U Cha Barley milk tea with boba: Continuing my bubble tea taste test across Berkeley, I found myself at a popular tea shop named U Cha on Bancroft. Their expansive menu has the fruit and milk tea flavors you expect from a Taiwanese-style chain. I ordered their barley tea with boba at 20% sweetness with little ice. The flavor was familiar but watered down and over-sweetened; the boba was too chewy. With better options, this one is a pass. 2.0/5.0
drinks berkeley bubbletea ucha barley milk tea boba 2.0
Harmless Harvest Harmless Coconut Water: This is a product that appeals to all types of coconut water consumers: it's fair trade (for the socially responsible), it's organic (for the health-conscious), it has a distinctively shaped bottle (for designers), and it's kind of expensive (all of the above). Some are pink (which happens when the polyphenols naturally present are exposed to light), while some are clear. Overall, I found it to be well balanced, refreshing, and light. 4.0/5.0
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Asha Tea Mango green tea with grass jelly: Asha tea is a winner when it comes to making bubble tea that actually tastes like tea. I've found their fruit teas more successful at striking the tea-sweet-flavoring balance than their milk teas, tasting like tea flavored with a bit of fruit rather than vice versa. The mango green tea has a bit of texture from mango pulp, and herbal jelly adds a delicate herbal texture. Lightly sweetened. 4.0/5.0
recommended drinks ashatea mango green tea grass jelly 4.0
Share Tea Mango green tea with lychee jelly: After attending an event in Palo Alto, I wanted to get a caffeinated beverage for my drive back to the East Bay. I found myself at Share Tea, whose Berkeley branch I had just tried several days before. This time, I opted for a fruit tea and ordered their mango green tea at 30% sweetness with lychee jelly. Even at 30%, I still found the tea to be too sweet, though it did have a nice herbal flavor that came through. I also liked the lychee jelly, which had a good amount of firmness. The m... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks sharetea mango green tea lychee jelly 2.5
Bernie's Best Organic Autumn's Best Apple Cider: I live very close to Cheeseboard in Berkeley and hadn't had their pizza since I moved in. On a whim back from running errands, and noticing there was a shorter line than normal, I stopped by this popular spot to re-taste the pizza I found exceptional five years earlier. To accompany the pizza, I grabbed an apple cider I hadn't seen before from their drinks fridge: Bernie's Best. The drink lists no nutrition facts, only that the cider is made fresh with apples from Pomo Tierra Orchards in Yo... (read more) 5.0/5.0
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Sharetea Hokkaido black milk tea with boba: I stopped by this branch of Sharetea to scout out tea shops in downtown Berkeley; this one is located right on the edge of campus. Coming in around lunchtime meant there was a sizeable line of college students, and it took about 10 minutes total from getting in line to retrieving my drink. Their menu has several variants of classic black milk tea, including Hokkaido black tea, which supposedly has a roasted brown sugar flavor. Though I ordered it at 30% sweetness, it was more sweet than I wo... (read more) 2.5/5.0
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