Behold the modern soda fountain. Gone are the egg creams and ice cream sodas. Hail the pearl milk teas and lychee freezes. Sayonara to the jukebox and say hello to the plasma screen screaming the latest Asian pop video. In case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past few years, the tea café is the new hangout spot, with the pearl milk tea as its main attraction. This additive concoction features strong black or green tea shaken with sugar and nondairy creamer and bobbing with boba, also known as tapioca pearls. Verde Tea is a good place to witness the latest craze.
Drinks are their specialty, ranging from the basic milk tea (shaken until frothy) to more interesting variations like taro milk yea and pine nut milk tea - a steaming hot concoction of sweet brewed tea scattered with floating pine nut bits. Several drinks actually sound healthy to boot, like wheat germ milk tea, watermelon juice with aloe, and avocado green tea smoothie. Most drinks come with tapioca pearls, which are black, chewy bubble gum-sized balls made from the cassava root. For a few quarters more, you may invite other chewy bits to the party, like grass jelly, sweet cubes hinting of licorice, or dark bricks, which is coffee-flavored jelly. Verde’s teas are not overly sweet, and the top layer of froth on the cold drinks gives you a sweet moustache to lick off. Pearls have a caramel-like flavor and are soft and pliable, not overly chewy. Drinks range from $2.25 to $4.
Where there are drinks, there are snacks, and Verde Tea is no exception. For beginners, there is a variety of "thick toast" – a 1-inch slice of white bread covered in your choice of chocolate, peanut butter, or a variety of jams. But beware the chocolate toast – underneath the chocolate lurks a layer of margarine, prompting my tea companion to exclaim, "This stuff is fattening!" though we managed to eat it anyway. Then there are a host of Taiwanese snacks, like the salty fried chicken, irregular-shaped morsels of dark meat dusted in flour and deep fried to a delicate crispiness. They come with fried fingers of yams, which, if not eaten at once, become soggy and limp.
There is also a fried yam/fried sweet potato combination, which is a nice alternative to french fries. The sticky rice is a pyramid of glutinous rice mixed with peanuts. The center holds a prize of one boiled yolk, a shitake mushroom, and one chunk of pork. Another rice dish with a less appetizing title is the oily rice. Unlike its sticky brother, oily has not been steamed in tea leaves. Tea eggs – hard-boiled eggs steeped in strong tea and star anise – are available for $0.75 each.