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Lipton’s Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea by Lipton
Green Tea & Black Tea / Flavoured
$9.99 for 285g (15 sachets)

First Impressions

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea was an impulse purchase of mine at my favourite Asian grocery store. Since it’s opened a location in my area, I’ve had a fun time just going down the tea aisle and picking up something new-to-me to try every time I go grocery shopping.

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea intrigued me because I often see a jasmine milk tea as an option on boba tea menus, but I haven’t had the opportunity to get it yet because I often prefer any milky teas that I drink to be of the black tea variety, so why not try it?

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea comes in 19g sachets (15 in the package). The powder of Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea consists of: sugar, creamer, whole milk powder, green tea powder, maltodextrin, sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, and black tea powder. There’s not much of an aroma to the dry powder.

Being a fan of the little details, I like that it forms a picture when you put two of the sachets side by side.

Preparation

Lipton recommends preparing it hold or iced – using 85°C (185°F) water and 180mL water for a hot preparation, and 50mL water for an iced preparation (just load up the glass with ice).

I opted to try it as a hot preparation.

First Taste

Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea mixes up quite easily with hot water, dissolving easily with a quick stir. The aroma is very strongly sweet floral – very over the top, with a very strong jasmine aroma. The flavour isn’t as perfumey as I had expected, based on the aroma of the tea. The flavour is lightly floral, creamy, and very sweet. I find it a bit much (on the sweetener level).

A Second Cup?

As the powder is part of a drink mix, there are no second preparations with the same mix.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Lipton’s Jasmine Flavour Green Milk Tea. While I can appreciate a nice jasmine tea from time to time (it’s one of my favourites!), I found this tea drink powder mix to be very sweet and very floral in aroma that it was hard to get around that to enjoy the drink itself. I might be persuaded to enjoy it more if it wasn’t as sweet. I will try it again with a more diluted preparation, or more heavily iced – and hopefully enjoy the rest of the sachets.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Chatime’s Original Milk Tea

Original Milk Tea by Chatime
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.99 for 200g (10 x 20g sachets)

First Impressions

I am still in search for the perfect tea product to have on-the-go that has everything in it that I love (for a milk tea or tea latte), without being too something. Too sweet, too bitter, too expensive. There’s so many things that could go wrong.

Chatime is a popular brand out of Taiwan that happens to have brick and mortar locations. It happens to be a popular option for my fellow nurses to order in when it comes to food delivery services. so when I spotted a familiar purple on the shelf of my favourite Asian grocery store, I knew I had to give it a go.

The bag contains 10 sachets of the Original Milk Tea powder. Each sachet is 20g and contains: sugar, creamer, black tea powder, and artificial flavour. There’s also a “may contain” warning for gluten, tree nuts, egg, and sesame (in case any of those are allergens/concerns for you).

The powder itself is kind of a light brown, like a milk tea, and doesn’t have a very obvious aroma to it. It does smell sweet though.

Preparation

Chatime recommends making Original Milk Tea as cold or hot preparations.

For a cold preparation, combine 60ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until the powder dissolves. Add 60g of ice.

For a hot preparation, combine 120ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until powder dissolves.

I opted to do a hot preparation, and I used water heated to 93°C (200°F).

First Taste

Original Milk Tea mixes up to a light brown colour. It has an aroma that creamy and black tea. The flavour of Original Milk Tea is surprisingly not as sweet as I was expecting, especially considering sugar is listed as the first ingredient. The black tea has a touch of astringency to it, and the sugar balances well against it. The creamer in the mix adds a nice amount of creaminess to it, without overpowering the black tea flavour. If I had been making it at home from scratch, I probably would have made it sweeter.

A Second Cup?

As Original Milk Tea is a drink mix powder, there are no second cups with the same powder.

My Overall Impression

I liked Chatime’s Original Milk Tea. It’s a very convenient method of making milk tea on-the-go, especially seeing as how I have access to a hot water dispenser at work. I like that it’s not too sweet, because it allows me to add some sweetener as I see fit. The flavour is good, and the slight astringency remind me a lot of the milk tea that you can get at Hong Kong-style cafes. Original Milk Tea is priced nicely, especially if you compare it to what a tea delivered to you would cost ($0.90 per serving versus $5+), making Original Milk Tea an affordable option.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Boba Bam’s Instant Boba Pack Brown Sugar

Instant Boba Pack Brown Sugar by Boba Bam
Beverage Mix
$15.99 for 780g (12 x 65g sachets)

First Impressions

I first heard about this product from the @costcofindscanada Instagram account – which is a fantastic resource on learning about new and seasonal products. Boba Bam’s Instant Boba Pack Brown Sugar recently became available in the Canadian Costco locations and I knew I had to try it. It’s found in the freezer section, and the box was smaller than I had expected.

Inside the box is 12 sachets of the boba pearls with slushy, frozen syrup, and also 12 individually wrapped black bubble tea straws that can easily accomodate the pearls. I did try out the straw for my first try with the boba packets, but as I continue to drink through the rest of the box, I will likely use my reusable (rainbow metal!) boba/smoothie straw as it’s just easier to clean.

Each sachet of the Instant Boba Pack Brown Sugar consists of: water, brown sugar, starch, tapioca starch, modified tapioca starch, caramel colour, natural flavour, and cellulose gum.

Preparation

The instructions from Boba Bam are for either the microwave or the stove, so I’ll go over both.

To microwave, cut the corner off of the sachet and microwave the sachet for 60 seconds (1 minute). Add the contents of the boba sachet to 1 cup of ice and 1 cup of milk (or alternative), then stir and enjoy.

Alternatively, boil the (sealed) boba sachet in a sauce pan with water for 3 to 5 minutes, add the contents of the boba sachet to 1 cup of ice and 1 cup of milk (or alternative), then stir and enjoy.

On the side of the preparation instructions, Boba Bam suggests also mixing with tea or a smoothie. Because it was my first time trying this, I opted to make it as suggested (in the microwave) – using a sugar-free, organic soy milk as my milk product.

First Taste

The syrup from the boba sachet is sweet – it basically tastes like brown sugar, and mixing that with the milk just makes the milk tastes like brown sugar. The boba pearls are nice though – they’re sweet, chewy without being touch, and just a nice treat. The straw is the perfect diameter for the pearls, and the drink itself was tasty – if possibly just too sweet.

A Second Cup?

No second drinks with the same sachet contents, of course, but there are eleven other sachets for me to enjoy in the box.

My Overall Impression

I liked Boba Bam’s Instant Boba Pack Brown Sugar. The process of creating a bubble tea at home was super easy – all said and done, it was probably under 2 minutes from start to finish with getting it all put together in my cup. I think I would like to try it out in perhaps a slush or smoothie, or even mixing up a matcha latte or London Fog and having these boba pearls at the bottom. The other nice thing about this is the cost. At $1.33/each (plus the cost of milk and ice), it’s significantly cheaper than getting a bubble tea to-go (usually from $5+) so it could be some great cost savings if you’re always getting a bubble tea while out and about.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.