taiwanese Archives - Page 3 of 11

Chun Fun How – Two Visits

September 14, 2020

Chun Fun How is yet another Taiwanese bubble tea chain that has reached Vancouver. I am seriously losing track of all the new bubble tea places opening up! This place caught my eye though because of their beautiful, floral cup designs. This post is a combination of 2 visits.

I finally got the chance to try this place when we stopped by Bin 4 Burger Lounge to pickup takeout for a date night picnic. I suggested that we stop by here since it was only a 5 minute drive from Bin 4.

Walking in, I saw the pretty Instagram corner with a beautiful, floral backdrop and a lush chair. They also had a row of tables but those were closed off due to the pandemic.

I was happy to see that they had many options on their menu.

I couldn’t resist taking a picture of their pretty cups. Seriously, major kudos to whoever designed these! They even have a special Vancouver edition cup as you will see with my order.

Sugarcane jade tea: This was not something that the fiance typically orders, but it ended up being a very great choice because it was absolutely delicious. This drink was also on their top 5 menu. Reviews online warned that their drinks came very sweet, so he ordered this half sweet and it was perfect. I would also agree with reviewers that their half sweet is like regular sweetness.

The jade tea flavour was strong and fragrant. The sugarcane gave it a smooth, well rounded sweetness. There was a lot of depth in the drink, from the jade tea to sugarcane.

I normally stay away from caffeine because my body is very sensitive to it, but I couldn’t stay away this time and had more than a few sips.

Wintermelon tea with pearls: I went with my usual, wintermelon tea. The wintermelon tea was great too, no complaints about it. Unfortunately like most places, they don’t allow you to adjust the sweetness here but I enjoyed it anyways.

The pearls tasted fresh and were delightfully chewy and sweet.

Wintermelon lemonade: I came back a second time with Maki, because she wanted to try this place as well! Since I ordered a wintermelon tea last visit, I thought I’d try the wintermelon lemonade.

Wintermelon tea has a light flavour and is easy to be overpowered if mixed with other teas or juices. Such was the case, this mostly tasted like lemonade so I wouldn’t get it again.

Herbal grass tea: Maki ordered this at 80% sweet. Although it is a herbal tea, there is still caffeine in it. She noted that the drink was extremely herbal with a slight bitterness to it. It would be a good drink to have if you are feeling “yeet hay” aka inflamed. She thought that most people would enjoy the drink at 100% sweet instead.

The drink also came with herbal jelly, which was not mentioned in the menu but a nice surprise! The herbal jelly was also very herbal tasting and you could taste the quality in it. Health in a cup.

Wintermelon oolong tea: Can we take a moment to appreciate this dinosaur cup? It’s so awesome. Anyways, Nigiri ordered a wintermelon oolong tea, which sounded good. However, he found it to be just alright.

Overall, we were impressed with Chun Fun How and would definitely come back. Their beautifully designed floral cups are not just a gimmick, their drinks were actually good quality and we would come back regardless if they had floral cups or not.

Jenjudan – Two Visits

June 16, 2020

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!

Blackball Dessert – Kingsway Location

June 4, 2020

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

We are now in phase 2 which means restrictions are slowly lifting. It is crucial that we still limit our social circle, and wear masks when out. 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. I know it’s summer and we want to go out and enjoy the sun, but let’s all remember to be safe and protect those most vulnerable.

Blackball Dessert is a Taiwanese dessert chain that made its way to BC last August, in Richmond. I wrote a review on their Richmond location and have been there multiple times since writing about it!

I noticed that another Blackball had opened up closer to us in Vancouver, so we placed a delivery order. I’m not sure if it was because we ordered delivery or not, but it was disappointing and not the same as our previous visits to the Richmond location.

One thing I really liked about Blackball was that you could customize their dessert bowls. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that on Doordash. The price was also steeper than I remembered, at almost $9 for a small dessert bowl.

Taro balls grass jelly: Since I wasn’t able to customize, I picked an item that seemed closest to what I’d normally order in person at their Richmond location.

When the dessert bowl arrived, I was surprised at how small it was for the price! I found it disappointing and not worth the price. As mentioned above, I don’t remember how much I paid before, but I don’t recall it being almost $9. I definitely wouldn’t have gone to the Richmond location multiple times for that price point and small size, so I think they’ve increased the price since. I was curious to see the price in Richmond, but unfortunately I couldn’t find a recent menu pic with prices online.

Anyways, the dessert itself was not bad, just small portion for the price. The pearls were chewy with a nice sweetness. The taro and yam balls were tasty as well. Blackball has won awards for their grass jelly in Taiwan, and it was good as well. I’m not a fan of Asian bean desserts (gasp!!!!) so the fiance happily ate that part.

Brown sugar pearl with fresh milk: Again, this drink did not seem to be worth the price. It was quite small as you can see in the photo.

Taste wise, the fiance enjoyed it but thought it was very small for the price. There are so many other places that we could have gone to for bigger size for the same price or even cheaper.

I really did enjoy Blackball’s Richmond location when they first opened last summer so I had high hopes for this location. However, after trying their Kingsway location, it seems like the prices have gone up and do not reflect the value anymore.

By the way, I pride myself on my honest reviews. There are a lot of food influencers out there who only focus on the good… to the point where I have never seen a negative review on a restaurant before and I don’t trust their reviews. So rather than seeing me as picky or complaining, I hope you can see that I’m keepin’ it 100% 😉

Comebuy Bubble Tea

May 8, 2020

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

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.