Taro Milk Tea – 7 Leaves Cafe

Oh my God, today’s the last day of August! I think we were going to get a drink yesterday because my sister was craving her “bloody drink”, but then it ended up getting late in the afternoon so we put it off for today…

And here we are! I feel like I say this every time, but I did feel a little conflicted as I was choosing today. Originally, I was actually going to go for my sister’s drink, the Strawberry Hibiscus because I I figured something on the lighter side would be better, and reading about the health benefits of the stuff in it made it really appealing too. Then I started really craving a milk tea drink, and so surprisingly enough I decided to try 7 Leaves’s Taro Milk Tea. I may or may not have also been swayed by some of the taro health benefits listed too…

For some context, I haven’t really had taro drinks in a long time. It used to be my go-to drink when I was super young, when I would only get the taro slush from Tea Station (what a throwback!). At some point, I either got tired of the taro flavor or didn’t like it as much as other drinks (or both) so I stopped getting taro. Actually, I really liked the taro smoothie from Loose Leaf that my sister didn’t like, and it made me want to start to order taro drinks again. I’m not exactly sure when my sister started drinking taro, but she’s been opting for more taro drinks recently which I found interesting.

Some time around the time we started getting 7 Leaves frequently and I was trying to find a drink on the menu she would like (before I suggested the Strawberry Hibiscus to her), I suggested the Taro Milk Tea since I knew she liked taro. She read the description, and declined since she read that there’s tea in it! I was determined to eventually order it for myself and let her try it so she doesn’t judge it based on the description. I swear if she ever read the description of her favorite “bloody drink”, she would never have thought to order it!

Sap story aside, the actual drink (not surprisingly?) really tastes like taro! I say this like a revelation because a lot of standard places use powder or some kind of fake flavoring to get the bright purple look to the drink and an artificial taro flavor, something my former boba barista friend hates. 7 Leaves is no standard place though. In fact, I can tell 7 Leaves uses real taro because sometimes I’ll suck up a tiny bit of unblended taro, which I don’t mind too much because it’s not that frequent. What I also like about this drink is that even though it’s a milk tea, it’s not as heavy-feeling / filling as the other milk teas but it’s still creamy in a lighter way.

It’s apparently blended with Jasmine Tea, but I don’t taste the tea at all, which I actually like because I ordered a Taro drink, not a Taro green tea drink. This also proves to my sister that the tea doesn’t have to be the deciding factor!

Today’s boba was the best texture from 7 Leaves in a while! It’s super soft and chewy today, just how I like it. The boba itself wasn’t too sweet, but the drink was flavorful and sweet enough (Easy Sweet hopefully!) that it made up for it.

The best part? My sister tried it, and liked it a lot! 😀

Details: Taro Milk Tea; Upsize; with honey boba; No ice; Easy Sweet; from 7 Leaves Cafe (Irvine)