Kyoho Grape Milk Tea (じゅわっと巨峰ミルクティー) – Gong Cha

It’s a three day weekend! I’m briefly out of town, staying in Otaru because I started looking for places in Sapporo too late (oops!), but spending the day in Sapporo. My boyfriend and I did some current event sightseeing and errands, before getting boba from Gong Cha on the way back. Why Gong Cha? There’s finally a new seasonal, the Kyoho grape.

I can’t remember if they had this last year (the last seasonal was the peach, which I tried last year) and I didn’t want to try it, or if it’s completely new. Regardless, I’ve been into eating Kyoho grapes recently, so I figured I’d give it a shot. It’s supposed to have Kyoho sauce, Kyoho jelly, and alishan oolong tea.

I shook up the drink to mix it as much as I could, and upon first sip, it tasted very grapey, but more so on the artificial side. Not as extreme as grape medicine is, but clearly wasn’t very Kyoho-y. I imagine it’s hard to replicate, but I kind of wish it was less purple artificial grape-y. Maybe it’s the syrup dominating the drink, with a background of milky flavor for the milk tea. The jelly is also pretty sweet, but I guess the soft and sweet jelly balances out the chewy and not that sweet in comparison boba.

Look, I ordered boba for my boyfriend, but his drink didn’t come with any. We were too far from the Gong Cha to go back and complain, so it’s on them for jipping us, ok? Not me…

Details: Kyoho Grape Milk Tea; less ice; less sugar; pearl; from Gong Cha (Sapporo Apia)