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Curiously Carmen

YiFang Taiwan Fruit Tea – Cambie Street Location

May 30, 2019

Another Taiwanese bubble tea place checked off my list! YiFang is one of the many bubble tea companies from Taiwan to show up in Vancouver in the past year. I remember when they opened their first shop in downtown 1 year ago? Now, they have 5 locations in Metro Vancouver – with more to come probably!

Cola and I went to the location on Cambie Street after having lunch at TonTon Sushi next door, just across from King Ed Station.

One thing I really appreciated about YiFang was their descriptive menu. Under each drink, there was a full description of what was inside.

For someone who has dietary restrictions and digestive issues, it’s really important that I know what exactly is in the food or drink before having it. So, I really appreciated this detail!

Black tea latte: Cola has had this before, and found it to be alright. Nothing too special, nothing bad about it either.

Wintermelon juice: Unlike Sharetea, I wasn’t able to customize the sweetness level because it comes as a pre-made juice here. That was a bit disappointing, but luckily I didn’t find it overly sweet.

Even with the pearls added, the sweetness level was still tolerable although I would have liked it a bit less sweet for the wintermelon flavour to shine.

Brown sugar soft pearl latte: After hanging out with Cola, I came back a few hours later to get the boyfriend a drink to-go before heading home. We usually try new bubble tea places together and I didn’t want him to miss out!

Unfortunately, he didn’t find the black tea to be fragrant or strong enough. The black tea was quite faint.

Jinfeng roselle lemon slice juice: I also ordered this to have at night. Sadly, I forgot to order pearls! But after drinking it, I’m glad I didn’t because the drink was already very sweet.

I would describe this as a blackcurrant juice, just like Ribena, with a hint of lemon. You also aren’t able to customize the sweetness for this either. I ordered this with 30% ice, which was not a good idea because the juice was veryyyy concentrated and sweet.

I’d recommend ordering it with full ice level, otherwise it is like drinking syrup!

I’m glad I tried YiFang, but I wish customers were able to customize the sweetness level for their juices. I wouldn’t mind going back to YiFang if I happened to come across one and was wanting bubble tea though.

The drinks that Cola, the boyfriend, and I tried all weren’t the fruit teas which is what they’re known for… so we will definitely have to come back and try those!

YiFang Taiwan Fruit Tea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, food & drink, taiwanese

Sharetea – Kitsilano Location

May 13, 2019

After trying out RedBeef Noodle Kitchen, the boyfriend and I noticed a Sharetea location which was on the same block. We decided to go in and try this location, but sadly, left disappointed with our drinks.

Although, I would be willing to give them another chance in a few months because this location is only a month old.

When we first walked by, their open sign was off (you can see in the pic above) and it looked like no one was inside. However, I really wanted Sharetea so I decided to try opening the door and sure enough, they were open. I guess that was our first warning sign, haha!

There was one other customer waiting for his drink when we came in. The staff member seemed quite stressed when we walked in and asked us to wait a bit, which we didn’t mind since we were satisfied from our lunch.

After about 5 minutes, another staff member came out to took our order. This staff member did not seem as stressed, more confused and probably new as well. He asked about our toppings, sweetness level, and ice level twice.

Our drinks took about 10-15 minutes to make, which was not surprising since they both seemed new. I don’t want to imagine how long the wait would be if there were other customers in there! I’m glad we were the only ones waiting.

Wintermelon lemon tea: I’ve been on a wintermelon craze recently, but decided to try it with lemon this time. For comparison, I usually get the plain wintermelon 1/2 sweet.

I was expecting the lemon to be similar to a sweetened lemon juice? But it was sour and tart, and took away from the wintermelon flavour.

The most disappointing part was that they forgot to sweeten the pearls. While the pearls had a nice, chewy consistency, they lacked any taste/sweetness at all. I usually get the drink 1/2 sweet because the sweetness from the pearls make up for it. Coupled with the sour lemon juice, this just tasted like a plain, unsweetened lemon juice with tasteless pearls.

Don’t get me wrong – I do love my lemon water and drink it everyday, but I was expecting a wintermelon lemon tea that day!

Hokkaido milk tea: The boyfriend stuck with his current favourite, the Hokkaido milk tea. The tea was fragrant and tasted exactly like his usual ones which was a relief.

However, he was also disappointed at how they forgot to sweeten the pearls too.

I’m willing to give this Sharetea location the benefit of the doubt, because they are quite new. Often times, I don’t like trying restaurants right when they open because they have some kinks to work out… However, we didn’t know that they were newly opened (I looked it up when writing this review).

For now, I’ll stick with the Kingsway location and perhaps come back to this one in a few months if I’m in the area.

Share Tea Kitsilano Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, food & drink, taiwanese

Sharetea – Kingsway Location

May 8, 2019

Bubble tea is taking over, and I’m not mad about it at all! Share Tea is the another place that the boyfriend and I tried with Maki and Nigiri one evening. We ordered delivery, so I can not comment on the restaurant experience!

The location we ordered delivery from was on Kingsway Street in Vancouver. Their store is located across the street from Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea, which is another really popular bubble tea place on my list. How do they compete with each other?! I guess Vancouverites really love their bubble tea.

Oolong milk tea: Maki and Nigiri shared the oolong milk tea. They’ve been to Share Tea a few times, and have enjoyed it. They had no complaints about their drink.

Hokkaido milk tea: The boyfriend has been enjoying his Hokkaido milk teas recently, ever since discovering it at Ding Tea. The Hokkaido milk tea at Share Tea was delicious as well! After reading up on it, the difference between a Hokkaido milk tea and a regular milk tea is that the Hokkaido milk tea uses a richer milk. This results in a richer and creamier flavour.

Wintermelon tea: For myself, I ordered the caffeine free wintermelon tea! I have been curious about wintermelon for a long time, so I finally ordered it.

Wintermelon has a mildly sweet taste, which would mix well with other fruits or tea. I ordered the 100% sweet with pearls, which I found too sweet. I would recommend getting it at 50% sweet, especially if you have toppings already.

On a second delivery order, I tried this half sweet which was a lot better! You can really taste the wintermelon. I’ve also tried the 30% sweet which I like too.

Fresh milk boba: The boyfriend decided to try the fresh milk boba the second time. It was caffeine free, basically composed of milk and pearls. He would order this again if he wanted something caffeine free.

Sharetea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, food & drink, taiwanese

Shiny Tea – International Village Location

May 5, 2019

After spending some time at Aquariums West in Yaletown, I noticed that Shiny Tea in International Village was only a 10 minute walk away! It was the perfect, sunny Spring day for a walk so off we went.

Shiny Tea is another chain that has popped up recently and has great reviews. I honestly don’t know how all these new places compete with each other but I guess everyone just loves their bubble tea.

Shiny Tea is located on the second floor of Intentional Village. This mall is quite dull and quiet with the exception of Yokoyaya123 and the theatre, so Shiny Tea is a nice addition and probably gives the mall some more traffic.

It was completely dead when the boyfriend and I came, and the black pearls were still being cooked. But we didn’t mind getting the clear ones which were ready.

Honey longan red date tea: I had my eyes set on this drink for awhile now because it is caffeine and dairy free! I also really like date tea.

I really enjoyed my drink. It was light, refreshing, and pure. The honey and dates gave it a well rounded sweetness. There were bits of ground up lychee which were delicious and sweet too.

The clear pearls were smaller than the regular pearls. They were alright, nothing that special but a nice addition to the drink.

Brown sugar milk tea: After trying Onezo’s delicious brown sugar milk tea, the boyfriend wanted to compare. He found that Shiny Tea did not have much brown sugar flavour. It tasted like a regular milk tea instead of a brown sugar one.

I would love to come back to Shiny Tea! I appreciate the fact that they have a caffeine free menu section, which is very rare.

Shiny Tea Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, dessert, food & drink, taiwanese

OneZo Tapioca

April 27, 2019

Amongst the surge of new bubble tea places in the past year, OneZo inarguably has been one of the most popular and successful ones so far! I’ve heard good things about it from multiple people but have yet to go because me and caffeine don’t mix well.

For example, many years ago (when my stomach tolerated dairy), I drank a milk tea at 10 am and couldn’t sleep the next morning until 6 am! Another time, I was lying awake in bed at 2 am wondering why I couldn’t sleep…. After thinking of everything I ate/drank that day, realized I had a can of Pepsi during a family gathering. -_-”

I could get the slush but their tea drinks were their most popular so I didn’t feel like it would do justice. However, seeing that it was a 4 day long weekend, I figured I could have caffeine on Friday and have 3 more days to adjust my sleep schedule until going back to work on Tuesday!

After having lunch at Boiling Point, we walked over to OneZo but ended up missing it because it was quite inconspicuous! Once we got in though, it was packed (also because it’s small and narrow).

Passion fruit green tea with OneZo pearls: I wanted to try the fresh fruit tea but it only came in a large size, and I was not ready to commit to that much caffeine. So, the passionfruit was my second choice!

Let’s start with the pearls, which is what they’re famous for … They were sooo good and chewy!!! I got the OneZo pearls which was a daily preselected mix. That day, it was a mix of mango, sweet potato, and crystal. It was my first time trying flavoured pearls and it was delightful! The mango flavour was quite subtle but definitely had a tropical flavour. The sweet potato had a stronger flavour and reminded me of less dense version ZenQ’s sweet potato Q ball. The crystal pearl is your regular pearl but clear.

Moving on to the green tea, I found it really fragrant and strong! Since it’s been awhile for me and green tea, I asked the boyfriend to try and see what he thought because he drinks tea every week. He agreed that it was a stronger green tea and very fragrant.

My only complaint was the passionfruit seeds! I appreciated the quality and use of fresh passionfruit seeds, but the crunchy texture distracted the beautiful chewiness of the pearls. It reminded me of crunchy sunflower seed shells which is not what I’m wanting in bubble tea.

Although I enjoyed the taste of the passionfruit, I wouldn’t want the seeds in there again.

Brown sugar dirty milk: We are huge fans of LINE Friends, hence the Brown Bites series on my blog. We follow an IG page of Brown comics, and the night before, they posted a drawing of Brown drinking too much brown sugar dirty milk. So this was one of the influencing factors of the boyfriend getting the brown sugar dirty milk… Yes we are a bit (maybe very) crazy with LINE friends!

Anyways, he didn’t realize that this didn’t come with any tea. No complaints though because he really enjoyed the drink. It was sweet and had a nice caramelized flavour.

We thought there weren’t going to be any pearls but it ended up coming with your standard black pearls, which were tasty as well.

Overall, we both were very satisfied with OneZo and can see why it’s so popular! You can really taste the quality in their drinks and customized pearls. If you’re a pearl lover, I would definitely recommend coming here.

OneZo Tapioca Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato


Filed Under: coffee and tea, dessert, food & drink, taiwanese

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Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

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