Wanpo Tea Shop Black Rice & Taro with Coconut Milk: This is my second time getting a drink from this Taiwanese bubble tea shop, this time at their Shibuya location. Both times, the employees seemed to identify that I was Chinese and spoke to me in Mandarin, but I could barely cobble enough Chinese together to say that I didn't want the drink to be too sweet. This particular drink is almost like eating a dessert rather than a drink, containing more solid ingredients than liquid and reminding me of eating Taiwanese shaved ice, with its mix of... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks wanpoteashop black rice taro coconut milk 2.5
Paris Baguette pumpkin and black sesame bread: Thickly cut bread with a hard, bitter crust full of burnt flavor. Bread itself is faintly sweet and very soft, but pumpkin flavor is difficult to discern. Studded with black sesame, which doesn't actually add anything to the taste. 2.0/5.0
bread parisbaguette pumpkin black sesame 2.0
Happy Lemon Lemon black tea: Textbook mediocre black tea. Tastes like Lipton, and it probably is. On the plus side, the drinks contains an entire lemon, sliced into wedges. But the overall effect is black tea I can easily make at home. Good thing it was free (from the buy one get on free promotion during Happy Lemon’s opening weekend in Berkeley). 2.0/5.0
drinks berkeley happylemon lemon black tea 2.0
Hanco’s Black milk tea with boba: Went to 5 different supermarkets in Brooklyn to look for fish sauce and could only find Thai Kitchen brand. Stopped by Hanco’s, a Vietnamese sandwich shop a few blocks from where I live, to ask where to find. They told me there were no asian grocery stores in the area and I would probably need to go to Chinatown. The sandwiches at Hanco’s were pretty good, but this bubble tea was quite bad - very diluted and milky tasting, with overly chewy boba. Might need to go to Chinatown for that too. 2.0/5.0
drinks brooklyn hancos black milk tea boba 2.0 bubbletea
Milwon Black Rice Steamed Bread: Frozen steamed buns are some of my favorite quick breakfast items. Back when I lived next to HMart, I would purchase them frequently. After not having had them for several months, I was happy to find some at my local Korean grocery store. These Milwon buns are made with black rice, which gives them a speckled purple color. Each fits comfortably in the palm of your hand and has a red bean filling. The only positive thing I can say about this product is that it's not too sweet. Otherwise... (read more) 1.5/5.0
korean redbean asian milwon black rice steamed bread 1.5 avoid