Teariffic Cafe - a really quick afternoon tea to get my nerves going

It's been a while since J and I came here and it's probably because we haven't had any time lately, not to mention it always seems packed when we walked by.

But this past Saturday it was quite empty, even around 1pm. Got a table in the right corner, yay for the wall because I can lean back. We ordered ourselves a drink and a plate to munch on to kill some time (I had an errand to run around 2, hence the quick tea-ing).

Usually this place is ran by waiters but that day, there were only 2 waitresses. J joked that the girlfriends had to substitute in for the guys...haha

The regular size Blackjack ($3.05) was something that J and I ordered a lot of back then, but haven't been for the past 2-3 years because it was too sweet. It's still sweet now. Our palettes changed a lot but I did want to recall some memories while drinking this, brings me back to high school.

This "exotic drink" as Teariffic quote it as, is on the sweet and sour side. It has blue curacao, strawberry syrup, lemon juice and honey - definitely taste the curacao and lemon juice more than anything and the color gives it that mysterious look. Wished it was more on the black side than blue to justify its name.

J wanted something hot, don't know why since it was humid that day. He ordered the Dragon Pearl Jasmine Tea ($4.50), really wasn't worth the price since it was just tea. For some reason I was hoping it would have some pearls like tapioca but dragon type...yeaaaa. We admit it was good tea, very fragrant but I wouldn't come to Teariffic to get this type of tea.

Deep Fried Chicken Strips ($3.25) is usually what we get when it comes to tea-ing. It just works really well as just a dish to munch on and shoot the breeze with another person. Plus, it's enough to share and let the time pass. This time around, the chicken strips tasted more like pork, maybe it is pork but it's disguised as chicken. It isn't as great as it once was but it had that nice crunch factor to it, so it wasn't too bad.

I guess so matter how bad Teariffic changes or screws up, I think we'll still come back because there's so many more options on the menu. It's also one of the few tea cafes in Chinatown that has a lot of seatings and is also really casual.

Teariffic Cafe
51 Mott St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 393-9009