For those who were not aware, Thursday was a very important holiday and for those who celebrated happy belated National Bubble Tea Day! In honor of such a venerated occasion, my family and I decided to enjoy a special treat:
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. This is, in fact, a bubble tea ice cream bar. And yes, it is just as good as it sounds. But I want to direct your attention to the specific flavor of this frosty dessert. “Brown Sugar Boba Ice Cream Bar”. To fully explain the nature of this product, we need to go back into time.
Some months ago, I found myself in the island nation of Taiwan. You might recall it from my previous post. While wandering the streets of Taipei, we encountered a line that stretched around the block for some mysterious beverage. Upon further inspection, we learned that the line was for a special type of bubble tea.
The line was for an establishment named ‘Xing Fu Tang’, and they serve a special type of bubble tea known as brown sugar boba. As you can see from their website, what makes this place so unique is that they stir-fry, thus sort of caramelize the boba in brown sugar, which gives it “a wonderful smoky taste and perfectly chewy texture”.
Though this sounds fantastic, the Cohen-Green council deemed that the line was too long for it to be truly worth it. We regretfully moved on and figured we’d never know what we were missing.
A week or so later, we were in an entirely different country exploring the city of Saigon for my first time (but certainly not my last), and to my complete surprise, look at what we stumbled upon:
That’s exactly right. The boba tea place that sported a massive line in Taipei had another location in Saigon, and there was no such line. “What luck!” we exclaimed as we burst through the door to greet some serious bubble tea alchemists.
The answer: Oh, yeah. In the blistering Vietnamese heat, I can’t think of anything more satisfying. The brown sugar gives it a caramel-esque flavor, and they aren’t kidding about that “wonderful smoky taste” or that “perfectly chewy texture”. In hindsight, I understand why the line in Taipei was so long.
So, back to the original photo:
Now you understand the hype surrounding this frozen delight. But is it as good? Of course not, but it is still fantastic, and the texture of the boba in the ice cream bar is new and different, and I personally enjoyed it. They truly encapsulated the richness and creaminess of the original tea in the ice cream. But for the price tag of $12 for 4 bars, it’s up to you to decide if they’re worth it.
Hey, bubble tea places in Portland – it is time to step your, game up!
Eat It 
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