Welcome to the sixth installment of the ultimate Pearl Milk Tea challenge. You can find previous PMT reviews here.
This week, I visited the store that some of my readers suggested: Teaspoon.
Teaspoon
4546 El Camino Real, Los Altos 94022
Overall rating: 6.5
Student Opinion: “It’s awesome,” senior Alex Lu said. “It’s pretty fast, and the amount of customization is really nice if you want to try new things.”
What I ordered: Jasmine Green Milk Tea with Honey Boba at 75% sweetness ($4 per drink, $0.50 per topping)
Features: Teaspoon is located in a small shopping mall near the larger San Antonio Shopping Center. When you first arrive at the store, there is a nice venue for outdoor seating, with silver patio chairs to relax in with all your friends after school.
The store is clean with a lot of natural light. Although there is some comfortable indoor seating, it’s in the corners of the store, so outdoor seating seems to be a better option. There are still fun decorations up from the grand opening two months ago.
Teaspoon has a large variety of fresh teas. There is also a menu for shaved ice, but it was too cold at the time of my visit to try it.
On to the pearl milk tea: the tea itself had a very strong flavor, almost to a point of bitterness. I would recommend getting a fruity-flavored drink for the extra boost of sweetness, or maybe even going up to the full 100% sweetness option. The tea’s consistency was watery, thin and not creamy. My drink was still quite warm because the ice hadn’t cooled the drink enough, which is one of my biggest pet peeves.
The pearls, medium-sized and chewy, were a wonderful, sweet flavor that balanced out the strength of the tea. The consistency was gummy, and tended to stick to the roof of my mouth when I chewed on them.
The most popular teas at Teaspoon are the cremas, rose and roasted tea, according to the store manager, Amy. There are many flavors that can be difficult to find at other places like white grape oolong, hojicha and roobios. The cremas are a tea base with an organic cream whipped topping. The most popular lactose-free tea option is the Grasshopper, a lychee green tea base mixed with fresh cucumber juice, according to their website.
“They actually have a good variety of tea flavors and many that I’ve never heard of. I think the tea flavor in their drinks is richer, and they are always really consistent. Overall I prefer it to all the other PMT places around here even though it’s a bit more expensive,” senior Ken Chen said.