, even if you walked right by.  The store is just a window, with a tiny little prep space inside.  Obviously, no seating, etc.  The service was fast and efficient. 

Food & Drink

Tea Makers is primarily a tea shop, as you may have guessed from the name. 

"Make Tea as it Should Be. It originally created Cheese Fresh Fruit Tea, Brown Sugar Milk Tea and Cheesecake Milk Tea, etc. Teamakers uses the best original leaf tea from the tea source, fresh fruit from the farm, imported cheese and wheat flour. The products are all made-on-side."

In addition to classic milk teas, they also make fruit tea, slushes, fresh sodas, and "cheesecake" drinks.  You can adjust sweetness, milk type (Lactaid, almond, oat), and of course mix-ins.  They have exactly one food item: pudding.  As a pudding lover, this thrilled me.  In fact, I ordered it rather than a drink my first visit.

Korean Banana Pudding
(Large). $8.50.

"Homemade creamy banana pudding made with fresh bananas, fresh cream, and cozy wafers. Super delicious and made fresh daily."

I'll admit I had no idea what Korean banana pudding would be when I ordered this, and, after eating it, I still do not know.  This just seemed like ... regular banana pudding?

That said, it was very good banana pudding.  It was thick and rich.  The pudding was perhaps vanilla or perhaps banana, not quite sure, but there was tons of banana flavor from plentiful banana slices.  The banana was not too mushy nor browned, so it really did seem relatively freshly made.  It was not too sweet.  The wafers ("cozy wafers"?) were quite soft and just provided a different textural element.  Everything in here was good, and the ratios were right.

I may have liked this more than Magnolia even, as I appreciated that it wasn't over the top sweet.  High 4/5.

I got the large for $8.50, they also sell a smaller one for $5.

Taro Slush, 0% sweet,  (L). $6.75.
Almond milk ($0.50), +coconut jellies ($0.75), +cheese foam ($1)

It was extremely hard not to order the pudding again my next visit, as I loved it so much, but it was a hot day, and I really did want to try one of their drink items.  The taro slush it was, which I asked for 0% sweet and almond milk (you can pick almond, oat, or Lactaid for $0.50 more), and added in one fun mix-in (coconut jellies) and one fun topping (cheese foam). 

My drink was quickly prepared and handed over. They were very generous with the coconut jellies, as they occupied a pretty substantial part of the base of the cup.  They were standard, sweet, slimy, slight coconut flavor.  The flavor was a good match for the taro, but they were quite sweet.  I would have preferred fewer actually.

The drink itself was fine, the slush nicely mixed, no big chunks.  The taro flavor was good, but clearly powder.  I could taste the almond milk, and it worked really well to give a complexity to the overall taste.  However, it was really, really sweet.  I said 0% sweetness, and I know using a powder has some sweetness anyway, but this was really, really sweet.  To the point that I wondered if they made it full sweet.  Combined with the jellies, just, too much sweet for me to consume much of in a sitting.

I loved the thick rich cheese foam on top, great tang.

Overall, I enjoyed the creation, but it wasn't something I'll repeat just due to the sweetness.  3/5.

Taro Cheesecake.  %0 sweet, (L) $6.50.
Almond milk($0.50), +aloe vera ($0.75), +matcha cloud ($1.25)

"If you’re looking for an alternative that won’t melt on you, Teamakers mixes the best things about a halo-halo with one of the best things they’re known for — cheesecake milk tea! "

I returned to try another taro creation.  This one is called a "cheesecake" but I knew it was going to be a drink.  It still wasn't quite what I was expecting at all.  I really thought the cheesecake part would be more dominant - I thought there would be thicker denser cheese foam and maybe some of their cheesecake that is an available mix-in in it.  Instead it really just seemed to be a taro milk tea with a bit of cheese foam that was drizzled around the cup before the taro milk tea was poured in.  It was liquid, not thick or rich at all, and it was pretty hard to even taste the cheese foam.  I tasted it more in my taro slush from having it on top.

So it was an ok taro milk tea, although again quite sweet even though I asked for 0% sweet, and I didn't actually taste almond milk this time (even though I paid for it), and it had ice even though I asked for none.  They really don't seem to pay any attention to customizations, although it did have my aloe vera pieces (soft, sweet, refreshing) and the matcha cloud (decent matcha flavor, but just seemed like matcha whipped cream?).

Very underwhelmed given what I thought I was getting, and lack of accuracy in my order, so for all that, this is a 2.5/5, but for a taro milk tea with a bit of foam and matcha whip, sure, 3.5/5.