Curiously Carmen

Gong Cha – Renfrew

Last year, I remember complaining to the fiance that there weren’t many bubble tea places in this area. Then, they opened Ding Tea earlier this year… and now, they also have a Gong Cha in this area that opened a few weeks ago which I will be writing about today!

Last week, I also saw a ShareTea sign opening up soon just a block from Ding Tea as well! My bubble tea prayers have been answered and I will have three options to choose from in this area!

Gong Cha has been on the back burner for me in terms of bubble tea. I’ve been a couple times to the Robson Street and Kingsway Street locations. The drinks were decent, but I don’t live close to either location nor do they offer delivery so I don’t have Gong Cha as often as ShareTea or YiFang.

However, I found that this new Gong Cha has been the best Gong Cha to date. Also, since this location is a lot more convenient for me (not the reason why I found it to be the best Gong Cha to date btw), I’m sure that we will be back again.

This location is directly across from Renfrew Skytrain beside Tim Hortons. It is spacious, and suitable for studying or catching up.

Wintermelon juice: I went with my usual wintermelon juice. I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t adjust the sweetness level because that meant it wasn’t made to order like other drinks. So far, the only place where I can adjust wintermelon juice is ShareTea.

With that said, I still enjoyed my wintermelon juice. It was light and refreshing, with a good amount of sweetness.

My favourite part however, were the pearls. These were some of the best pearls I’ve had! They were so fresh and chewy. I’d come back just for the pearls. The fiance also noted that the pearls were really good quality here.

Milk tea: The fiance ordered a milk tea with grass jelly. The milk tea was fragrant and strong. He also really enjoyed the grass jelly, which had a strong herbal taste to it so you know that it’s quite pure and not made with a lot of sweetener.

Overall, we enjoyed our drinks at Gong Cha and will definitely be back.

Gong Cha Renfrew Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Mr. Mustache Tea and Dessert

Mr. Mustache is a cafe across from Metrotown. The cafe used to be Cafe Joie, which I wrote a review on three years ago. I didn’t realize that they closed down and got replaced with Mr. Mustache! After a quick Google search, it looks like they opened in early 2018.

There is also a Mr. Mustache location in the Marpole/South Granville area.

I didn’t actually visit the cafe, as these pastries were brought as leftovers from a work event. They seem to be continuing the trend of cute, Instagram worthy food and drinks though!

I sampled three of their pastries. The pickiness in me is wishing that I rotated the pink cake so that the Mr. Mustache card is showing!

Matcha cake: Starting with the matcha cake, I found this to be delicious. The matcha was earthy but not overpoweringly strong. I would describe this cake to have a light, airy, mousse texture. If you’re a matcha fan, I would definitely recommend this delightful slice of cake.

I quite enjoyed this and wish I could have had more than a few bites! But I am very sensitive to caffeine and did not want to risk not being able to sleep, especially since the next slice of cake also contained tea.

Peach oolong tea cake: I assumed that this would be a strawberry cake. To my surprise after looking up the menu online, it was actually a peach oolong tea cake ! Not many of these out there, so I was quite curious as to how it tasted.

The peach oolong tea cake was delightful and delicious as well! The peach flavour gave it some sweetness and went really well with the oolong tea. It was a very fragrant cake.

It tasted exactly like a peach tea, which was interesting to me! I really like Teavana’s peach tranquility tea so this slice reminded me of that. There was also some hidden real peach slides inside the cake.

Cheesecake: Last but not least, the bumblebee cheesecake! The cheesecake was made Asian style, meaning that it was also light and airy… but not as light as Uncle Tetsu’s. This was very enjoyable to eat as well!

A thin layer of jelly glaze on top allowed for the cute bumblebee design! I thought it would be mango or passionfruit, but it was just a plain, sweet glaze.

I’m not sure if this is because I had the cake a day after, but the glaze did not stay on the cheesecake. The whole layer of jelly glaze peeled off when I tried to get a bite the cake. It wasn’t a big deal because it was still delicious, but it made it a tad bit messier to consume.

All in all, trying these three pastries made me want to visit the actual store. You could taste the quality in the cakes and they have a cute factor as well!

An interesting thing to note about Mr. Mustache is that they are open until 12am. They probably get a lot of students cramming for exams here. Well, if you’re craving desserts at 11pm, you know where to go!

Mr. Mustache Tea & Dessert Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Whitby’s Coffee House

Whitby’s Coffee House is one of the many cafes along the main street by White Rock pier. After having lunch at The Boathouse a couple of blocks away, I was feeling like some dessert.

My parents and the fiance wanted dessert initially too, until they finished their lunches at The Boathouse and decided they were all too full.

I didn’t really have a preference to which cafe/gelato place, so we randomly walked into this one on the way back to the car. There are seriously so many places to pick from within the few blocks!

Passion fruit and mango sorbet: I’m actually not that big of a sorbet fan because it’s not rich or creamy enough for me. But since I can’t have ice cream and most gelato places currently do not offer coconut milk based dessert, I had to settle with sorbet. 

I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious this was for a sorbet. I’m a big fan of anything passion fruit or mango based so this was right up my alley. There was more passion fruit flavour than mango here. 

In the past, I’ve had sorbets which contained ice chunks because they weren’t blended properly. This was not the case at Whitby’s, the sorbet was smooth and blended well. 

There are so many choices for dessert in White Rock that it is a bit overwhelming. I’m glad I stumbled into Whitby’s though, and would love to get the sorbet again if I ever came back to White Rock!

Whitby's Coffee House Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Chunyang Tea

Chunyang Tea has been on my list to try ever since I saw it on social media in April. It caught my eye because it is one of the few bubble tea places that offered soy milk!

Ever since the brown sugar/dirty milk latte trend started, I haven’t been able to have this drink because it’s typically made with milk! But now I have this place and Ding Tea, which offers almond milk at an extra cost.

Chunyang Tea is quite small and cramped. I’m not even sure if there’s a customer washroom in there. They have a some seats but I would recommend getting your drink to go. 

Brown sugar pearl with soy milk: I was very impressed with my drink. You could definitely taste the quality in it. The soy milk was velvety smooth, and went very well with the brown sugar pearls. 

Be sure to stir the drink so that the sweetness balances out, as the soy milk didn’t taste sweetened. 

Chunyang fresh black milk tea: The boyfriend went with their black milk tea. The black tea was fragrant and very strong. I already had a feeling it would be very fragrant because the first thing I smelled walking in here was tea. 

I’m very glad that we came to Chunyang. This visit definitely won’t be our last! The prices are a bit more expensive, but you can really taste the quality in their drinks!

Chun Yang Tea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Gong Cha – Robson Street (Multiple visits)

I first tried Gong Cha by Happy Tree House BBQ on Kingsway Street a year ago, but forgot to take pictures for a review, boo! 

Before our first Japanese lesson, I noticed that there was a Gong Cha nearby! Since then, we have been getting a drink for our lessons so this post contains a couple visits. 

This Gong Cha is usually quite busy, which is not surprising considering the location. Unfortunately, it is also quite hot and stuffy in here. They would benefit from some A/C, especially now that summer is here! 

Wintermelon juice: I was disappointed to hear that the sweetness level is not adjustable here as well. Nonetheless, I did not find it super sweet. Even with the addition of pearls, the sweetness was at a good level for me. 

The wintermelon juice was refreshing, light, and helped quench my thirst.

Milk tea with pearls: On our second week of lessons, the boyfriend went with the regular milk tea. He found it overwhelmingly sweet, to the point where it tasted just like syrup. 

The tea was fragrant, but he would definitely get this half sweet next time! 

Wintermelon with pearls and grass jelly: I never order a combination of pearls and grass jelly, but I was feeling a bit hungry before our lesson so I added the grass jelly to curb my hunger LOL!

I was quite shocked at how generous they were with the grass jelly! My drink almost looks black with how much grass jelly there was! The grass jelly was sweet and enjoyable. 

Coupled with the pearls, it was a nice textural mix. I would get this combination again if I was feeling hungry! It’s a tiny snack and drink in one, muahaha.

This location is convenient for us to grab a drink before Japanese lessons, so we will probably be back! 

Gong Cha Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato