Lipton Tea Ice Bubble Tea Ice Bars: I like seeing how American brands reinvent themselves abroad, offering products especially for foreign markets. I see Lipton tea bottled beverages sometimes in vending machines, for example, where as in the US, I only ever associate the brand with tea bags. Their black milk tea ice cream bars are miniature, about 2/3 the size of American fruit bars, and at 45 calories each, I don't feel bad having them. They have a familiar black milk tea flavor with boba pieces throughout that are actual... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended japanese lipton tea ice bubble bars 3.5
UHA Tea Gummies: An impulse buy at 7-11, these are miniature gummy candies about half the size of a typical gumdrop. There are four different flavors: brown sugar, milk tea, mango tea, and orange tea. They seen extra chewy and dense. My favorites is the milk tea and mango, though they all have a definitively artificial candy flavor. I'm not sure it works collectively since milk tea is pretty different and someway clashing in flavor with free teas. 3.0/5.0
japanese candy 711 uha tea gummies 3.0
Bao Tea House Jasmine peach milk tea: Bao Tea House is a small shop in the West Village close to the West 4th subway stop, and it's my favorite place in the city for tea. Their jasmine peach milk tea was very well balanced, with a fragrant, creamy, floral, and fruity flavor (a combination I imagine most places would not get right). The drink came with brown sugar aloe cubes, with a slightly chewy texture that still has a bit of bite. Though it's an entirely different type of dish, the closest analogy I can make in terms of textu... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended drinks nyc milktea jasmine baoteahouse peach milk tea 4.0
Tea Era Apple Seed Green Tea: Got to visit an old favorite with old friends on my last trip to the South Bay. Tea Era is a bubble tea shop on Castro in Mountain View that always has an expansive menu of uniquely-flavored beverages. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the apple seed green tea, which is why I decided to purchase it. The least amount of sugar they could do was 50%, and I purchased the tea hot on a brisk evening (though you could also get it cold). Half sugar was the right amount, as it had a somewha... (read more) 3.5/5.0
mountainview california recommended drinks chinese teaera apple seed green tea 3.5
Rabbit Rabbit Tea Japanese buckwheat milk tea with almond pudding: A caffeine-free option at bubble tea shop Rabbit Rabbit Tea, located at the edge of Union Square. It tasted more of milk than buckwheat, but it did have a familiar Asian breakfast porridge vibe to it, reminiscent of powdered grain packs you mix with hot water. The tea was so so, but the almond pudding was quite good - it had a distinctly non-dairy-milk nutty quality and a soft, slick texture. Overall, though, I probably wouldn't come back to Rabbit Rabbit gven the quality of this drink alone. 3.0/5.0
drinks milktea nyc rabbitrabbittea japanese buckwheat milk tea almond pudding 3.0
Tiger Sugar Brown sugar boba milk tea with cream mousse: Stopped by the Tiger Sugar stand on Main Street in Flushing on a Friday night and waited in line for about 15 minutes to get a cup of the famed brown sugar boba milk tea with cream mousse. The Flushing location is the first in the US from Taiwanese chain Tiger Sugar; there is an additional spot now in Sunset Park, and the latest will be opening in Chinatown this Saturday, so all major Chinese neighborhood across Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are covered. I actually didn't know too much a... (read more) 3.5/5.0
drinks boba taiwanese brownsugar tigersugar brown sugar milk tea cream mousse 3.5