Baked Sweet Potato Milk Tea (焼き芋ごくりミルクティー) – Gong Cha

I’m back in Sapporo, today, because it’s Sports Day! No, it’s not the event, but it’s a national holiday in Japan, so I decided to go out on a solo date. It was a pretty chill day, eating food, doing some window shopping, and ending the day with some boba from Gong Cha for the bus ride back home. Yes, we’re back at Gong Cha, because the new seasonal limited flavor just came out: baked sweet potato.

It’s definitely a new flavor, and it’s very fitting. Here, baked sweet potato is synonymous with fall, the current season! Along with mont blancs, and chestnuts, sweet potato is one of the major fall flavors and foods here. You’ll see a ton of new sweets and snacks with these flavors. I like the baked sweet potato flavor stuff, so I figured this would be right up my alley. It’s supposed to have a baked sweet potato paste, baked potato sauce, black tea, milk foam, and sweet potato crunch. I think this is the first time a seasonal drink features their black tea from here; not that I ever taste it though, ha!

Oh, and every time there’s a seasonal flavor, there’s usually an accompanying seasonal tea that isn’t as overtly advertised, and usually it’s not a flavor in super interested in anyway, so I don’t pay it too much attention. My boyfriend wanted a drink, and after browsing the menu, he decided on the Chardonnay Grape Milk Tea, the milk tea version of the current seasonal tea. It actually sounded interesting, but I still went for the baked potato one. The seasonal flavor always uses a tea that’s on their normal menu.

As should be expected, the drink is sweet potato forward. It does take a bit of work to mix in the paste that’s smeared onto the side, but other than that, I really like it (as someone who likes sweet potato flavor)! It’s the perfect not-too-creamy drink texture, and I really like the crunch. Boba is nice and chewy, and I don’t need much flavor for it as the drink has plenty already.

Details: Baked Sweet Potato Milk Tea; less ice; less sugar; pearl; from Gong Cha (Sapporo Apia)