Category: Boba Diary

My Order:

• Dong Ding Oolong Tea
• Fresh Milk
• 0% Sugar
• Less Ice

I know some folks swear by this drink, but last time I ordered it at Kallang Wave, it had no taste. The tea flavor was barely perceptible. I accrued the 88 point necessary for a free drink, so I decided to use my lucky 88 to give the Dong Ding Oolong Milk Tea a second chance.

I guess either my taste buds were shot last time, or they fixed their tea espresso machine since I last had it. I really enjoyed this drink!

The first thing I noticed when I drank was the extreme level of creaminess. I could feel the milk fats on my tongue. It was quite an interesting experience- almost like umami. I’m curious what kind of milk they use.

The tea flavor was quite nice. It had a rich roasted classic oolong flavor with a slightly sappy/bitter/earthy aftertaste. The tea flavor itself was nice and strong as well.

I forgot to add a topping- some sugar probably would have boosted the drink score.

Score

I’ve realized that the creativity portion of the score is completely arbitrary. Also the mean is somewhere around a 2. I guess it takes a lot to impress me since I drink so much bubble tea. It doesn’t really factor into the score, so I’ll just keep going with my current metrics.

• Topping: N/A
• Drink: 8
• Tea Flavor: 8
• Tea Strength: 8
• Creaminess: 9
• Creativity: 6 (for milk choice)

Total Score: 8

My Order:

• Earl Grey Latte
• Less Ice
• 0% Sugar
• Grass Jelly

I haven’t had Milksha in a while. Their bubble teas tend to be overly milky and almost taste like milk flavored with tea. Not necessarily a bad thing, but I personally prefer the majority of flavor comes from the tea in a milk tea. This is the same problem I have with Chi Cha’s Ding Dong Oolong Milk Tea as well.

The early grey milk tea tasted oaky and fruity. It had a moderate amount of tannins and was also slightly acidic. It was very, very milky and was quite creamy. I would prefer the drink have slightly less milk and more tea, but again, I knew what I was getting into when I ordered MilkSha.

The grass jelly was quite smooth and quite a mild herbal taste. It wasn’t bitter at all. The pieces were about an inch long each. I think it paired well with the drink! Sometimes the grass jelly has a thin layer of filmy resistance. I’m not against that texture, but this grass jelly did not have it.

Milksha is great if you are looking for caffeine-free options, since they offer many milk-only base drinks. I would also recommend them if you are looking for a very milky milk tea.

Score:

• Topping: 7
• Drink: 6
• Tea Flavor: 8
• Tea Strength: 5
• Creaminess: 8
• Creativity: 3

Boba Powa: 6.5

My Order:

• Black Sugar Milk Tea
• Less Ice
• Less Sugar

Usually I order the Royal Milk Tea from Winnie’s. Decided to change it up this time =). I asked the staff what the difference was between brown and black sugar. Their explanation was that black sugar is less sweet. With the Power of Google, I discovered black sugar is just unrefined white sugar- so cane sugar with the molasses(the stuff used to make rum) still in it.

The black sugar taste was pretty strong even though I asked for as little sugar as possible- a robust warm and slightly smoky flavor. I’ll have to order the drink again without modifications to see if the drink I received actually had less sugar.

The taste of the black sugar paired well with the high creaminess level of the drink. The flavor of the black tea is present, but it is a minor player with nutty and acidic notes. I think it does enhance the drink. They also offer a version of this without any tea and just milk.

I’m guessing they chose to use black tea because it has a stronger taste than something like green tea, which would have been complete drowned out by the black sugar flavor.

Pearls were very nice- 8.5. 80 percent chewy, 20 percent soft and the standard size. As usual, I prefer chewier and bouncier pearls, but most people would probably them. This was an example where regular pearls are a good choice, since the drink already has so much going on.

I think the Black Sugar Milk Tea is perfect for someone who likes rich and strong flavors without too much tea taste. It is also nice that Winnie’s offers a caffeine-free option(Black Sugar Milk).

Score

The tea flavor/strength would be far higher if the tea wasn’t sweetened with black sugar.

• Topping: 8.5
• Drink: 9
• Tea flavor: 5
• Tea Strength: 2
• Creaminess: 7
• Creativity: 6

Boba Powa: 8.75

My Order:

• Golden Oolong Milk Tea
• 0 % Sugar
• Pearl
• Normal Ice

TBH I didn’t have high expectations with this drink. They’re not well-known and the drink was quite cheap ($3.20). I was very pleasantly surprised!

The taste of the Golden Oolong Tea was nice. The tea has a lot of tannins and earthy floral flavors. The strength of the tea taste was quite strong as well.

The only real big complain I have about the milk tea itself was that it wasn’t creamy enough. There wasn’t enough creaminess to balance out the tea flavor, which is a shame. I think they either needed to use a stronger creamer or add about 50% more.

The pearls here were medium size, so somewhere between the tiny balls that roll in your mouth too much and the regular-sized pearls. The texture suited my taste- nice and chewy (15% soft, 85% chew). Problem is with the smaller sized pearls, I don’t get the requisite number of chews I’m used to.

I wrote in an earlier post (Gongcha Oolong Milk Tea) that brown sugar/honey pearls always trump regular pearls. Now I take it back. I think if the drink itself has enough tea flavor/strength and creaminess, regular pearls are the way to go (I’m looking at you Ding Tea… I miss you). I really enjoyed the roasted oolong milk tea from that Taiwan-based bubble tea store when I was living in San Diego. It looks like there used to be one at Far East Square, but it is now temporarily closed.

Overall, I’d definitely recommend checking iTea out, especially for those on a budget. I’ll be back to try their Earl Grey Milk Tea at the next opportunity.

Score

• Topping: 7
• Drink: 7
• Tea flavor: 7
• Tea Strength: 8
• Creaminess: 3
• Creativity: 1

Boba Powa: 7

My Order:

• Roasted Oolong Milk Tea
• Brown Sugar Pearls
• No Sugar
• Less Ice

I decided to give R&B another shot. Last time I ordered their No. 23 Oolong Milk Tea and I wasn’t impressed. I made a rookie mistake and got the non-dairy creamer because I forgot to ask for fresh milk. TBH at this point, I’m not even sure which I prefer. I’ll have to do some A/B blind taste test soon. That’s coming up!

The oolong milk tea wasn’t bad (foreshadowing: this was before I mixed the drink). Roasted Oolong used to be my favorite milk tea flavor, so I’m a bit biased. The roasted tea flavor was nice, but it wasn’t very strong. I noticed when making the drink, they put a very large amount of tea and a small amount of creamer. The drink still tasted milky and creamy, so I guess a small amount of creamer goes a long way.

Their brown sugar pearls were too soft for me. They were 80% soft, 20% chew. I like my pearls to be 10% soft, 90% chew. Some of the pearls were chewier than others, which was kind of weird. Makes me think they mixed two batches of pearls up or something.

There was way too much brown sugar syrup in the topping. After I stirred the drink, it became too sweet. You can see in the picture above that there is a layer of brown sugar syrup rising above the pearl level. If you look at the Brown Sugar Deerioca from The Alley a few posts back, you’ll notice that the brown sugar syrup layer doesn’t rise nearly as far. I’m going to downgrade my score for the topping even further because of this.

I can see people who like a sweet drink with soft pearls enjoying this drink a lot. Not my jam.

Score

• Topping: 2
• Drink: 5
• Tea Flavor: 6
• Tea Strength: 3.5
• Creaminess: 4
• Creativity: 1

Boba Powa: 3.5

Her Order:

• Green Tea
• Less Sugar
• Less Ice

My wife and I were walking to lunch when we saw this bubble tea Vending Machine. Sadly they had no toppings available in this machine (foam top and grass jelly was show in pics). It was kind of cool to see the little claw arm move around to make the drink.

She chose less ice and less sugar, but the less ice resulted in no ice as it all melted resulting in a slightly chill drink. I couldn’t taste the sweetness at all so I thought the machine was broken. My wife said she could taste a bit of sweetness and she though the tea was less acidic because of it.

Tastewise, there is nothing special. It is just plain green tea. Tea flavor is not too bad, and strength is about medium for a green tea.

This drink cost 3 dollars. Better to just get an Ayataka canned green tea. Gimmick might be popular amongst schoolkids though. Vending machines cycle through T-Plaz very quickly, so I will update if it is still around in a few weeks.

Score

I’ve decided to stop putting the /10 at the end of my scores. Everything is out of 10

• Topping: N/A
• Drink: 3
• Tea flavor: 4
• Tea Strength: 5
• Creaminess: 0
• Creativity: 0
• Novelty: 3.1415926535

Boba Powa: 3/10

My Order:

• Snow Peach Mountain
• No Sugar

This is a limited seasonal drink. The only choice you have is the sugar level. Not much customization, but that makes sense considering that they are quite restrictive with what add-ons they allow. You are only given the option of the foam top on their milk teas. For those of us who don’t like dairy with their tea, I’m sorry.

This milk tea has a rose petal cream topping which you are supposed to eat with a spoon. It was very nice and light, and not very sweet. I enjoyed it quite a bit. The rose flavor really came through and the little flower pieces were a nice touch. I do like richer and heavier flavors more (such as the foam on their Halloween special/ Dark Mountain special).

The drink itself was kind of weird. They were going for a blended ice milk tea drink, but the ice itself barely had any taste. There was the foam layer, then a blended ice layer, then the milk tea at the bottom. I ended up using my spoon to mix the ice into the milk tea.

The Peach Oolong milk tea itself was quite nice. It was easy to pick out the peach flavor in the tea. The oolong itself wasn’t too strong, but I would consider this a solid fruity accented milk tea.

I would recommend this drink to those that enjoy lighter and more delicate flavors. Plus the drink is really pretty!

Score

I’m not sure whether to consider the blended ice part of the drink or the topping. I’m going with drink.

• Topping: 6.5/10
• Drink: 2.5/10 ( 0/10 for the ice, 5/10 for the milk tea)
• Tea flavor: 6/10
• Tea strength: 4/10
• Creaminess: 7/10
• Creativity: 7/10

Boba Powa: 4.5/10

My Order:

• Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk

The Alley doesn’t allow any customization for this drink, but it looks like they just pour fresh milk over brown sugar pearls.

I wasn’t planning on drinking a second boba today, but I can’t complain. My wife’s friend suggested either bubble tea or ice cream. Bubble tea won, but ice cream was a strong second.

It was 6pm by time we went to The Alley, so I opted for an un-caffeinated beverage. The only options available are the yogurt drinks and their Deerioca series.

I could feel the warmth of the pearls through the bottom of the cup. I first took a sip from the bottom without mixing and I could really taste the intensity of the brown sugar flavor. The pearls tasted fresh- only the outermost layer was soft and the insides were nice and chewy. Reminds me of the brown sugar pearls from Whale Tea or Xin Fu Tang. I really have to go to Tiger Sugar and try the original at some point.

My friend mentioned that The Alley was popularized by some K-drama right before the first store opened in Singapore. Smart business decision!

I stirred the drink a bit to spread out the brown sugar flavor. In my opinion, the creamy milk really pairs well with the brown sugar taste. You really have to like milk to enjoy this drink. The richness and fattiness of the milk combined with the sweetness of the brown sugar reminds me of eating a creme brulee or a cheesecake or some other rich custardy fatty dessert. Pearls provided a nice texture contrast. So good!

This drink is quite sugary, so it probably will set you back 300-400 calories. Maybe have it after exercise and it’ll feel justified. I like that the drink packs a big punch despite only have two components.

Score

• Topping: 8.5
• Drink: 8
• Tea flavor: N/A
• Tea strength: N/A
• Creaminess: 8
• Creativity: 1.5

Boba Powa: 8.2

My Order:

• Oolong Milk Tea
• Large
• Less Ice
• 0% Sugar
• Pearl

Although Gong cha uses a plant based creamer, the drink felt very nice and creamy. Oolong tea taste was standard but in a good way. There was a medium amount of roasted earthy flavors. Overall very refreshing- a quintessential oolong milk tea.

Pearls were okay for standard pearls. They were a bit on the soft side but had a bit of a chew once I bit into them. I like my pearls to be quite chewy and to be sweet. Once you’ve had brown sugar or honey or caramel pearls, regular pearls don’t cut it anymore.

This drink feels very dependable and that’s not a bad thing.

Score

• Topping: 4/10
• Drink: 6/10
• Tea flavor: 6/10
• Tea strength: 5/10
• Creaminess: 5.5/10
• Creativity: 1/10

Boba Powa: 5/10

My Order:

• Royal No. 9 Milk Tea
• Large
• 0% Sugar
• No Ice
• Deerioca (tapioca pearls)

Hi, thanks for reading my first post. I had the Royal No. 9 Milk Tea this morning and I don’t remember the taste very well. I suppose the purpose of this blog is to fix this issue, so yay! I also don’t have any pictures since I only got motivated to start this blog this evening (shoutout to my friend J for the idea) and I had the drink in the morning. I’ll try my best to recount my experience, but a retasting is definitely in order.  

When ordering boba, I tend to get 0% sugar because I want the taste of the tea to come through. The sweetness of the toppings usually packs more than enough of a punch for me. My wife got me no ice since I was going to chug the drink within the next 5 minutes. Usually I’ll do less ice so the drink stays cold for longer. And of course, when given the option to upsize, the rule is to always upsize.

According to their website, this is a “blueberry infused black tea“. I might be wrong, but I think it’s an earl grey tea infused with blueberry. When I first had this drink, I thought the blueberry flavor came across as too artificial. I enjoy the flavor infusion quite a bit now, so perhaps it is an acquired taste. The pearls were done quite well- chewy and sweet, but not too sweet once the drink was stirred.

This is the first boba I’m attempting to rate and my memory of the drink itself is hazy, so I’m going to take my own score with a grain of salt. I think when using with a scale from 0 to 10, the mean/median score should fall roughly around 5 and most of the scale should get coverage. So a score of 5/10 means average, not terrible (much unlike a 2.5/5 on google reviews, which probably indicates your business is in dire straits).

Overall I feel the drink was solid, but there wasn’t anything exceptional.

Score

• Topping: 7/10
• Drink: 7/10

Boba Powa: 7/10