South Bay: Ume Tea

Take note everyone!  There's a new milk tea topping in town and you can find it at Ume Tea:

During the pandemic, you can either order ahead online or order through a kiosk inside:

There are many interesting drinks on the menu, but you absolutely have to try a drink with mochi in it.  Yes, you read that correctly, mochi.  And I'm not talking about a solid mochi ball in your drink.  I'm talking a layer of oh-so-soft mochi that can be slurped up through a boba straw.  

My go-to is the brown sugar pearl and mochi milk tea whereas CK likes the taro and mochi black tea latte (both $5.25 for a regular, + $0.80 for a large):

The tea itself is good, but doesn't stand out on its own.  What really makes the drink memorable is the mochi.  The texture is like a cross between a pudding and a glutinous rice ball.  It's gooey and soft and...I'm totally not selling it well.  Let's just say it's one of those things that you need to try for yourself to know what it's like.

Ume Tea also offers a variety of interesting fruit teas, such as passion fruit and watermelon green tea and grape green tea with cheese topping.  If sago is more your cup of tea, you can get the mango pomelo sago ($5.25), which is a mango smoothie made with fresh mango, coconut milk, fresh grapefruit, and sago.

After only ordering drinks from Ume Tea for a while, I finally decided to try out their snacks.  I got the fried mini octopus ($7.95):

And the mochi taro with pork floss sandwich ($5.95):

Honestly, stick to the drinks.  The snacks aren't all that great.  The fried octopus included tentacles, which I love, but they were a bit under-seasoned.  I was hopeful about the sandwich, since I keep dreaming about the taro and pork floss sandwich I had in Taiwan.  Ume Tea's sandwich was a huge disappointment.  Not only was there barely any taro, the bread itself was stale.

Anyway, who cares about mediocre snacks when the drinks are so fantastic?  Yes, they're expensive.  Ridiculously so.  But the drinks are so unique and delicious that I cannot bring myself to care.  

I'll just skip lunch and have a mochi milk tea instead.  

Ume Tea

272 Barber Ct

Milpitas, CA 95035

(408) 649-3371

http://www.umeteaca.com/