iTea Matcha milk tea with boba and red bean: This matcha drink from iTea in SF contains red bean and boba as default toppings. While the matcha milk tea was decent, the red bean was heavily sweetened so that this 30% sweetness beverage tasted more like a normal 100% sweetened drink. Texturally, the red bean also seemed canned as it was slightly too soft. As a result, I’d recommend getting the drink but skipping the red bean topping. 2.5/5.0
drinks sf milktea itea matcha milk tea boba red bean 2.5 bubbletea
MItchell's Avocado and Lucuma Ice Cream: My quest to try every major ice cream shop in San Francisco has perhaps come to completion now that I've finally stopped by Mitchell's. Located about a 10 minute walk from the 24th Street BART station, Mitchell's has been serving San Franciscans for over 50 years, with a menu of classic flavors as well as exotic tropical fruits. Asian flavors skew Filipino, with ube, halo-halo, macapuno (young coconut), and lacuma, the last of which I was excited to try for the first time. I purchased a s... (read more) 3.5/5.0
recommended icecream sanfrancisco sweets desserts mitchells avocado lucuma ice cream 3.5
Larabar Cashew Cooki Bar: Containing two ingredients (dates and cashews) this minimalist bar had a soft texture somewhere between a cookie and an energy bar. I found the flavor to be off, not because it was either too sweet or savory, since the flavors together simply did not taste particularly good. This is the first time I’ve had a Larabar, and given the experience, probably the last. 2.0/5.0
dates nuts larabar cashew cooki bar 2.0
Purple Kow Lychee slushie: I usually opt for milk tea or fruit teas when I go to bubble tea shops, but this time I went for the lychee slush at Purple Kow, a Bay-Area-based chain. Their drinks are served in a single-size short, fat bucket with substantially more than your typical cup. Their generosity was unfortunate in this case because even at 25% sugar, the drink was far too sweet, reminding me of the lychee mini jello cups you get at asian grocery stores. If you don’t like sweet, artificial flavors, don’t order th... (read more) 2.0/5.0
drinks berkeley purplekow lychee slushie 2.0
Wild California Mango Jalapeño Crisps: Purchased from Monterey Market in Berkeley, these fruit crisps are a great snack in many ways. They’re sliced just right so that they’re crunchy but not hard to bite into, and the amount of spicy heat is surprisingly potent but well balanced with the sweetness of dried mango. While crisps like these tend to be paired with cheese or dip, I found them to be satisfying all on their own. 4.0/5.0
recommended montereymarket fruit spicy wildcalifornia mango jalapeño crisps 4.0
Happy lemon Jasmine lemon slush: This drink was about as good as this picture, which is to say not very good. Even at 25% sugar, it was overly sweet, and while it was supposed to have jasmine tea, it did not taste of anything but lemon. Do not recommend this particular drink at the normally solid Happy Lemon. 2.5/5.0
drinks berkeley happylemon jasmine lemon slush 2.5