Little Tea House
Several Locations in Metro Vancouver
Robson Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
Weather has been a bit wacky in the last couple of weeks in Vancouver. While the weekends have been hot (in Vancouver terms), weekdays have not necessarily been so. A couple of weeks ago, it was hot and so on. Basically, it has been up and down. Not complaining but, sigh, when it is warm enough, though water works fine, sometimes you want something different. That one thing happened to be bubble tea. I must mention, unlike most Asian people, I am not crazy about it (no particular reason). Sure, I might have it once in a long while but, given the options, bubble tea is not among the top. How come I went to this Little Tea House then? Although there are other bubble tea shops in the same area, I went there out of curiosity, as it just opened about two months or so ago.
Picture taken from the Safeway across the street.
Because I don’t frequent these shops, the lingo is still confusing to me. Regular tea? Slush? Pearls? (Coconut) jelly? And then there are some other options, specially flavours, that, well, I just give up. As a result, I order a drink without really thinking and, afterwards, pay for it (in both senses).
One my first visit (yes, there will be more than one!), there were still doing some prep but that did not hold them back from taking my order. As a reminder, this is a Chinese operation and, while they did not push me to make my order right away, they were getting impatient fast. So I ordered the first thing that caught my attention: lychee with pearls. After paying they started to prepare my drink.
The warning label reads “Children under 5 and seniors should not consume this drink without supervision”.
After breaking the seal with that large straw and take my first sip, I could only say “oh, well”. Though not really noticeable in the picture above, think of it as tea, ice, some flavouring (or fresh fruit, depending on the version of the drink) and the tapioca bubbles in the bottom. Was it good? It was OK, again, not something I would rush to get. It had a sweet, slightly artificial taste, which I would assume it was the lychee (though it tasted more like some versions of honey I have had). It was possible it was a “me” thing so, on another day, I went there again to order…
Wait, isn’t that the same thing? Yes and no. It was lychee again; however, this time, it was the slush version, which, unlike the first drink where it had ice cubes, this one is a blended drink. However, rather than start drinking right away, I took it back to my office to snap the pictures. As a result of that couple-of-blocks walk back to my office, some of the ice melted and resulted in those three layers seen in the picture above: at the bottom, the tapioca bubbles, the melted part in the middle and the ice shards on the top. As for the taste, it was almost exactly the same, except it was slightly colder. Hey, at least I should give them some points for consistency!
Overall, my opinion of bubble teas was re-inforced: not something I am really crazy into and, if it is really hot, ice water is still my first option. Now, should I go for a screamer next time? ^_^
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