Boba Ninja Pudding Milk Tea with Boba: Right around the corner from Sweetheart Cafe on Durant (in Berkeley) is a competitor named Boba Ninja, which has barely enough standing room to accommodate a single-file line. Lining the interior is a shelf of flavor powders in small tupperware containers. The pudding milk tea is a regular black milk tea with large pieces of pudding (I added boba as well). The pudding had an inconsistent texture, as if the mix had not been fully stirred, and the boba was overly soft. Not much to say abou... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Bubble Tea Station Mango slush with boba: Bubble Tea Station is a good reminder of the realities of bubble tea in mainstream America. When NYTimes published an article on the odd-blobs-in-drinks trend, a mostly-justifiable outrage was heard from bubble tea fanatics across the country, leading to multiple revisions and an official apology from the editors. While bubble tea is by no means a new cultural phenomena in the states, it's also nowhere near as pervasive as those of us living in urban centers might think. Last month, I found ... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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Purple Kow Rosie Oolong Tea with Brown Sugar Jelly: Somehow, I kept finding myself at this bubble tea shop in Berkeley, likely because of its proximity to the downtown BART station. Purple Kow serves its bubble tea in "chubby" cups (essentially stout buckets) and uses organic milk products for its milk teas. I think they're a little too proud of this fact given that the last few milk teas I've had have been overwhelmingly milky to the point that you feel like you're having sweetened milk. Even with the "micro sugar option," it was too swee... (read more) 2.0/5.0
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iTea Guava green tea with lychee jelly and boba: I can’t tell if the fruit teas are generally underwhelming or the quality of this bubble tea shop has just declined over time, but this guava green tea from iTea on Kearny in SF was too sweet, even at 30% sweetness, with a syrupy taste and no trace of green tea. Contains lychee jelly and boba, both of which were decent. Lines were incredibly long at the end of a weekday. Questioning whether I should just stop returning to this once-favorite place. 2.0/5.0
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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
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Zico Coconut Water: For a while, I tried different brands of coconut water wondering what all the fuss was about. At the end of the day, most tasted about the same. But then I purchased this relatively inexpensive bottle from the vending machine and realized that coconut water can taste bad. This bottle had a strong slightly metallic flavor. Not good. 2.0/5.0
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