Out & About #74 | More Tea-Making + Green Grotto

First off, I'd like to announce something important.

For those that have exchanged a non-academic conversation with me lasting longer than five minutes in the past two weeks will know that I am currently eagerly engaged in an Android game called TsumTsum created by LINE.
And for those that have known me for a while may be aware of my love for Sulley and his blue-fur-with-purple-polka-dot-y goodness.
Combine these two points and you'll understand why obtaining the Sulley Tsum was such an amazing moment for me /insert heart emoji here/.

But I suppose we can move onto visuals now.
My latest two tea-based creations include an Iced Coffee Pu'erh Latte (previously mentioned in my last post) and a Green Tea Green Bean Frappuccino with Grass Jelly (say what?! Yes, Green Tea and Green Bean. It may sound odd at first, but it really is quite innovative, even if I do say so myself).

And since I seem to have forgotten a few pics in the last post, I'll just subtly insert them here.

As today is one of the few Fridays that I finishes classes (somewhat) early, I was able to drop by Green Grotto after a quick round of errands at Square One to satisfy my bubble tea cravings.

The last two visits (1, 2) were solely for the purpose of getting takeout drinks, but as having time to spare is a rare occasion, it seemed appropriate to dine in.

Upon walking in, I noticed that it was significantly more packed than it was since the last time I dropped by. Almost the entire left side of the cafe had been occupied by teenagers eagerly chatting away while sipping bubble tea. The waitress initially directed me to a small table in a poorly-lit area right next to three of the loudest groups, but I immediately requested for an alternative and selected a spacious table next to the glass window. While it not provide the amount of light I had hoped for, it was still one of the quietest (read: isolated) and photography-friendly areas available.

Today's waitress, a different girl than the one who took my takeout orders the last two times, approached us shortly after sitting down to take our order. We told her to give us a few more minutes as we had not decided yet. We spent another five minutes trying to figure out what exactly a "Formosa" and how much it would cost, along with trying to decipher the reason behind why 80% of the heavily stained menu had been written in Chinese (with not a single word of French in sight - where's the bilingualism, hmm??).

But as luck would have it, a large group of takeout customers happened to walk in a few seconds before I raised my hand to call her over. The girl became completely occupied and failed to spot my wailing hand in the air....for a good couple minutes. Not able to withstand my hunger anymore, I went up to her and simply asked if we could order yet. She replied with an expressionless "Yes, I'll be right over." and proceeded to deal with the takeout customers.

She was, indeed, "right over" after about 2 minutes and apologized briefly for the wait. We ordered a Formosa dessert bowl and a Taro Butter Cream Toast, both which came out sufficiently quickly.

The Formosa dessert bowl was a very finely crushed ice dessert saturated in brown sugar syrup and topped with starchy elements such as sweet potato mochi and tapioca balls. There were two types of the dessert: one with taro chunks and tapioca, and the other with grass jelly, red bean, and green bean. When I asked if I could simply get grassy jelly and taro chunks without the red/green beans, she had said that it wasn't possible, and that the toppings would have to be added on instead. I was surprised when the dessert had come out with the exact toppings I wanted though.
Taste-wise, there is really much to be said besides the fact that it was essentially overly sweetened, watery ice. The topping were all superb though! - the taro was just the right softness, the grassy jelly refreshing, and the sweet potato mochi/tapioca balls just the right amount of chewiness. For $3.99, I would definitely order again, as long as they lighten up on the sugar syrup.

Next to arrive was the Taro Butter Cream Toast.

While earning serious visual appeal points (for its much better presentation than LOHAS and Go For Tea), it was probably one of the less great thick toasts I've tried in my lifetime. The texture was definitely on-point with toast was crisp without being hard, yet the inside remained soft, but the lack of taro flavour was disappointing.

The musty grey-lavender shade was apparent enough, but the layer that resided atop the slice had not penetrated through properly, leaving 3/4 of the dish essentially flavour-less. Another comment I must make would be how Taro Butter Cream tasted more like 70% butter, 15% sugar, 10% taro, and 5% processed additives. I would've preferred a more taro-ful spread that was less rich in nature.

Like with the other location, complimentary popcorn was served along the other orders.
Though, for some unknown reason, this batch tasted like sodium overdose. A plentiful (but completely unnecessary) amount of salt had been sprinkled on top of the popcorn prior to serving. Although I did appreciate the saltiness cutting through the sugary Formosa, I concluded that the flavours of both were in dire need of toning down. (Perhaps I shall ask for less sugar/salt next time?)

Our waitress did not come back to follow up on us until I waved her over to order takeout drinks, nor did she inform me of my drinks' status when they were ready until I went up and asked.

I ordered to a small Oreo Black Milk Tea and large Passionfruit Green Tea w/ Lychee Jelly to go, this time specifically asking for both to be made with less sugar.

(For the full album, please visit THIS link.)

I did not get a chance to taste the Passionfruit tea, but the Oreo Black Milk Tea proved to be a rather mediocre choice. I had been informed that it was a blend of Oreos, black tea, and 2% milk; while it did taste exactly like a mix of the aforementioned ingredients, nothing about it stood out. The Oreo cream had not been fully incorporated, leaving clumps along the insides of the cup. The same thing happened with the chocolate cookies as well, and remnants of cookies had sadly sunk to the bottom of the drink. Presentation could've also been better - ie. including crushed bits of Oreo along with the small squirt of whipped cream.
Next time, I think I'll stick with Sugar Cane, or give the Hokkaido Milk Tea a try.

Last mission of the day? To give a much-needed update to Review Junkie!

See you in the next set of visuals!