Bubble Me: Bubbly Tea

I was in a crappy mood the day I went to Bubbly Tea, hoping it would cheer me up with some good Bubble Milk Tea...

The interior of this place is modern and chic, and also clean. There are signs everywhere of different drinks you can choose from and also snacks for you to munch on.

I went for the BMT and they served it to me in no time. Alright, so I wasn't impress with this at all. The milk tea was watered down and lacked any tea flavor. I was really disappointed. I was hoping this would lift my mood but it didn't. The tapioca was nicely cooked though, really chewy and soft and not too sweet. I would avoid their BMT and just get something else because apparently, they don't make the milk tea well here. It's a really simple drink but if you can't master it then you're not really up for calling yourself a tea shop. Maybe it was just me or I came at a bad time but either way, I won't be getting the BMT again.

Overall --

Price $2.75
Service 3.5/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Taste 1.5/5
Likelihood to return for BMT is 0%

 

Bubbly Tea

55B Bayard St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 608-3688

Bubble Me: Teariffic

It's funny how I never ordered the Bubble Milk Tea here. I've been to Teariffic so many times and it just never cross my mind to order it because they just have so many other great drinks.

I had mine ordered to-go. The service was pretty fast and the person behind the register asked if I needed a bag, how nice. The price for this was $3.20, odd price. If you had it to stay, it would've been $2.95 not including tax, so after tax it came out to that weird price. Teariffic still had the old fashion dome lids for the BMT, a lot of places uses the vacuum seal lids instead now.

As for the taste of the BMT, it was really good. I can taste the tea which is what I look for nowadays when drinking this concoction. The drink was also shaken which gives it that frothy nice mixture and the frothy bubbles you see on the top of the cup. It was not overly sweetened which I appreciate since a lot of places make it way too sweet (hence they have the level of sweetness for you to choose from now). The tapioca balls were good also, chewy on the outside but still had that slight denseness in the center. With each bite, you can taste that they cooked the tapioca in a heavy sweet syrup which is why their milk tea isn't so sweet.

I enjoyed this BMT a lot and even went back the next day to get another one. The consistency and taste was the same the following day. Excellent.

Overall --
Service 4/5
Atmosphere 4/5
Taste 4.5/5
Likelihood to return is 100%

Teariffic

51 Mott Street
New York, NY 10013
(212) 393-9009

Bubble Me: CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice

I first knew about CoCo when it opened around Baruch College, I usually get my Bubble Milk Tea (BMT) around Chinatown so seeing a joint that's around 23rd Street really sparked my interest. They have another CoCo opened around 45th Street, as far as I know, the BMTs are pretty consistent here.

It was late night, around 9:30pm when I decided to stop by CoCo to get my BMT fix. The wait was quick since I ordered the regular BMT. Unlike other BMT joints, CoCo hands you your straw which means you can't choose your color. Actually, come to think of it, I don't think they have a wide range of colors to begin with. The 2-3 times I've been here, it's either been red or orange.

Besides the straw colors, the actual BMT was pretty good. Regular milk and tea with tapioca but with a slight twist. I taste a bit of mocha or coffee in there, which is not a bad thing. I like that refreshing and unique twist to a classic milk tea. The tapioca are chewy and it isn't that sweet, winner there!

Overall --
Service 4/5
Atmosphere 3.5/5
Taste 4/5
Likelihood to return is 85%

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice
38 Lexington Ave
Manhattan, NY 10010
(212) 851-6618

Bubble Me: Kung Fu Tea

I'll be starting a series of entries, definitely not consecutively, which will be revolving around Bubble Tea. There's a bunch of places in NYC that sells Bubble Tea and I'm interested in trying all there is.

If you haven't know what Bubble Tea is, it's basically you're average tea with bites of tapioca pearl balls that are chewy in texture. It's quite the "thing" here since they target youngsters and the idea of flavored tea with chewy add-ons.

I'll be focusing mainly on the classic, Bubble Milk Tea. Ordering that from each store I can't get my fingers on and rating them on a scale of 1-5, with one being the poorest and 5 being the highest. I'll be rating the service, atmosphere/cleanliness, and taste of the drink.

Bubble Milk Tea, usually made with black tea, sugar, milk and tapioca pearls. Although, there can be infinite variation of it doesn't mean it tastes good.

So, enough babbling and for our first look -- Kung Fu Tea.

Cute name indeed.
This branch located in Chinatown in Manhattan NYC opened not too long ago. I gave it shot because the name was just so intriguing. I liked how the place was clean and the girls behind the counter was freakishly friendly. I don't usually get that kind of service in Chinatown, let alone in a bubble tea store. This Bubble Milk Tea was definitely different than the others I've had before. This BMT was a lot more frothy and sweet. I mean, really sweet. If they cut back on the sugar, I would've gave it a perfect score. Other than that, I really adore the black and white vibe from this shop. All the straws were black which makes it so much easier to not stand there and choose which color straw I would choose.

Overall --
Service 4.5/5
Atmosphere 3.5/5
Taste 3/5
Likelihood to return is 75%

Kung Fu Tea
234 Canal St, Suite 107
New York, NY 10013
(212) 334-3536