Written By: Vivian Xu | Edited By: Patrick Zhang
I’ve tried hundreds of different milk teas across my 6 years of high school and first term of uni! Here is an overview of my favourite bubble tea store: Tea Spot
You can find a Tea Spot at Burwood, Cabramatta and Eastwood. So it’s everywhere!
Anyways, a bit of context to their drinks: they use more modern tea brewing techniques, using the machine in the picture to the left. However, a downside to this is that the drink takes a lot longer to make since they aren’t just mixing powders, unlike many other bubble tea stores!
This is probably my favourite bubble tea store because I’ve tried every tea base they have and I loved all of them. Namely, their Snow Top Jasmine Tea and Osmanthus Oolong Tea are my favourite tea bases.
Snow Top Jasmine Tea: The delicacy of the jasmine flowers fused with green tea offers a perfect balance of floral sweetness and natural undertones of green tea. This tea base is a lot sweeter and doesn’t have the strong bitterness of the oolong tea bases.
Osmanthus Oolong Tea: As mentioned above, the oolong tea bases are generally more bitter than the jasmine tea base but the osmanthus blossoms cover over the bitterness of the oolong tea in this tea base.
How to order:
- Pick a tea base. There are many options but when in doubt, choose one of the two above
- Camellia Oolong: A little bitter, but acceptable and is very refreshing
- Pheonix Oolong: It is a rare Dan Cong oolong from Guangdong’s Phoenix Mountain. Similar to the famous traditional Chinese teas, it is quite bitter and a lot less sweet than the standard bubble teas we buy.
- Osmanthus Oolong
- Rose Oolong: Likewise to the Osmanthus Oolong, the Rose Oolong base is also quite sweet but has an underlying taste from the dried rose petals.
- Orchid Oolong: This tea base is less strong and therefore less bitter, compared to some of the other oolong bases. It is also slightly less floral and may taste watery if you get a lower sugar level.
- Peach Oolong: Most people have probably tried/seen this at other bubble tea places and yes, it does taste quite similar (still tasty though)
- Tie Guan Ying: A popular oolong tea from Fujian, China. Well known for its rich floral aroma and buttery flavour. Definitely more bitter than sweet: very rich tea taste.
- Duck Green Oolong: Also an oolong tea from Fujian, China. It has a stronger floral taste and isn’t as strong as some of the other oolong tea bases.
- Sticky Rice Pu Erh: Like other pu erh tea bases, it is darker in colour and also has a stronger tea flavour. Originates from Yunan, China.
- Bi Luo Chun: One of the most popular green teas from China and unlike other green tea,s it features a more mellow and fruity taste.
- He Yun: An oxidised oolong tea. Does have a little bit of a funny, “leafy” taste to it.
- Long Jing: Primarily produced in the West Lake region of Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China. Has a nutty undertone and a slightly sweet aftertaste.
- Snow Top Jasmine
- Choose whether it’s a fruit tea or a milk tea!
- Fruit Tea
Choose a flavour of the fruit tea:
- Guava
- Red Grape
- Lemon&Lime
- Peach
- Grapefruit
- Milk Tea
Can choose milk or soy milk.
- Pure tea
Don’t add fruit nor milk and enjoy a pure tea base!
- Add toppings
This step is like any other bubble tea store.
Overall, my favourite order would be a snow top jasmine milk tea with pearls and herbal jelly.