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Honeydew.

Creamy, sweet artificial ‘melon candy’ goodness. It’s a little over the top in terms of flavour, but that’s what I was craving so it was mighty satisfying. The guy who made this one made it quite thin though; maybe not enough ice? I don’t know, I don’t make bubble tea so I’m not totally sure how the process works – I just know that it wasn’t as thick as I’m used to bubble tea being.

#TryAllTheBubbleTea

Well, I’ve done it guys! I’ve officially had every single bubble tea flavour on the Umi Sushi list… which is a lot of bubble tea. This one, my last one, was the matcha flavour. I know, I left such a basic flavour for last.

It was good; very thick and creamy with strong generic green tea notes. It was clearly very sweet though, and I think I’d have appreciated it more without all the sugar but still quite creamy. Kind of a middle of the pack flavour for me, and a very predictable one. It was exactly what I expected from it – no deviation, even a little.

So, I have ONE bubble tea flavour left at Umi Sushi for project #TryAllTheBubbleTea…

I was actually going to get it today and close the book on this bubble tea challenge/chapter in my tea drinking exploration but the restaurant was sold out of the one flavour I have left, so I had to get something I’ve had before. I went for lychee again because I was in the mood for fruity and sweet, and not so creamy. This was insanely juicy and flavourful; like lychee candies or lychee concentrate!

If it takes a while for them to restock this last flavour I’ve got left you may see me revisit some of my favourites from the challenge/experience. This is a top five favourite for sure.

Well guys, #TryAllTheBubbleTea is almost over!

This time around I grabbed the generic ‘Milk Tea’ flavour, and now I only have one more left before I’ve had the whole Umi Sushi menu! How crazy is that!?

I didn’t think the Milk Tea flavour was very good though – it just tasted like very generic and bland black tea with too much milk in it. I guess that’s kind of the point/desired profile but I think it just would have benefited from a stronger tea flavour or any degree of sweetness. One more crossed off, though!

#TryAllTheBubbleTea

Guys, I’ve almost had all the bubble tea flavours! Well, at least at the bubble tea place in the mall I work at, anyway. Not counting this one, I’ve just got two to go!

This one was mango – and it was really good but also probably the one flavour I’ve tried that was the most like what I expected it to be. Not overly sweet, milky, or bland but just a well balanced and authentic mango puree kind of flavour. I liked it but it’s not a stand out for me either; probably falls middle of the pack.

#Tryallthebubbletea

This week’s flavour of choice? Sesame!

I’ll admit, I was really intimidated by the idea of this one. I just could not picture what it was going to taste like. However, I think I can say pretty easily that this is probably THE BEST bubble tea flavour I’ve ever had – from any bubble tea place and not just the place in the food court where I’ve been doing this challenge. The flavour is really unique; creamy/milky as a bubble tea tends to be but just with this very lovely, sweet sesame flavour that reminds me of the Sesame Snaps I used to get with my dad as a child. So, not is it just delicious but there’s a nostalgia factor at play too.

This easily de-throwns taro for non-fruity bubble tea options; borderline better than blueberry/lychree/peach but those are less directly comparable as all of those are very fruity options…

#TryAllTheBubbleTea (Or whatever hashtag I’ve been using…)

This time around I’m going with Lychee!

I’ve definitely had lychee bubble tea before, but not from the place I’ve been going to for my bubble tea menu challenge, so for me I felt like this was a safe pick because I’d know what to expect. I was… kind of right?

I mean, it’s VERY lychee and I know I love lychee so I knew I’ve love this bubble tea flavour; and all of that was completely true. I underestimated how much lychee vibrancy I was going to get to experience, though – the last time I had a lychee bubble tea it was more mellow and subdued and this was juicier and sweeter and more embodied ‘lychee juice concentrate poured straight from some canned lychee fruit’, which it may have actually been? It was almost too sweet, but lychee is refreshing and floral enough all on its own that it’s able to save itself from that trap of feeling one note and overwhelming.

Not something for people who don’t like lychee or who are new to it/want to dip their toes in the flavour – this will blast you in the face with sweet, vibrant, bursting with ripeness tropical lychee unf. YES.

Next flavour up is avocado!

I expected more from this one; it’s made from fresh avocado so I expected this really rich, creamy punch of avocado/umami goodness. It did have a nice avocado undertone to it but mostly it was very sweet and creamy with a somewhat syrupy, milky flavour to it. It was still delicious, and I’m all for a good, creamy bubble tea but I just think all in all the avocado aspect was lacking.

I’m saying that, of the flavours I’ve had, this one is somewhat ‘middle of the pack’.

This time I’m trying orange.

So, I figured this would either be really orange juice-like in taste and natural or quite sugary sweet and possibly Creamsicle-esque. It was actually somewhere in the middle though; definitely syrupy and sweet/rich, but with a natural undertone to it, and maybe even a little bit of the bitterness of orange peel? It was ok, but I wish it had been either very natural or more of that candy sweet sort of taste and less in the middle.

As it stands, it was fine but boring.

#TryAllTheBubbleTea

Next up in my project of trying all the bubble teas… Raspberry!

So, this one surprised me. I was expecting something sweet, and maybe a little artificial tasting that would be really in line with the strawberry bubble tea flavour that I had a little while ago. That was certainly not what I got. I mean, it did taste a little bit artificial but mostly it tasted pretty sour/tart. Ultimately, I think the profile reminded me of raspberry Sour Patch Kids or Warheads more than anything else. It was a tasty enough profile, but that sort of tartness and candy element is not something I typically associate with bubble tea and I felt like I was drinking more of a Slush Puppy than anything else.

I didn’t dislike it, and I suppose I’d drink it again – but honestly this one has 100% been the strangest and most surprising flavour I’ve had to date. I mean, I really thought this was going to be one of the safer/more boring flavour options but… nah.

So many people on Instagram told me I needed to try Coconut Bubble tea, and I listened! In general I’d say a like coconut about as much as the average person; it’s never my go to flavour and it’s never something I feel like I have to shy away from either. Ultimately, I think I felt the same way about this bubble tea flavour too – it was certainly good in a lot of ways; the fact it was very rich, not overly sweet, and very, very creamy. It also struck me as sort of a mix between a more natural coconut flavour and coconut candy/simulated coconut, but a well balanced mix.

So far from this specific shop in the Food Court (Umi Sushi) I’ve tried…

Taro, Blueberry, Watermelon, Peach, Strawberry, Kiwi, Honeydew, and Coconut.

I’d say that this one is pretty solidly in the middle of all the flavours I’ve tried. I’d have it again if I was really in the mood for coconut or even just to break up a streak of having the same thing, but otherwise it’s not a go to or something to avoid. Thanks for the recommendations though, guys! I’m thinking next time maybe going for the Sesame, just ‘cause it’s so different?

Ok, so last time on my ‘quest’ to try every bubble tea flavour I went for Strawberry and it was only alright. I was gonna do Coconut next, but a coworker convinced me to skip straight to honeydew so that’s where we’re at now…

It was ok. I mean it definitely isn’t a natural honeydew flavour but instead that very sweet, creamy and candy like flavour that artificial honeydew things have. I actually usually like that flavour a lot – honeydew is probably my favourite of all the melonds, naturally or artificially speaking. That said, this was SO FUCKING SWEET. Like, ‘Oh my God’ levels of sweet. I don’t think I could do this one again unless I was really craving something sweet. In fact, as much as I enjoyed the flavour I actually had to enlist the help of some coworkers to finish it because I was getting like sugar shock or something…

Easily the sweetest bubble tea I’ve had to date.

Next up in my ‘quest’ to try every flavour of bubble tea offered by the Sushi place in the mall food court where I work; this time strawberry!

Honestly? Strawberry seems like it should be a really easy flavour to nail/do well and like it should kind of be a staple flavour!? But, this is probably the worst flavour I’ve had from this store to date. I mean, it didn’t taste terrible and was totally still drinkable but I just thought it was so syrupy and sweet, and it almost seemed a little more generic red berry to me rather than strawberry specifically. I think I’m gonna do raspberry next and try and directly compare those two because if this tastes more generic to me than maybe that one will too? And if it doesn’t, then that just seems like further evidence that this one in particular just isn’t a stellar option.

Grabbed a other bubble tea this week on my lunch break.

I’ve decided that I’m going to continue to explore the flavours sold by the vendor in the food court that I haven’t tried, and that I wont repeat flavours until I’ve had everything on the menu. This time around I went for kiwi, and it was pretty good. It’s another one that uses more of a fruit puree rather than having a milky base but I think that works well. I don’t know how I’d feel about a creamy kiwi bubble tea.

It was good, pretty sweet/sugary. As far as these non-milk based ones go, peach is still my favourite with my favourite milk based ones being blueberry and taro. I’d maybe reorder it again the future but it’s pretty ‘middle of the pack’ for me.

Didn’t really have time to make a lot of tea at work yesterday in between the boxing day crazyness, so when I went for lunch I stopped at Umi Sushi in the food court and got a bubble tea to enjoy with my lunch.

I wanted to try a new flavour this time, and based on the suggestion of my coworkers I went for peach. It was a good choice! I think I might actually like this one better than blueberry, which has always been my favourite flavour option aside from taro. I mean, this one still doesn’t beat out taro, but it’s pretty damn good! Very sweet, and juicy with aspects of overripe peach and peach candies. Less creamy/milky than a lot of the bubble tea flavours I usually enjoy but that’s not necessarily a bad thing or a thing I feel like I NEED in a good bubble tea.

So, really quite delicious overall!

So yesterday I went out for bubble tea after work with a couple of coworkers;

It’s actually been a while since I last had bubble tea which is honestly a little surprising since I work less than a block away from three people who sell it. I mean, I also work at a tea store though so when I’m in the vicinity of the people who sell it I’m generally at work, and that keeps me plenty hydrated for no cost…

Pretty much everyone in our group went for Watermelon, myself included. I feel like I must have had Watermelon bubble tea before, but I can’t actually think of a specific time. The last few times I’ve gone for bubble tea I’ve really favoured the taro, or blueberry for something sweeter. This was really good though! It was a surprisingly creamy tasting watermelon though – even for bubble tea standards. I found myself thinking a lot of either the watermelon flavoured Air Head candies or the strawberry melon flavour Julius that Orange Julius sells. I guess in both those examples, it’s a sweeter and somewhat more concentrated/artificial watermelon flavour – which probably says something about the bubble tea in terms of its flavour.

I just know I enjoyed it, and it was a fun thing to do to unwind post shift.

Grabbed a bubble tea from the food court the other day to drink with lunch before starting my shift, at the tea store… #tealife

This time around I decided I wanted to try Blueberry! I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but it was actually SUPER refreshing/hydrating and I thought the sweet blueberry was very well done and realistic, with the perfect amount of added sweetness and creamyness/frothiness from the milk used in the tea. I also like that this place in the food court doesn’t overload you with boba pearls; when places do that I find it distracting from the flavour. I just like the occasional burst of boba in between sips – not four boba PER sip. That’s too much.

I think this is right up there with my favourite flavours I’ve tried though, right next to Taro. Maybe Red Bean next?

Took me a while to find the generic bubble tea entry…

Stopped at the mall on my way home from work; wanted to see if there was anything at DAVIDsTEA that interested me for the 40% sale. I ended up getting some tea infused food stuffs (review on that to come when I eat it) that I was hesitant about prior to the sale. Also some small samples. One of my friends at the store (Who is moving soon! Who am I gonna get info about unreleased teas from!?) told me that there’s a smaller collection getting released on August 2nd; they’re really cracking down on employees blowing the whistle for unreleased teas though so she couldn’t tell me what the new teas were though. She does know my tastes PRETTY well though, and she said there was at least one in the collection she was sure I’d be interested in. So, call me curious…

After my stop there I also grabbed band-aids ‘cause, like an idiot, I injured myself at work again. I was sorting through a bin of donation are really deeply cut the tip of my index finger on my dominant hand. D’oh! It’s making typing tonight a really big chore. One of out supervisors wanted me to go get stitches, just to give an idea of how deep it is. Learned my lesson and filled out an accident report – though this time is was glass (broken candle holder) and not metal so hopefully no itchy and unsightly complications this time around…

Final stop was for bubble tea! I was torn between watermelon and taro, but eventually settled on taro ‘cause I wanted to try a different companies version of it since I’ve only had it once. Still delicious; really like the subtle sweetness of it. It’s very refreshing and satisfying. One complaint about this particular place (can’t even remember the name; something with Sushi in it – it’s kind of your generic food court sushi place though) is that they used WAY TOO MANY tapioca pearls. Like, a third of the cup was pearls. Which was just so overwhelming. I ended up discarding a lot of them ‘cause there was too many for them to evenly disperse in the ’tea’ while drinking…

Went to this really cute tea place/cafe near my house today with my little sister!

I’ve been meaning to go since moving into the condo ‘cause it’s so close but I’ve just never quite had the time. It’s all Asian style and, of course, they specialize in bubble teas and milk teas. She grabbed a honeydew flavoured black tea with pearls/boba and I grabbed a taro milk tea with pearls/boba.

Mine was delicious! I’ve wanted to try taro flavoured bubble tea for such a long time because it is a more traditional flavour and I’ve just never really done it. I’ve had taro before in its regular form: we made them once at Sobeys to sample in the store. They basically cooked ‘em like potatoes and they were pretty good. Kind of sweet and very starchy? I expected the taro tea to be more purple, taro is awfully purple after all and every time I’ve seen taro bubble tea it’s been quite a creamy but dark purple. Mine was mostly a milky colour with a slight purple hue.

The taste was good: hard to describe other than just saying that ‘it tasted like taro’. I mean, I guess breaking it down that’s like saying it was kind of starchy/potato like with a nice natural sweetness and a bit of a nuttyness as well. In addition to the subtle, sweet umami profile there was the creaminess of the milk as well. Very yummy and refreshing, and not at all an overwhelming profile. I definitely understand why this is a traditional flavour!

EDIT: For Regina tea friends, the place was called SweeTea Cafe and it’s down in the East End. The service was quite nice too; the staffer was very helpful/friendly.

So these little jot notes are for a Coconut Bubble Tea I got at one of the Asian Restaurants downtown on Friday. Originally I was gonna go get another eggnog latte from DT, but I felt like I’d be judged by the staff for getting two in less than an hour, so I went with this one instead…

- Coconut was present but very weak
- Mostly this was quite milky
- Unlike last time (Passionfruit?) this didn’t separate though
- Bubbles were pretty good
- But a lot of them got stuck together at the bottom of the cup

I did enjoy it overall though; much better than the Passionfruit one from the same store. Maybe I’ll just have to keep exploring to find the right flavour for me?

Back to the backlog! We pick up at the mall, right after my DT trip prior to seeing Hedda Gabler. My friend Robyn, who I went to the play with, had just arrived at the mall!

First things first we stopped at the food court because I was starving; and I loaded up on assorted food from the different places. I got a Veggie Poutine, Pumpkin Pie Blizzard, Pizza, and a Passion Fruit Bubble Tea. I’d never noticed the Asian restaurant (I can’t remember the name) in this mall had bubble tea; so I pounced on the chance to have some. Honestly, I wasn’t impressed at all though; the passion fruit flavour was spot on but it kept separating way too fast for me to drink it, and the “bubbles” were really mushy.

Nellie’s Bubble tea has spoiled me; I fear nothing will compare.

After the food court we did some shopping around the mall; I bought this cute wool sweater thing that I normally would have stayed away from (it’s from a store that typically does not sell clothing in my size/cuts that flatter my body type) but Robyn talked me into it, and then we went to the bigger clothing place that carries all the super fancy designer/big brand name fashion-y clothing and cried over the pretty things and expensive prices. I ended up buying this GORGEOUS but EXPENSIVE scarf with this detailed design over the whole thing of an ancient world map, in French. It is now easily the most expensive accessory I own.

After that, the play! It was at my city’s version of a Broadway theatre, and the majority of people there were definite theatre snobs (which I say in a mostly loving way). Very fancy, somewhat over the top dressy attire – and very not my “look”. I mean, I was wearing Cargo pants and a Spiderman hoodie. Still; I felt justified in being there and didn’t let their staring hinder my enjoyment one bit – especially since we had front row, dead center tickets! Cost a ton, but so worth it. It also helped knowing how in depth Robyn and I had both studied this play; and that we knew it inside and out, unlike probably most of the patrons. We were there for a reason.

Before the play started we enjoyed sipping fancy alcoholic beverages in the lobby with everyone else; ‘cause I guess that’s a thing you do at live theatre. They had a really cool featured drinks menu with selections inspired by the play; lots of German wines and mixed drinks inspired by the characters. We each got one that was Vodka, Pear Puree, and cranberry juice – it was very sweet, but delicious!

The acting was phenomenal, the set well done, and all in all it was a really, really perfect night and performance!

I ordered lunch to be delivered to my house today; and I got a really big meal so now I have a ton of leftovers and wont have to do any cooking for a while.

This time I got Strawberry because, even though Honeydew was awesome, I wanted to try something else. Watermelon was a high contender – but I did a melon tea last time, so I switched things up. I’d have loved to have gone with Pineapple but I think my expectations for pineapple bubble tea would just be impossibly high.

This was delicious though! It was exactly like a Strawberry Milkshake in taste (actually Red Leaf’s Strawberry & Cream Matcha tasted exactly like this) but without a milkshake texture – and probably slightly healthier. I’d totally drink it again, but overall Honeydew was better because it just seemed more “unusual” and uncommon. Strawberry, while amazing tasting, almost seemed like the most plain/average choice. The “vanilla ice cream” of bubble tea, if you will.

And totally getting used to the weird gelatin balls/cubes!

I ordered lunch from another new restaurant today called Nellie’s Kitchen (hooray for broadening my food horizons) because I realized the only things I had at home to cook called for milk, and I’m actually all out for the moment.

Today’s meal was relatively simple; Fries, Garlic Bread, French Toast w. Maple Syrup, Lemon Meringue Pie, and Honeydew Bubble Tea! It’s so cool that Skip The Dishes (the site I’ve been using) is partnered with so many restaurants in the city; I mean how else are you gonna order French Toast and Bubble Tea to your door?

I think, overall, the food from today was not as impressive as yesterdays which just seemed so fancy. There was nothing special about these restaurant fries or whatever. Although, the pie was really really good. It had the perfect crust and the meringue to lemon pie filling ratio was excellent.

But now on to the “tea portion”; the bubble tea. Firstly, they’ve got a lot of cool flavours to choose from; I had a hard time deciding on one. Here’s the options:

- Avacado
- Cantaloupe
- Honeydew
- Lychee
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Strawberry
- Taro
- Watermelon

Like, c’mon! All the melon flavours!? And lychee and pineapple? You’re gonna kill me – thats’s basically like the summation of my favourite fruits less pears. Not fair. But eventually I settled on Honeydew because I figured it was maybe more uncommon than the others I was tempted by. It was really, really good! Definitely the best part of the meal by far.

The honeydew flavour was so strong and sweet – and the drink itself was frothy and icy and the perfect balance of thick ice and juicy liquid. Does that make sense? Yeah; I think it does. Also – my biggest problem with bubble tea is actually the “bubbles”. Usually I can’t get over the gross little gelatin balls but this one actually had little teeny tiny gelatin cubes in it, and unlike anything I’ve experienced in other bubble teas they were actually honeydew flavoured as well. They were still sorta gross, but much better than anything else I’ve ever had in bubble tea.

It’s a shame the rest of the meal was so mediocre; ‘cause I’d love to try the other flavours of bubble tea this restaurant serves but with the delivery fee it’s just so not cost effective to only order bubble tea and now a whole meal.

And now, I think it’s time for a power nap?

I wasn’t really sure if “Bubble Tea” counted as tea and whether or not people logged it on Steepster regularly, but after a quick search I guess it does have a place so I might as well log what I had today.

In the mall I work at, there’s an Asian food restaurant (the name is escaping me – it’s not really a place I often eat) that sells bubble tea. They come in about 30 different flavours, and I’ve been curious about them since I started working there. I have had bubble tea in the past, but not often and I don’t really remember much of my experience having it other than I didn’t like the ‘bubbles’ (gelatin balls) themselves in the same way I liked the drink.

Today I had a lychee flavoured bubble tea. Lychee is one of my favourite flavours and this popped out of the list of choices for me; maybe that was because it was spelled incorrectly (‘lichee’), but still…

I really liked it initially: it was sweet and frosty. But, the more I drank the nastier it taste. It got TOO sweet and sugary, and I felt overwhelmed by the amount of flavour. Plus, the gelatin balls were disgusting and I couldn’t stand eating (drinking?) any of them. Eventually I just threw out the rest of my drink (about a third was left).

Maybe I’ll try a different flavour before I totally make my mind up, though. Anyway, since this is an amalgamation of teas under one heading I wont make an ‘official’ rating – but for the Lychee Bubble Tea I had today, I think I’d rate it somewhere between 45 to 55.