Taste the Leaf – 7 Leaves Cafe

I very much love 7 Leaves, but this is more of a recent phenomenon. 7 Leaves has been relatively around for a while in my area, but for whatever reason I didn’t get drinks there. One reason was probably because it had a lot of hype (and I usually stay away from the places everyone went to) but as I found out later they really do have good drinks. High schoolers tend to flock to it too, which meant it was another popular kid place, and a lot of people around me always talked about meeting up there. The menu is also tiny, so at first I thought it wasn’t that special, but every drink I’ve had from 7 Leaves so far has been so good and blown my expectations away because of the flavor. If you aren’t a fan of tea, they have as many coffee selections as they do tea, and according to Yelp they’re good too. Personally, I’m not a coffee person, but I am looking to trying their non-tea, non-coffee drinks! For whatever reason, I’ve been drinking 7 Leaves quite frequently in these past few months, but I’m not complaining. Something interesting though is that they’ve been double-lidding the cups, with a regular plastic seal and covering it with a manual plastic lid (the one with a straw hole). I’m not sure what’s with the recent development, but my theory is a coronavirus prevention measure to protect your lid because I’ve only noticed it during the lockdown period. Oh, and they open at 7 am when most boba places open sometime 11-12, so that’s a plus for early morning boba cravings.

Chain? Yes. I’ve only been to the Irvine and Tustin locations.

Drinks Tried: Thai Tea (#2, #3), Sea Cream Jasmine Tea (my first sea salt!) (#2), Jasmine Milk Tea (#2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9), Assam Milk Tea (#2), Sunset Passion, Matcha Soy Tea, Oolong Milk Tea (#2, #3, #4, #5), Sunset Mint, Japanese Matcha Tea (#2), Taro Milk Tea, Strawberry Hibiscus Tea, Green Thai Tea (#2, #3), Tea Rex, Matcha Latte

Boba: I think the first few times I didn’t think much of it, but as I’ve had more drinks it’s grown a little on me. The boba takes on the flavor of the drink, but that might be because the drink flavor is already pretty strong. The boba itself is ok. It’s not as soft as other places but it does have a decent chew and they give you a pretty good amount.

Price: Price is definitely reasonable. From the amount of drink and toppings to the quality of the drink to the size, I am very happy with my purchases.

Size: Regular and large. Both are very generous sizes for their names and well worth your money.

Interior: I’m not sure about other locations, but the Irvine location is very small, and has a little bar seating area near the front, but not nearly big enough to fit the traffic they get.

Wait: The wait is not bad if you’re lucky, but the line can get a long if you go at peak times. You can skip the line if you order ahead on the app though!

Sell Food? Yes. They’re supposed to be known for their macarons, but I’ve never had them. I think macarons can be good, but I’m not a die-hard fan. The Irvine location in particular also supposedly sells strawberry croissants from Cream Pan (great Japanese bakery btw) but I never see them when I go.

Reward System? Yes. Before lockdown, I got a stamp card with them. After lockdown started, I figured out they have an app, so I started ordering off the app for faster pickup and to gain points. The app rounds points to the nearest dollar, and the stamp card stamps per drink. Now my dilemma is I have an incomplete stamp card but a growing points collection on the app…