Tiegyuanyin Milk Tea (鉄観音ミルクティー) – The Tea

In my quest to try more local, Japanese boba spots is The Tea, which has two locations in Sapporo. I’ve had this place in mind for a while now, and I figured on my outing today I’d finally try it out. They claim to be one of the more authentic boba places around, and they also sell Taiwanese street food which was exciting to see for me, especially that they have mian xian! My plan was for it to be one of our last stops for the day before getting on the bus home, because it seemed from pictures online that they don’t charge for no ice. I still have other places I want to try, but I didn’t want to walk from super far just to only drink it on the bus home, even if the weather is cold out. And yes, I’m still getting an iced drink in this weather. Of course, with no ice.

They do have some more unique tea selections on the menu, like some as labeled as specifically Taiwanese teas. I will eventually try those, but I’m also still on a quest to get real Tieguanyin tea around here after the failures I’ve had. Am I going to dissappoint myself? Maybe. Perhaps a more “Taiwanese” location will have a better quality Tieguanyin. What’s the worst that can happen?

Did I have high expectations? Maybe. For a no ice-iced drink, it came out cold, which was great and a plus for this location, added onto free no ice. I did let it sit for about an hour because I was waiting to start the drink until I got on the bus. Anyway, upon first sip…it tasted like the other Tieguanyins I had recently here. It has the general-ish oolong tea taste with a particular milky flavor, but the tea flavor doesn’t stand out too much. Should I give up on a good Tieguanyin? Perhaps I should actually start trying unique teas. Would have been better cold freshly made, but that’s a me problem. Oh well. Next time I will try a different tea from this place.

Their boba is claimed to be made in house from cassava flour. It’s a white boba, which likely means they didn’t add anything much else in the process of making it. I quite like it, it’s super chewy and almost mochi-like without being sticky, and it has almost no flavor. In this case, I’m ok with it. The topping comes with the drink, so no extra cost here either. And I started a point card, so I’m definitely coming back to try their other stuff!

Details: Tiegyuanyin Milk Tea; large; less sugar; no ice; with tapioca; from The Tea (Sapporo Ekimae)