An update on my book – A Cup of Happiness!

Hello! I am very close to printing off a book I have been working hard on. It is titled 'A Cup of Happiness' and it will be an 42-page A5 zine. Over more than 5 years, I have documented more than 180 drinks from more than 120 different stores. My book is a collection of...

Gacha Cafe

Impressively, this store does bubble tea for $3. This seems to be Melbourne's cheapest bubble tea. They have cute gacha machines you can use too, which I guess helps to make up some of their profit margin. I figure the bubble tea is the low profit margin leader, to draw customers to the gachas. It's...

HEYTEA

A very popular chain from China, known for their fruit teas and cheese foams, neither of which I usually order. When they first opened, the lines were over a hour long. Surely it couldn't be that good? I waited till the hype died down a bit before trying. Store: HEYTEALocation: CBD, MelbourneDrink: Bobo Milk Tea...

Milk Flower

I have reviewed a 'Milk Flower' before but it had different branding - perhaps the brand split. This version seems to specialise in mango drinks. Store: Milk FlowerLocation: CBD, MelbourneDrink: Mango Peach Oolong Tea Placing: B. The tea had a pleasant floral taste which matched and was balanced well with the mango and peach flavours....

Mixue Bingcheng – 蜜雪冰城

From what I gather, it is probably the biggest dessert chain in China and I finally have the chance to try it in Melbourne. The line was very long at opening so I thought I'd wait for the hype to die down. However a few weeks later, there was still a substantial line. One of...

Three Squared

This drink was unintended, it happened to be next door to the store I was planning to try originally (which I did afterwards). Given there was a line, I decided to make good use of the waiting time and try this store too. I picked a unique-sounding tea, with coconut milk being a rare find....

T-Theory

This store is quite far away from the busy traffic areas, if I didn't drive by it while looking for free parking I wouldn't have known about it. Good thing my friend was willing to walk a bit to try it with me. Because of the low traffic, I set my expectations low but was...

Toppings n Tea

This store is unique for a few reasons: 1. You can taste their full tea range before committing. 2. You can add as many toppings as you want, as well filling the cup with as much ice and tea as you want. Honestly, I went into this with low expectations as it is unclear how...

YiFang

This is a departure from my normal selections, primarily since there wasn't a milk tea option for this tea variety. The last time I tried YiFang, I rated them a C+ so I wasn't expecting too much. However, there was a buy $10 get $10 free deal which was to resist, a convenient opportunity for...

ComeBuyTea

This store can have really long lines judging from the past few times I've walked by. Luckily on this occasion, the line was quite short and I waited less than 10 minutes. Their call to fame is that each cup is freshly brewed using some unique-looking equipment that looks more like a coffee maker. I...