We don’t often drink bubble tea, but thought to treat ourselves this long weekend. A dessert and something nice to sip on as we played games, with the caffeine and sugar to help us stay up later to do so.
Lattea is the newest bubble tea shop that has taken over the space, iconic for its blue and white tile floor. The shop is easy to spot with the brand’s giant walking bubble tea mascot depicted with his hands in his “pockets”, all nonchalantly.
You order at the counter and take your drinks to go. There isn’t really seating to linger, only a couple of benches to sit on as you wait.
The menu is splashed above the counter with handheld laminated ones to reference easier as well.
During our visit there were running a promotion for buy one get one 50% off featuring their three new drinks. If you purchase either their Toffee Cream Black Tea Latte, Toffee Black Milk Tea, or the Hojicha Pearls Roasted Oolong Milk Tea you can choose any drink from their regular menu at half off.
We went with the latter as we came in later, and didn’t want the strength and level of caffeine from a coffee. Although in hindsight did feel like we got it from the tea infused pearls and the tea based drink with regular level of sugar anyways. This was more tea than dessert drink. The bitterness of the whole leaves comes through and made my mouth pucker. As mentioned, we got it with regular sugar, but wished we added 150% more instead. We did have to wait 10 minutes for the pearls, but it was worth it given how perfectly soft they came out.
For our half off drink we went for the Guava Plum Qing Tea. We curious over how that fruit combination would fare. We added on the jasmine tea jelly, which offered a touch of floral to the already light beverage. This was equal parts sweet tropical melon and salted plum, with the undertone of bitter tea. It was refreshing, but had a sandy and gritty texture thanks to the soaked persevere plum flesh that I was not a fan of.
We also grabbed a couple more drinks to take home and enjoy tomorrow from out of the fridge. For our drinks to go we grabbed our favourite mango options. The Mango Pomelo Slush was like a dessert soup you sucked. There was a lot to sort through with chewy sago and bits of fruit that popped. This too could have used more sugar for my tastes. The mango flavour was also not as pronounced as I would have liked.
However, I really enjoyed the added layer of saltiness the cream foam gave to a regular mango slush. To this we added coconut jelly for its extra sweetness. This was my favourite of the four drinks. There were bits of mango fruit to chew through, where the foam added a creaminess making the drink milkier. Blended together it had a great icy and foamy texture with medium sized cubes of the jelly that was easy to slurp through the straw.
In short Lattea makes a solid spot of bubble tea and tea based drinks in both hot and cold.
Lattea 樂飲
1175 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6E 1B5
(604) 558-4337
