Tea Do in Chinatown: They have the coolest drink names, but do they have good bubble tea?
- Boston Bubble Girl
- 2018年2月13日
- 讀畢需時 3 分鐘
Tea Do Contemporary Tea House, known as Tea Do, has been one-of the go to places that I would stop by when I am in Chinatown. I remembered I always ordered their passion fruit tea with mango jelly. I am so in love with their mango jelly as they are in star-shaped. It's funny that I had never tried their milk tea because of my obsession with passion fruit tea. So I decided to order their milk tea for the first time.
I did a little bit research on the brand before writing this post. I found that there is only one Tea Do store in Massachusetts. There are 2 in Philadelphia and 2 in Maryland. Based on its website (http://teadoboston.wixsite.com/teado), it looks like the chain originated from Philadelphia back in 2012.
The store locates at 8 Tyler Street in Chinatown. It's not easy to find the place as it is hidden among a bunch of Chinese restaurants and Japanese restaurants (the famous Shabu Zen is close by).
As I walked in, I was shocked to see there's no one except 2 servers. I was there around 11:25 in the morning. That's very different from my previous visits to the place, which the place was always packed with customers. That told me that their busiest hours center on the time after 12:00 am.
The place is very tiny. All their seats are high stools. So it would not be good for staying there for a long period of time as your butt would get hurt from sitting too long.
I noticed that there were several menus on the counter. But Tea Do does not have a shiny menu display box that hanged on the wall like its competitors Gong Cha and Kung Fu Cha do. I assume that would save them a lot of money.
Those are their Top 10. My attention were caught by some of the names of their drinks. Look at no. 3, 8, and 9. Whoever was responsible for naming their drinks should be given credits. In addition to beverages, they also have Japanese street-food snack Takoyaki.
<-To explain, Takoyaki are octopus balls (don't overthink it).
This is their full menu. Again, I just could not stop browsing through the top left-hand side. Next time I have to order my First Love.
I do not know why I didn't any of the drinks of their specialties. I ended up ordering a strawberry milk tea. I was very persistent that I needed to taste their bubble tea instead of their fruity drinks.
It costs 4.75 with tax included. The first impression I had was that the pink looks very unnatural. By the look of it I already knew there's no real strawberry in it.
I expected it would not be good. However, I did not expect it would be that bad. To start with, the drink has zero tea flavor. It was just plain strawberry milk. Further, I could taste the artificial flavor of some boba pearls. It annoyed me that some of the pearls are broken. Lacking consistency is a big no for me.
The worst part was none of the above. The worst part is that I could suddenly taste powder in my drink. The drink has become quite powdery at the end, which you could see the little dots in the following picture. I stopped drinking my bubble tea when there was still two third left. I just did not have the "courage" to finish it.
(This picture was taken when I was on my way to my apt)
My friend came to join me later. He ordered one of their specialities-The Hulk.
It looks exactly like its name. It's GREEN! It is made of kiwi, green apple, lychee, and aloe jelly as toppings. My friend said the drink has more of a green apple flavor but a kiwi-based taste. He could not really taste the lychee. He also mentioned that the size of the aloe jelly was big but they could still go through the straw. For him, that's a plus. The overall comment he had on the drink was it is fresh and tasty.
I could basically conclude my feelings with Tea Do to be mixed. If you visit that place, avoid their (artificial) fruit-flavored bubble tea. Do go ahead order their specialities. As for bubble tea that is not fruit-flavored, I need to pay another visit to find out.
