The owner of Bobalee reached out to me after my previous review and told me that the shop actually brews their Thai Tea from scratch instead of making it from powder. That intrigued me enough to revisit and try the drink out this past week.
Thai Milk Tea, Small w/ Boba ($6.40) - As I was ordering, I was told that the sweetness couldn't be adjusted since the the tea was premade and mixed with sweetener. It's a little unfortunate, but it is what it is. On the first sip, the tea first starts with a somewhat dairy forward flavor, but immediately follows that up with an extremely roasted, smoky and somewhat astringent flavor of a very strongly brewed tea. About half a second later, an extreme sweetness floods the mouth but helps to balance out some of the smoky astringency. I'm not sure how they get it to be so smoky - I regularly brew Thai tea in an espresso machine and I've never gotten it to be so strong before. It's also much smokier than any Thai tea I've had in restaurants. The sweetness is a bit too much for me. After sipping a bit, I decided to save the rest for later and add some fresh brewed Thai tea to temper the sweetness down a bit. The boba this visit is a big improvement over my previous visit. This time, it's not rock hard; instead, the boba has a decent chew on the exterior while retaining quite a bit more firmness in the center. I found the boba to be a bit on the lumpier side and a little inconsistent in shape but it's not bad.
Drink Rating: 3/5
Boba Rating: 3/5
I also asked for a small sample of the black tea. This is also pre-sweetened, probably on the order of 25% or 50% vs. a fully sweetened drink as compared to other boba shops. For my tastes, it actually right on the dot: not too sweet, which allows some of the natural tea fragrance to really be at the forefront of the drink without being drowned out. I honestly would get this tea as a milk tea without any additional sweetener added.
Bobalee is a first mover into Ypsilanti. It's a very well run business, with friendly staff and great ambiance. As I mentioned in my previous review, this is a business that's worth supporting.
Bathrooms - Single unisex room in the back. read more