50 Tea Longan Red Date drink with grass jelly: On my last visit to Oakland, iTea was out of ice and only offering hot beverages. Given the beautiful weather, I decided to go across the street to a new tea shop instead. Named 50 Tea, the shop is iconic Chinatown – half of the storefront is for tea and ice cream while the other half is for purchasing various goods like DVDs and small trinkets and gifts. Their walls are covered in hand-written menu additions with distinctly Asian flavors like winter melon and sour plum. I opted for their longan red date drink with grass jelly, which contained one huge piece of grass jelly and small bits of longan. Both toppings had great flavor (though the texture of the grass jelly was a bit more gelatinous than I prefer), and the drink had a fairly neutral honey flavor (most of the longan flavor came from the pieces themselves). Altogether, it had a slightly medicinal flavor, which was unique and felt very authentic. Would definitely stop by 50 Tea again. 4.0/5.0

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