TKettle

East Village
26 St Marks Place
New York, NY 10003
(212) 982-9782


Tkettle is right by Astor Place and on the street where you can get a tattoo or buy fetish wear (every city has one of these). The place is clean, fairly new and had a whole orange and white logo thing going on. Like Shabu Shabu, they have another counter where you can purchase food.

The service was very prompt, but I was disappointed that it was served with a starbucks-frappucino-style dome lid. This definitely makes it less exciting as you don't get to punch the straw in! The drink itself was delicious; tea was perfect with right amount of sugar and milk. The tapioca balls were different colors: yellow, orange and the classic black and tasted like apricot and blackberries!

I do have two complaints: their tapioca balls seemed smaller than usual, so the ratio ball to straw was a bit askew. This resulted in having to put extra sucking pressure on the straw and then having them shoot down my throat! I ended up swallowing several all at once and it felt like my throat was the shaft of a bb gun. Not very pleasant. They also stuffed the drink with ice (another starbucksy type ploy) so you slurp up the tea a little too soon.

As for the neighbourhood, I would suggest strolling down Bowery with your drink in hand. You definitely won't be out of place with your tea here.

Oolong Milk Tea:

Tapioca Pearls: 9/10
Tea: 8/10
Presentation: 4/10
Ambiance/Store: 6/10

TOTAL

6.75 / 10

Shabu Shabu

Chinatown
237B Grand St
New York, NY 10002
(347) 497-6235


It was a particulary hot day when we stumbled into Shabu Shabu. Desperate for a cold bubble tea, I was ready to stop anywhere offering up this great drink.

Shabu Shabu is a bit shabby shabby, but it's clean and seemed to be popular as the restaurant section was filled. I'll have to try that later...
Anyway, they have a special counter that serves up exclusively bubble teas and they had a fairly run of the mill selection. They also sell little cakes shaped like ears of corn (you can get 10 for $2): they were warm and quite delicious. I chose their classic black milk tea and my husband chose a lychee kumquat.
The presentation was good: it came in the classic plastic cup with ridges and the vacuumed-on plastic. The bubbles were a little too chewy and didn't have much flavor. They were all black and almost seemed a bit hard in the center. The tea itself was fairly good, a slightly bit too sweet though. It was a bit much to digest especially for my husband as he had already swallowed 8 out of the ten mini corn cakes!

Shabu Shabu is only a couple of blocks away from a park where people from the neighbourhood play handball and basketball so it is a nice place to sit and enjoy your drink.

Black Milk Tea:

Tapioca Pearls: 3/10
Tea: 7/10
Presentation: 8/10
Ambiance/Store: 6/10

TOTAL

6 / 10