Best Bubble Tea?

[wyliepoon]

Let me get into this whole "best of anything" trend in this section.

Being Chinese, naturally I want to find out where the best bubble tea places are. Surprisingly I'm not really a big fan of bubble tea... don't know why, it's probably just not my style. But once in a while I would allow myself to indulge myself in drinking that sweet drink with black, chewy tapioca balls served in clear, plastic, airtight cups with oversized straws.

So where do you get your bubble tea?

My favourite bubble tea place uptown is Destiny(sp?) at the new plaza at Silver Star Blvd. (Kennedy and Steeles) in Scarborough. When I'm downtown I get it at Tea Shop 168, since I get a discount with my student card. People say that the tea there is disgusting, but I find no problem with it. Many Asian restaurants downtown also serve bubble tea- and they're just as good as the tea shops, in my opinion.

I think bubble tea places are good alternatives to coffee shops like Second Cup or Starbucks. The drinks are exotic, but not to the point that they're disgusting. They are also more exciting than your regular coffee shop- they usually have decks of cards for you to play with, magazine racks filled with Chinese magazines (the few English magazines on the racks are usually about cars). Some bubble tea shops even double as internet cafes. You might get a culture shock when you step into a bubble tea shop for the first time, but the atmosphere is very easy to get used to. Maybe we could hold a future forum meet at a bubble tea shop?

Finally, what flavour of bubble tea do you like? I always stick to sesame or peanut milk tea, because I hate all fruity flavours. The bad thing about sesame milk tea, however, is that it's very powdery and sticks to your throat.

 

[wonderboy905]

I went through highschool with an asian girlfriend, I guess I was fortunate to be in and out of zillions of bbtea places long before it became some sort of fad appearing in places like square one and the eaton centre, who woulda thought?

Either way, commerce gate has some great bbtea. My last gf (not the one from hs) worked at a bubble tease, I loved it when I had it in Pacific Mall but now that it's popping up all over the place I don't like Bubble Tease bbtea anymore and don't know why. 168 is the best I'll say...

For all of you who are still new to it, try it with jelly and not tapioca! You won't beleive how much better it tastes

 

[EnviroTO]

I haven't picked a favourite but I can tell you that it is very wise to stay away from Mandarin's bubble tea. The apple is like apple juice with tapioca and the chocolate is like chocolate powder in water. The ones in the mall are ok.

 

[ganjavih]

Nothing beats strawberry milk bubble tea on a hot summer day (which I wish we had right about now). There a place on Dundas W close to Spadina - north side of the street - can't remember what it's called... it's my favourite. It starts with a "A". You can't go wrong with Tea Shop 168 either.

 

[cdl42]

Okay, for those of us who have lived a deprived life...

What exactly is bubble tea?

 

[wyliepoon]

Ok, this is weird, everybody I have talked to up till now said they hated 168. At least there's some people here on the forum who think the same way as I do.

I know the "A" place you're talking about. It's some weird name that has to do with the Indian god of tea, I think. It's owned by Ten Ren's, which is the biggest tea shop around here. I don't really like their tea... when I last tried it it wasn't even sweet. Perhaps it was because they messed up that time.

 

[miesvanderjoe]

There's a bubble tea shop at the northeast corner of St. Joseph and Bay, whose bubble tea I like. But it's the only stuff I've ever had. I like taro flavour.

 

[CliffColeclough]

I don't like bubble tea - but the one time I went - the other people I went with liked it. It was in Yorkville on Cumberland and you had to go up three flights of stairs to get to it and got to sit in these funky chairs. It was really dark in there. Weird.

 

[GeekyBoyTO]

cdl:

Bubble Tea - an Asian (Taiwanese) beverage - started off as tapioca beads (firm, jelly like, tasteless spheres) in a strong version of English Tea - now available in various flavours and throughly mainstreamed.

GB

 

[Canuck 36]

I had a Strawberry with Tapioca from the one at the Eaton Centre a few days ago.

Not bad.

 

[ganjavih]

Strawberry milk bubble tea (minus the bubbles) is actually pretty easy to make at home. Not quite the same as the real stuff though...