After a long day of hiking in the nearby Bighorn Canyon, I wanted something cool and refreshing. I…read morewas surprised to see that there was a new boba shop that opened a couple months ago in Billings. One of the hallmarks of a good boba shop is that they serve a wide variety of tea options such as oolong, assam, jasmine, matcha, etc, something beyond just your basic green and black tea options with flavorings. Bubblemilk seemed to meet that requirement. As a bonus, it looked like they also sell various Asian snacks, and they even serve taiyaki and bingsoo! How intriguing.
When we walked in, we found a pretty messy store, with boxes strewn all over the back, and one TV in the front playing exceptionally loud techno/rave music. Not a promising start, but it's something I can overlook if the drinks are good.
The online photos of the menu items looked beautiful and so we decided to order two drinks instead of our usual single drink when trying a new place. Oh boy, that was a mistake. When we placed the order at the kiosk, the proprietor let us smell the tea that we were supposedly going to be receiving. For our drinks, we could choose between a malty earthy smelling oolong, or a peach fruity smelling oolong. We went with the former for one drink and the latter for the other. It's only after ordering that we noted behind the counter stood a ton of different labeled containers filled with powder, and no tea brewing machine nor any jugs or tea dispensers.
Oolong Milk Tea, 50% Sweet, Large w/ Boba ($7.35) - I did not see them actually add brewed tea in the drink. Here's how I saw them making the drink - ice went into the shaker followed by a clear liquid which I assume is water, then a clear liquid from a jug which I assume is sweetener syrup, then several powders (I could not see how many powders they added as my view was partially obstructed). The container goes into the shaking machine. They scoop ice and boba into the cup, then pour the shaken drink on top. Could I have missed a step? Maybe. But the fact is, the lack of tea reflects in the taste - in this case, with the "oolong tea" having no tea taste whatsoever, just an artificially fruity sweetness. There's a bit of grittiness from the multiple powders used, and a suspiciously stable, thick layer of foam on top. Not to mention that the sweetness at 50% is overpowering and cloying. The drink is bad and the boba is bad to match. It's hard, not particularly chewy and very lumpy with tons of crevices on the outside, giving a poor mouthfeel. It's not rotated correctly for sure. I only drank about half before throwing the rest of the drink out.
Note: The description says this contains milk, but the owner said they only put milk powder. The description is wrong because the shop steals it from somewhere. More information below.
Milk Tea Rating: 1/5
Boba Rating: 2/5
Dreamy Taro, 75% Sweet ($5.98) - While the "oolong tea" is terrible, the Dreamy Taro is an actual scam. The description promises "fragrant and tender taro" and we were expecting either sweet and tender whole taro chunks or at least a taro mash in the drink. There is no taro in this drink whatsoever. It 100% tastes like bad artificial taro powder with an almost cookies and cream ish kind of taste. I have never thrown out a drink without finishing at least half of it, even from the worst boba shops I have had the displeasure of visiting. This one I could not stomach more than a couple of sips, and then it went straight in the trash. It's that bad. I guess the only bonus is that they added boba to the drink when I didn't order it? Not that I actually had any of it since the drink was so bad. I actually wonder what is going on, since "taro paste" is an add on that can be ordered for multiple drinks, and yet it's clear they don't actually have any.
Drink Rating 1/5
As another knock against this place, the descriptions of the drinks are literally stolen from a variety of sources. For example, the Uji Matcha description is stolen word for word from encha, multiple other descriptions stolen from the sugaryums blog, Sakura Tea stolen from Moriyama Teahouse etc etc. I stopped looking after the first couple. The images also seem to be stolen from other websites, which is why the drinks you get do not match either the descriptions nor the pictures at all. It's completely unethical and very problematic, especially if someone visiting has an allergy or food restrictions, given you can't tell what you're going to receive.
I cannot recommend visiting Bubblemilk. The drinks are plain bad and I have major issues with their ethics. This shop is easily in the bottom 5 of the several hundred boba shops I have visited.
