Osmanthus Oolong Milk Tea – Omomo Tea Shoppe

I feel like I haven’t had Omomo in forever, which is probably because Omomo always has such a long line no matter the time or day that it demotivates any of us to go. When I heard that they opened up online ordering for the Walnut location, I thought that was great news. Then I heard that it was online only, so I also thought, where can you go wrong with that? Turns out, that was a catastrophe, among other technical difficulties apparently, so they’re back to walk-in only. My dad did say that the line wasn’t too bad when he went, so that’s a good thing. Hopefully it doesn’t get too crowded!

Anyway, the reason we did get Omomo today was because I found out that Beard Papa’s across the street has Boba Milk Tea Cream Puffs, so I got excited because that meant more desserts with boba in them to try. Unfortunately, they’re apparently discontinued (for now? hopefully not forever), so my dad went to Omomo instead. Oh well, that sucks, but I still got a drink out of it! 🙂 And a story!

I discovered that I’ve been craving matcha recently, so did that mean I got some kind of matcha drink from Omomo? Obviously not, from the title. Anyway, one might remember me talking about Omomo seasonal drinks when I got the Itchy Peachy, and mention Osmanthus Oolong as part of their seasonal drink lineup. It was because of this seasonal lineup that got me interested in Osmanthus Oolong, which I found out later is actually a thing. I saw it as an item at places like Redstraw, Loose Leaf, and I’m sure other places have it. So my question is, what makes it a seasonal at Omomo? Sure, their Itchy Peachy is seasonal because they use and blend real fresh peaches, but is this Osmanthus season? Why is it not a seasonal at other places? Should I expect Omomo’s seasonal to be better than the year-round stuff? I even held off on ordering from other places to see what’s up with Omomo’s supposedly limited one. Maybe it’s just a new permanent menu item (like the Jellomomo(?)) that happened to come in this season with the Itchy Peachy and I’m making a big deal out of nothing.

Tangent aside, the drink itself is very nice, and I’d definitely put it on my order-again list. Maybe it’s me thinking about Osmanthus, but I do think it’s floral but not overly flowery. It does have a slight oolong flavor, thought I think the tea could be stronger. The drink was overall milky but still light and refreshing. I do remember liking Omomo’s Oolong Milk Tea a lot, but I do think I’d like a side-by-side taste to see if the Osmanthus makes the bigger difference, since I’m not such a tea expert to know what Oolong tastes like. Today’s boba was very good, chewy, nice texture, and a good amount. I think I do notice that Omomo’s boba has a distinct flavor, which isn’t bad, but pretty consistent.

Details: Osmanthus Oolong Milk Tea; Half sugar; No ice; with brown sugar boba; from Omomo Tea Shoppe (Irvine, Walnut Village)