Asha Tea Asian Pear Oolong Tea: The fruit teas at Asha Tea in Berkeley are consistently good, with housemade textured purees made with seasonal fruit. The puree adds enough bite that I find your typical add-ons, like boba or grass jelly, are unnecessary. For this particular Asian pear tea, the strongly-flavored oolong had a rich and robust herbal flavor much stronger and more interesting than your typical green or black iced teas. The natural fruit carried enough sweetness on its own to cut through the tea, producing an... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Cheeseboard Buffalo Milk Soft Serve Ice Cream: Regrettably, I ordered the swirl of chocolate and plain milk flavors, and while the texture was smooth and creamy, the chocolate had a generic taste that masked the more mild milk flavor. While it was higher quality, this ice cream did remind me a bit of the little cups of vanilla and chocolate ice cream you ate with a wooden spoon as a kid. Not bad per se, but not great either. 2.5/5.0
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Uji Purple Potato Soft Serve: Returning to this small ice cream shop on Shattuck to sample additional soft serve flavors, I tried their seasonal purple potato ice cream, which came in a lovely shade of lavender. The ice cream had a rich milk flavor with only a hint of potato at the end. Given that the tofu, black sesame, and matcha flavors from Uji are all vastly superior (I've sampled all three flavors by now), I wouldn't recommend the purple potato ice cream, but it's decent. 3.0/5.0
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Uji Mochi Ice Cream: Offering over 12 different mochi ice cream flavors, Uji in Berkeley is taking a unique spin on this classic Japanese dessert. They take it very seriously, serving their mochi with bamboo sticks that are meant to be used to prod the mochi, ensuring that it's soft enough to eat. After ten minutes of waiting, though, I got impatient and held the container in my hand to try to bring the mochi down in temperature quicker. I tried the Ginger Zing (a mild, rather than spicy, sweet ginger flavor)... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Cheeseboard Ginger Molasses Cookie: One of the seasonal baked goods available at the Berkeley pizza shop Cheeseboard, the ginger molasses cookie is a mostly chewy cookie with candied ginger scattered throughout and a pleasantly spiced flavor. Not particularly spicy or potent. It's certainly better than most store-bought cookies, but it isn't above average for fresh-baked goods. 3.0/5.0
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Bernie's Best Gravenstein apple cider: The last time I was a Cheeseboard, I purchased an excellent bottle of Autumn Blend apple cider from Bernie's Best. This time, I opted for the only other flavor available at the pizzeria: Gravenstein apple. Unfortunately, this flavor lacked the depth achieved in the Autumn Blend and altogether tasted pretty typical for a decent store-bought apple cider. Not bad by any means, but also not worth going out of the way for. 3.0/5.0
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