Uji Matcha Latte @ OneZo
Today, many trains I needed to take were cancelled due to a technical difficulty, so I went to try out a boba tea shop I saw some ads for that looked awesome. So consider this the first time of me rating a business/their beverage instead of powder. I will probably leave these out of the product review overview, though.
General Info
The shop’s name is OneZo; seems to be a global franchise. One thing that stuck out to me was that the beverages all looked super appealing and that they had things I don’t usually see offered anywhere else - like yam, taro, aloe vera, and other things I only know from videos by NAIJING. So I was excited! The shop looked kind of shabby, but I felt sure of the quality because many (asian) boba enjoyers were ordering.
I wasn’t feeling tapioca today, but they offered normal lattes and milkshakes as well, so I went for a big iced latte.
Here’s where my mistakes begin. I didn’t want toppings or syrup/puree or tapioca and opted for 25% sugar (😩) and oat milk, thinking I would get decent matcha. I mean, it’s advertised nicely:
Admittedly, in retrospect, the green is also a bit dark and unenthusiastic, but at least the presentation is appealing.
I learned if something is meant to be enjoyed with different purees and toppings and boba, there’s probably a good reason. The matcha is supposed to play second fiddle here, I assume. And whether justified or not, who would waste rich umami matcha on boba over here in Germany? I should have known.
Color and Smell
Can’t say anything about smell because I only got the final product and it was a total letdown. The color was atrocious - it was a grey-brownish dull looking green. No pretty gradient either (and that’s not just marketing, good matcha places do this).
Taste
The matcha gave me nothing. It was dead. It tasted rough, no creamy velvety feeling, slight coarse grassy monotone bitterness, that’s it. It felt watered down, too. The sweetness tasted artificial and flat and made me nauseous and left a sour taste. It reminded me of my Ito En review, but somehow worse. Probably because it was much more expensive and I can forgive a pre-sweetened granulated instant-matcha in packets for being a bit trashy because you know the intended audience and limitations before you buy, but I don’t think you should serve stuff like this to customers, especially not as a boba shop and with such advertising? I guess you can only enjoy this with boba, puree and other stuff, which is just sugar, sugar and sugar to make it bearable.
I was kinda excited to try their yam and taro stuff because I can't have it elsewhere, but now I'm wary of that if they can't even get matcha right. :( It's important to note that this was just one location! Maybe other shops of their brand are good.
Conclusion
0 out of 5 matcha bowls. You couldn’t pay me to drink this again.
Bonus funny Discord message by me when I sent it to my fiancee right after tasting:
