Binggrae Samanco Brown Sugar Boba Ice Cream Sandwich: A Korean brand's take on frozen Japanese taiyaki featuring Taiwanese bubble tea, this trinity of representation incorporates milk tea ice cream alongside brown sugar "boba." Unlike the packaging would indicate, the split between ice cream and boba is not 50/50 but more like 90/10, with a thin layer of brown syrup containing popping-type boba that's neither chewy nor bursting, a texture all its own. Having experienced the Monaka Jumbo ice cream sandwiches in Japan, with its iconic crispy wa... (read more) 3.0/5.0
icecream 99ranch milktea binggrae samanco brown sugar boba ice cream sandwich 3.0
Ginza Tokyo Sugar Butter Sand Tree cookies: Japanese sandwich cookies with a dense, crunchy exterior (somewhat flaky when you bite through it) and a cloyingly sweet icing in the middle reminiscent of cereal milk. Nice packaging, but disappointing flavor. 2.5/5.0
japanese cookie sugarbuttersandtree 2.5 foreign ginzatokyo sugar butter sand tree cookies
Coca Cola Coke Zero Sugar: I'm in the Coke Zero camp (I.e., I prefer it to Diet Coke for its better depth of flavor and less metallic taste). Though, to be honest, they both pale in comparison to the more fully body Coca-Cola, which unfortunately has too much sugar. Apparently, Coke improved the flavor of Coke Zero while also emphasizing that it's a zero-calorie beverage through rebranding, for those who were unaware. I didn't taste much difference from the original Coke Zero which is neither good nor bad. So if you w... (read more) 2.5/5.0
drinks soda cocacola coke zero sugar 2.5
&pizza Rose and champagne cotton candy: This is a 2-serving-size cotton candy snack from &Pizza, available in two different flavors: rose and champagne. They taste slightly different from one another, but neither are particularly close to their intended flavor—the Rose is more mild than the champagne, but both taste of pure sugar. Not particularly distinguishable from standard carnival cotton candy. Expensive, at $5 each. 2.5/5.0
sugar dessert pizza rose champagne cotton candy 2.5
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