drink Archives - Curiously Carmen

Mink Chocolate Cafe

August 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

I remember seeing Mink Cafe a lot during the hot chocolate festival. I believe they had some kind of special grasshopper drink that people were posting online! How interesting. I tried crickets once and it was interesting… they were dried so they were very crispy. Anyways, I’m going off topic.

While venturing out to South Surrey, Latte looked up a place where we could hang out after having lunch at Pho Sunrise and suggested Mink.

I haven’t been before but heard good things, and their chocolate seemed like great quality so why not give it a try?

This Mink location is located inside Morgan Crossing. It was pretty spacious inside, with half of their tables gone for social distancing. They had hand sanitizer by the door and I felt clean and comfortable in there.

I wish they would have asked for our contact information for tracing though.

Hot chocolate, 70% cacao dairy free: I was happy to see that they had a dairy free version with their dark hot chocolate. I chose oat milk as my dairy substitute.

The hot chocolate was delicious! It was creamy, rich, and decadent. The dark chocolate was very smooth and easy to drink. The sweetness level was perfect, not too sweet but not too bitter either.

They also gave me a free chocolate on the side (weird that Latte didn’t get one with hers though….) I gave it to the fiance when I got home and he enjoyed it.

White chocolate waffle: The waffle was not good. Although they had heated it up, the waffle was still hard and tasteless. I wouldn’t order it again.

All in all, Mink has really high quality chocolate as evident in their drinks. You can also buy a bunch of chocolate as gifts. In addition, they also have fondue which sounded delicious, but I was already feeling full from lunch.

I’m glad we came here and I would go back to Mink for a solid cup of high quality hot chocolate.

Jenjudan – Two Visits

June 16, 2020 Leave a Comment

Jenjudan was recommended to me by Jerky (No, he is not a jerk, I give nicknames based on my friend’s favorite foods and he loves the Korean BBQ jerky from Costco haha). With so many bubble tea places popping up, it is honestly so hard to keep track of!

But I’m glad Jerky introduced Jenjudan and it has quickly rose to one of my new favourites. These are 2 reviews based on delivery.

Lactose intolerant pals, you will be happy to hear that Jenjudan offers soy milk replacement! There are so many places that don’t offer this so I jump at the chance when I see it. This also shows that they care about their customers needs.

Brown sugar pearl milk: This is such a treat for me because so many places don’t offer soy milk replacement. The drink was absolutely delicious. The pearls were caramelized from being cooked in the brown sugar. In addition, they had a soft and chewy texture. I’d definitely order this again!

So many places out there (Blackball, Xing Fu Tang, Ding Tea, to name a few) have such small portions. I was happy that this was not the case here, the size was pretty big.

Lemon chrysanthemum tea: Since the fiance wasn’t feeling like having caffeine or ordering the same drink as me, he settled on this drink. Even though my brown sugar pearl milk was delicious, this was even more delicious!

You could really taste the quality in the tea. There was a fragrant, floral aroma to it as well. The lemon flavour was faint but went really well with the chrysanthemum tea.

One of our favorite bubble tea drinks is Sharetea’s lemon aloe vera, which is hard to beat. But I’d say that this drink was comparable, if not even better than one of our favourites!

We enjoyed our first visit so much that we ordered again a couple of weeks later. I was a bit disappointed to see that they were not clear cups, #foodbloggerproblems! I wanted to show you readers what the drink looked like but we will have to make do with this. I took a picture of the top so at least you can see a bit of the drink.

Thai milk tea: The Thai milk tea was alright, but we had better at Bai Bua. For that reason, the fiance would prefer to stick with the other drinks.

Brown sugar pudding with pearls: I ordered this with soy milk again and it was delicious, although not completely dairy-free because there was pudding inside.

The pudding made the drink even more creamy, while the brown sugar gave it a smooth, rich caramel taste. In addition, the pearls were soft and chewy.

I am more of a pearl lover than pudding lover, so I would probably just order the brown sugar pearl but it was nice to try the pudding!

All in all, I’d highly recommend Jenjudan. The drinks are made with quality, there are soy milk options, and the portions are decent.

A bonus is that they are environmentally friendly with their plant based straws, I’ve never seen that at bubble tea places!

Comebuy Bubble Tea

May 8, 2020 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

I know that you may want to go out and have fun, but it is crucial that we distance ourselves to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve before it gets worse. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus.

After not having bubble tea for two months, we are on a roll with trying other bubble tea places lately! You can read my reviews on Dive In Dessert Bar and Good Day Good Time. Comebuy was the latest addition to our bubble tea adventures, but we found it to be meh.

There are two Comebuy locations currently. We ordered delivery from the Burnaby location inside Crystal Mall, there is also a location in downtown!

One minor complaint I have is that their drink stickers were not labelled in Chinese, and not English. Especially if you have a large group order with many drinks or ordering delivery, not being able to read the label is confusing. I understand that their staff can read Chinese so it’s easier for them, but it would be better to have both languages on customer-facing products so they can tell which drink is which.

We ordered four drinks to reach the free delivery minimum, and saved two for the next day!

Sweet rose drink with basil seeds: I was happy to see that there were more than 2 drink options that didn’t have caffeine or dairy! This drink sounded delicious, so I gave it a try. I also added pearls to it.

The drink was alright. Nothing special or extraordinary. The pearls were cooked well and chewy and I liked that there was a decent amount of basil seeds.

Lychee delight: The fiance loves his lychee, so he had to get this when he saw it on the menu. His drink was also alright, nothing special about it.

The lychee jelly that they used here was a bit different than most as you can tell from the photo but he didn’t mind.

Neptune milk tea: The milk tea was pretty disappointing. I could already tell looking at the colour that it probably wasn’t going to be that good.

The tea flavour was very light. In addition, the drink also wasn’t milky enough. It wasn’t as disappointing as Good Day Good Time‘s milk tea, but we still weren’t impressed with this drink.

Grapefruit lemonade: The last drink we tried was the grapefruit lemonade. Again, it was alright. Nothing particularly good or bad about it.

All in all, the drinks that we ordered were alright (except for the milk tea). It was a forgettable experience and not a place where I would be craving their drinks anytime soon.

With so many bubble tea options in the Lower Mainland these days, Comebuy does not sit high on my list but I wouldn’t mind getting it again if someone wanted to go!

Good Day Good Time Tea

April 28, 2020 Leave a Comment

Good Day Good Time Tea is yet another addition to Vancouver’s rapidly growing bubble tea shops. I can barely keep up with the new shops that are opening! I found out about Good Day Good Time Tea via Maki and Nigiri, who know all the delicious bubble tea places.

This post is the combination of two delivery orders! For the first order, I decided to have a mini photoshoot for these drinks =P. I was bored and in need of some fresh air after not leaving the house for a week.

Mango pomelo sago: The mango pomelo sago is one of their new releases. This was the drink that sold me with this place, despite their mix-ups on our other drinks as you’ll read about soon.

The mango pomelo sago drink is made with coconut milk. Does it taste as good as it looks? Yes, it does! Fresh mango is used, in addition to fresh pomelo pieces.

The drink is made in layers, with the bottom layer being chopped mango, sago, then fresh mango slush with mango pulp, pomelo pieces, and topped with rich coconut milk. I am not sure how the coconut milk manages to stay on top without mixing into the drink, but it sure makes for a beautiful Instagram shot. Just make sure to mix the drink fully before you drink.

This drink was actually the reason we placed a second order the following week. I found that the drink was a bit better the first time. The pomelo pieces were not ripe enough and too sour on the second visit.

Oolong milk tea: The fiance ordered the oolong milk tea, but unfortunately they messed it up. At least, we are pretty sure they did because if this was their normal flavour, it would be awful!

The oolong milk tea was very watery and unsweetened. In addition, it was not milky at all. We ended up getting a refund for this drink from Uber because it was not drinkable.

Guava lemonade: To qualify for free delivery, we ordered another drink for later. Well, since the oolong tea was not good, the fiance ended up drinking this instead. The guava lemonade was light, simple and refreshing. Not bad and would order again!

Grapefruit yakult: Another mess up from Good Day Good Time on our second order. We had ordered a strawberry kiwi smoothie, but this was delivered to us instead.

In the end, we didn’t really mind because the grapefruit yakult ended up being very tasty. There was a delicious balance of grapefruit and yakult. It was a refreshing drink and took me back to childhood because I used to drink a lot of yakult!

Dragonfruit yakult: The fiance ordered a dragonfruit yakult this time, and they did not screw up his drink again so yay! I haven’t seen this on a menu before so I found it unique.

The drink came with dragonfruit pulp and seeds, and you could also taste the yakult. He really enjoyed this drink and it redeemed the messup of the oolong milk tea in the first order.

Good Day Good Time could improve on their consistency and organization, but I understand they have only been open for two months, and trying to operate a new shop with COVID-19 must be tough.

Both of our orders had errors, whether they messed up a drink or gave us the wrong drink. However, I am willing to overlook these issues as growing pains, because the mango pomelo sago and yakult drinks were delicious and great quality! We will still be ordering from them and I have trust they will improve.

Dive In Dessert Bar

April 22, 2020 Leave a Comment

Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

A long time has passed since I have had bubble tea! I would like to say at least two months. We have been trying to save money and spend less on eating/drinking out. Since I’m always blogging about food, it probably doesn’t seem like we have cut down but I must say, it has been very successful as proven by our dramatically lower credit card bills!

But the bubble tea craving hit over the weekend, and we decided to try Dive In Dessert Bar since they were offering free delivery on Uber! Dive In Dessert Bar is located on Commercial Drive and opened a year ago. I believe they are Korean-run as a lot of their menu focused on bingsu aka shaved ice.

After doing a quick Google search, older menu photos didn’t feature bubble tea options so it seems like this is a newer addition!

Our order arrived in a timely manner and was packaged with care. Our drinks had cling wrap in addition to a lid, so that there was less risk of spillage.

In addition, they left a sweet note on our cup holder!

Brown sugar bubble tea with soy milk: Not many bubble tea places have non-dairy replacements for brown sugar drinks! I was quite happy to see that they offered soy and almond milk options (for an additional 0.50 cents).

My drink was delicious! There was a sweet caramel taste due to the brown sugar. The pearls were chewy and tender, due to being gently cooked again in the brown sugar. I really enjoyed this drink and would order it again, without a doubt!

Classic milk tea: The fiance went with a classic milk tea! There was a strong milk tea flavour and was the perfect amount of richness and sweetness. He would also get this again.

The size was also bigger than most places, as you can tell with my hand for scale.

Basque burnt cheesecake: To qualify for free delivery, we also added a cheesecake! I don’t have much of a sweet tooth and prefer savoury food items, but this was one of the few times that I was craving something sweet.

The cheesecake was absolutely heavenly. It was light yet creamy, and was not dense. The burnt top added an extra element of flavour to it.

Dive In Dessert Cafe was delicious, and I would definitely “dive in” again! I’m already looking forward to the next order we place. Another great find during social distancing!

Also, if you know of any other places other than Chunyang, Ding Tea, ZenQ, and The Alley that have brown sugar drinks with non-dairy options, please let me know!