I’m (partially) quoted in an article on The Yorker. My full entry is below.

I suppose what I dig about bubble tea is the uniqueness of it. To us, it’s a weird and new thing, but it’s like the cultural equivalent of getting a frappuchino. I first tried bubble tea at a place called the Candy Café, a tiny upstairs restaurant in London’s Chinatown (I know that sounds incredibly hipster, but it’s true, I swear). What stood out was the huge range of flavours they had (mostly fruit juices), with your choice of green or black tea as a base.

While some of the combinations are incredibly sweet (a chocolate milk tea will taste as saccharine as you’d expect), Cooling off in the summer with a lemon & green tea combo was refreshing, and arguably healthier than a large coke. A few of my friends I recommended the drink to were weirded out by the tapioca balls, but they have a neutral taste, so it doesn’t spoil the flavour of the drink, and the chewiness reminds me of bubble gum or marshmallows.

While I wouldn’t be craving one during the winter (and the unusual ethnicity of it would probably put off York locals); I definitely wouldn’t mind having one around once summer rolls around.