I had to do a double-take when I saw a Kung Fu Tea had opened in my hometown of High Point. At the time of writing this, there are four locations in North Carolina: two in Charlotte, one in Cary (Triangle), and this one in High Point. Why High Point?
That said, a lot of good stuff has opened in recent years along this stretch of Wendover from High Point to Greenboro. You can find this Kung Fu Tea attached to a Ninja Cafe (same business) in the popular Palladium Shopping Center. I asked the cashier when they opened and she said last summer (2019).
In short, Kung Fu Tea sells drinks and Ninja Cafe sells food. Kung Fu Tea sells over 60 kinds of drinks from popular Taiwanese milk teas to punches. They come in two sizes, medium (16 ounces) and large (20 ounces). During our visit, medium drinks were priced at $3.00-5.25 each and large drinks were priced at $3.75-$6.75 each. Toppings cost extra. Standard toppings, of which they offer over a half-dozen varieties (e.g. bubbles, red bean, pudding), cost $0.50 each. Premium toppings, like aloe and fig jelly and popping bubbles, cost $0.75 each and milk caps cost $1.00 each.
Ninja Cafe was selling $11 poke bowls and $8 "cook bowls" containing cooked food. You customize the bowls yourself, selecting from different types of rice, protein, veggies, toppings, and sauces. In addition, Ninja Cafe features sushi burritos (priced at $9-11 each during our visit), a fairly limited selection of sushi rolls (about $4-14 each), and Japanese apps such as gyoza and takoyaki ($5 each).
I'm happy to report this Kung Fu Tea in High Point is solid. I've been to some good ones and I've been to some bad ones; the former is usually the case though. Here's what we got on our first visit to this location (we'll be back), all in size medium.
* Yogurt Orange Juice with bubbles, 30% sweet ($5.25)
* Taro Slush with bubbles, 30% sweet ($5.15)
* Lychee Black Tea with herbal jelly, 50% sweet ($4.45)
* Winter Melon Milk Green Tea with bubbles, 50% sweet ($4.35)
I wasn't a fan of the Yogurt Orange Juice, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the other drinks. I don't think there was anything wrong with the Yogurt Orange Juice; I just wasn't in the mood for it at the time. My wife really liked it. Kung Fu Tea's yogurt drinks are made with Yakult, a well-known Japanese sweet probiotic milk. Kung Fu Tea combines it with what I think is real fruit juice, so the Yogurt Orange Juice tasted exactly how it sounds, like fresh-squeezed OJ mixed with Yakult. If you like OJ, then go for it.
The Taro Slush, Lychee Black Tea, and Winter Melon Milk Green Tea were all terrific. The Taro Slush was my favorite. It tasted like a dessert. Even at 30% sweet, the drink was still plenty sweet. If you're a fan of Taro Milk Tea and have never tried the Taro Slush before, it's worth trying. The flavor profile is almost exactly the same except there is no milk and more ice, so it's less creamy and more icy. However, the Slush still has a really appetizing and smooth consistency which I like. My best description for the Taro Slush is it's like drinking a delectable, sweet, icy pudding.
The Lychee Black Tea is sweetened by lychee and lychee alone, so it's not practical to order this drink at anything below 50% sweet since all they do to reduce the sugar level is to put less lychee in the drink (then you start defeating the purpose of ordering "Lychee Black Tea"). This drink was also subtly sweetened by the herbal jelly (grass jelly) topping which we added on. Relatively speaking, this was a fairly "light" sweet tea with a little bit of tanginess from the bits of tasty lychee. The herbal jelly was delicious and it's one of my top three favorite toppings to get.
The Winter Melon Milk Green Tea was on point. If you're a fan of milk teas and want to try something different, I recommend it. Not everyone is a fan of winter melon tea because of the uniquely sweet aftertaste it can leave in the back of your mouth, but some people love it. The syrupy sweetness and aftertaste isn't as pronounced in the MGT (milk green tea) version. At 50% sweet, I found this drink to be pleasantly sweet with pretty much the right balance of tea, milk, and ice.
As for the bubbles, they've got the amazing Kung Fu Tea tapioca recipe on lock here. The bubbles we got were wonderfully sweet and appetizingly chewy. They were fresh with excellent taste and consistency. I can't believe this exists in High Point. Thank you to the franchisees who brought it here.
Service was great. We had no issues. However, there is one thing we don't like about this location in particular: You can't use the Kung Fu Tea app to order ahead.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, plexiglass was installed around the counter and dining room seating was very limited. They had only four two-person tables for indoor dining plus a couple tables to wait at for takeout orders. This Kung Fu Tea has no outdoor seating and I don't think I've ever been to a location that has had it. read more