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Tea for Tuesday: souvenir edition. 26 May 2009 7:50 am

Posted by Tracy in : consumerism,friends,geekery,school,taste test,tea , trackback

So right after my finals week tea-fueled all-nighter of Wednesday wackiness, I celebrated the end of the term by handing in my vitamin C paper (about which I would later have an anxiety dream, but that’s neither here nor there except yesterday Ansley posted a comment wondering about our grades) and going on a food tour of Flushing, Queens. The expedition was organized some of my fellow graduate students, and atttended by many more. It deserves a full writeup which I’ll get to one of these days (a recurring TracyFood theme, I know) but today’s post is about a little souvenir I brought home from an as-yet-unidentified Chinese grocery store on Main Street in Flushing’s Chinatown:

A more readable shot of the label.

Yep, that’s right, a can of tea. What sold me on it was the Dutch on the label: “THEE VAN DE MELK VAN DE PAREL,” it says, which literally translates to “tea of the milk of the pearl.” Pearl milk tea? I have no idea what that means, but I’m so in!

But Tracy, you ask, how did it taste? Answer: sweet. Not completely disgustingly sweet, which is what I was afraid of, but mostly like sweetness, and unless I’m mistaken, a mix of black and green teas. With milk, lots of sugar, and tapioca “pearls” (or should I say bubbles?) that stuck like mad to the glass in which I served myself the tea (I wanted to see if it looked anything like the “serving suggestion” on the can). I tried to drink all the tapioca, I really did, but they were little translucent thingies and I missed a few and had to soak the glass for hours to get them loose enough to wash off. True.

Bubble tea, dudes. It is not my favorite. Especially hot, but it’s still weird cold. However, at 79 cents a can, it was a much cheaper food adventure than Christy’s recent foray into the realm of functional drinks — which you really should check out. Good reads!

  • http://rowr.livejournal.com Jeanie

    wow that’s so bizzare.. not boba (that’s the bubble tea), which is super common here and sold in a billion boba shops like the chain Lollicup – but just that it came in a can!! I was under the impression that was something you had to get fresh… I <3 boba, it’s so good.. :D it comes in a bajillion flavors, my favorite is almond milk tea with boba. mmm yeah it is super sweet, too.

  • Betty

    Wow!