Kuang Chuan Oolong Tea: I spent some time this summer looking for the best asian grocery store to buy bottled tea in Chinatown and ended up wandering into a handful of different small shops. To be honest, I don’t recall exactly which one this drink was from, but this bottle of oolong tea was decent - slightly roasted flavor, unsweetened, and thirst quenching. It wasn’t good enough for me to seek out again, though. 3.0/5.0
drinks tea chinese kuangchuan oolong 3.0
Cha House Oolong milk tea with boba: This charming Taiwanese cafe on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill, NC has a variety of snacks but specializes in bubble tea, with a mix of classic milk teas and fruit teas. I purchased their oolong milk tea at 0% sweetness since the boba are already steeped in brown sugar. The boba had a pretty good texture, though it was a tad soft for my taste. The oolong tea had a refreshing herbal flavor yet was also creamy and rich from the frothed milk. Overall, a solid and very traditional milk tea. 3.5/5.0
recommended bubbletea chahouse oolong milk tea boba 3.5 chapelhill
Volcano Tea House White peach oolong tea with boba: At 25% sweetness, this herbal oolong tea had a light and refreshing white peach flavor, though it did taste syrup-y. The boba was quite good-neither overly chewy or soft and just a tad sweet. Good enough that I would consider revisiting this Sawtelle-based bubble tea shop in the future. 3.0/5.0
recommended drinks bubbletea volcanoteahouse white peach oolong tea boba 3.0
Asha Tea Pineapple Oolong: I’m not a huge fan of pineapple but have exhausted the entire Asha tea seasonal fruit teas and decided to try this one. It was perfectly balanced - just sweet enough without being tart, with a very fragrant oolong tea. It’s no wonder I always bring visitors to this worthy Tea Shop. 4.5/5.0
exceptional drinks berkeley tea ashatea pineapple oolong 4.5
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
drinks milktea berkeley purplekow rosie oolong tea brown sugar jelly 2.0
Garden Creamery Black sesame and oolong ice cream: By now, I've become wary of long lines in San Francisco, and there is nowhere else where this sense of trepidation is stronger than in the Mission, the tech-saturated, ultra-entitled west coast version of Williamsburg. Regrettably, I do find myself here once in a while, often to see a show at the neighboring Chapel, which is exactly what brought me to Garden Creamery, an ice cream shop squarely at the halfway point between the 16th and 24th street Mission BART stops. I had some extra time ... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended dessert icecream frozen gardencreamery black sesame oolong ice cream 4.0 sf sanfrancisco