Avid foodiePrints readers will have noticed that Don and I love bubble tea and are constantly on the lookout for the best local bubble tea shop. Thus far, we have visited Bubblicity (both Chinatown and Dalhousie locations), Nihao Tea House on Holland Ave. (now closed), Maple Valley, and finally, Ottawa's newest competitor, the Toronto-chain Teashop 168. On my last bubble tea entry, I had updated foodiePrints' list of top bubble tea shops in Ottawa, but did not reveal number one. I shall now fill in that blank spot.

Last summer while looking for something spontaneous to do with my younger sisters as we waited for an order of pizza, we decided to walk from Hintonburg to Chinatown's newest bubble teashop, My Sweet Tea for something cold, sweet, and refreshing. Granted, My Sweet Tea has been in business since July 2008, but it was my first trip there. My youngest sister, who could probably live on a diet of bubble tea, claimed its drinks tasted just like those in Vancouver and Toronto and that I would not be disappointed. Sufficient to say, she was correct.


Signage My Sweet Tea

Located in the heart of Chinatown, My Sweet Tea provides great competition to another bubble tea shop on Somerset Street, Bubblicity, a popular Ottawa chain. Upon entering the shop, I was struck by the sheer delightful fruity smells in the air. There is nothing more comforting when entering a tea shop when you can smell recently made bubble teas of various flavours and tapioca pearls. The fruitiness is enough to put a happy grin on your face and the knowledge that you are in store for a great treat. The chic decor and furniture gives the shop a casual, yet sophisticated feel, and adds to the relaxing atmosphere inside.


Bubble tea barista making a customer’s order

Checking out the menu.....
My Sweet Tea serves a variety of bubble tea drinks in many flavours including ice tea, ice slush, milk tea, ice cream smoothies, yogurt drinks, blooming tea (hot drink). In addition, snacks of fish balls, chicken wings, toast, and chicken popcorn along with cake are also available.

I ordered my usual staple, a lychee bubble slush ($3.99 + $0.50 for jelly) . It was sweet, cold, and delicious. The lychee flavour was strong, but not overpowering. It also had just the right amount of lychee jelly pieces and there were no hard bits or shards of ice. More importantly as the slush slowly melted, the lychee flavour continued until the very last drop. I was in bubble tea heaven.


Lychee bubble slush served in a tall narrow glass cup

Don chose one of his favourites, a black tea based milk taro bubble tea. According to him, it was cold, sweet, milky and smooth, the right consistency of a taro flavoured drink. Feeling adventurous, Don decided to add red beans to his drink, rather than the usual tapioca pearls. The red beans were perfectly cooked and sweet. At $3.99 + $0.50 for the red beans, it was money well spent.


Milk Tea Taro-flavour (black tea base)


A close up of red beans

Looking for a Snack…
Despite finding a drink quenching my thirst, I was also in search of some food. Choosing from a curious selection of flavoured toast on the menu, I decided to try the honey toast. Not knowing what to expect, I was surprised to be presented with a thick slice of toasted white Asian-style bread drizzled with honey on a glass plate. Each bite had a lovely crunch, but found it somewhat greasy with honey tasting of the typical store-bought kind. I am not sure if I will order this dish again in the near future.


A snack of honey toast

Take Out Bubble Tea
Don’t have time to relax and hang out in the tea shop? No problem! My Sweet Tea also has a take-out option, serving the drinks in plastic cups and sealing them in a thick, but clear plastic sheet with teddy bears and a riddle written in Chinese.


Refreshing bubble teas to go! Delicious!

In the top left hand corner is a mango flavour bubble tea with mango jelly pieces, a favourite of my younger sister. Beside it, a black tea based taro-flavour milk tea with tapioca pearls. Below in the bottom right hand corner is a green tea based lychee-flavour ice tea with lychee jelly pieces. Finally in the bottom left hand corner is my drink, a lychee-flavour bubble slush with lychee jelly pieces.

Since the summer of 2009, Don and I have re-visited My Sweet Tea on numerous occasions and feeling satisfied each time. As a result, My Sweet Tea is foodiePrints’ pick for Ottawa’s best tea house!

4. Teashop 168
3. Bubblicity
2. Maple Valley
1. My Sweet Tea

Particulars:
My Sweet Tea
824 Somerset Street W.
(613) 321-3481

Here at foodiePrints, we are always on the lookout for Ottawa's best bubble tea house. Thus far, Don and I have been to the two locations of Bubblelicity (Chinatown and ByWard Market), the Nihao Tea House (now defunct on Holland Avenue), and Maple Valley (also in the ByWard Market). Since the summer, we have been eagerly awaiting for Tea Shop 168 to open on Wellington Street W. (1356). In business since 1996, Tea Shop 168 is a Toronto-based chain that has over a dozen locations, mainly in Markham and Scarborough.

After months of renovations, Tea Shop 168 finally opened its doors last Saturday (November 28, 2009). To celebrate, everything on the menu was 50% off the entire weekend. This week, all purchases are discounted 10%. Starting next week, lunch will be offered and the menu will include lots of Taiwanese-style snacks, such as fish balls, won ton dumplings, toast, etc.

Welcome to Tea Shop 168!

With the majority of our errands run, we decided to give the newly opened bubble tea house a try that Saturday evening. Upon walking into the cream and yellow coloured house that was previously a hair salon, we were enthusiastically greeted by a young Mandarin-speaking woman (who happened to be the owner), her staff, and several of her friends. Playing was Japanese pop music from the early 2000s, a greatest hits mix of Ayumi Hamasaki.

Inside, there were two tall glass bistro-style tables able to sit groups of three and tall gray metal stools lining a bar set against a large bay window. On the other side of the room was another long counter with menus, Chinese and Japanese fashion and gossip magazine, and a cute brown miniature shopping cart for tips beside the cash register. Behind the counter was an ice maker, an induction burner, a rice cooker (for cooking the tapioca pearls), two commercial grade blendesr, and rows of jars filled with colourful powders, each a different flavour.

Bistro table with a clock

Gazing outside from the bar counter

A variety of flavours in jars and squeeze bottles

After consulting the menu, I decided to order my usual, a regular size lychee bubble slush with lychee jelly pieces. Don ordered a black tea taro flavoured milk tea with pearls. All drinks, eat-in or take-out, are served in a plastic Tea Shop 168 cup, either sealed with plastic or with a lid.

Checking out the menu

My lychee slush was surprisingly pleasant. It was not overly sweet, nor did it take on a yellowish colour from too much syrup. When bubble slushes take on a colour, it is often too concentrated. I did not find any chunks of ice and there was just the right amount of jelly pieces.

Lychee Bubble Slush with lychee jelly pieces

When ordering tea-based drinks, you can choose to have it served hot or cold. In this case, Don requested his to be cold. However, when the server handed him his drink, I was rather surprised it was just slightly room temperature, warm for bubble tea. The taro milk tea was slightly powdery and the tapioca pearls too soft.

Taro Milk Tea with pearls

Although the drinks were a bit of a hit-and-miss, Tea Shop 168 is certainly worth checking out. The menu offers a variety of teas and slushes. While the staff are still in training and are experiencing a bit of trouble finding the requested powder (suggestion: organize it in alphabetical order!), the preparation of each drink is impressive. Everything is carefully measured and then shaken in a cocktail shaker.

That evening, each drink cost only $2.10 (regular price: $4.19) for a total of $7.11, tax included.

Thus far, foodiePrints' ranking of the top tea houses in Ottawa are as followed:

4. Bubblicity
3. Tea Shop 168
2. Maple Valley (foodiePrint's review)
1. ???

Stay tune as foodiePrints will be revealing its favourite bubble tea shop very soon!

Particulars:
Tea Shop 168
1356 Wellington Street
(613) 695-2686

Few dishes define a good tea house better than the dumplings it serves. Dumplings are an integral element of a tea house's menu. Oriental tea houses straddle the line between café and bistro, providing a relaxed atmosphere to socialize, chat, eat, and, most importantly, enjoy tea. As such, the food tea houses should not take away from the primary activity, drinking tea. Typical dishes consist of small bite-sized morsels; nothing larger than a Chinese bun. Hence, when I visit a tea house, my first order tends toward dumplings: bite-size morels of meat and/or vegetable, neatly wrapped in a flour wrapper, that can be easily picked up with a pair of chopsticks.

Regarding tea house cuisine, there are some wildly successful food blogs that are devoted to teahouse eating. Here's one that I visit often: ChaXiuBao. The blogger was recently (episode aired in September 2007) featured on an episode of No Reservations with Anthony Bordain.

Regarding NiHao, ever since it opened, I have been wanting to try its dumplings. Since the tea house only serves dumplings weekdays during lunch as a special, I never found the opportunity to try them. I make my living quite a ways away from either NiHao establishment. Happily, during a day off, I rectified the issue and sat at a table for lunch in the Wellington Village's NiHao tea house.

For $4.99, I received a plate of 10 steaming hot dumplings. My chosen condiments included red chili oil and soy sauce.

10 dumplings for $4.99
The dumplings were simply wrapped and home made. This is evident from the pronounced wrinkling of the dumplings' skins. Mass produced frozen dumplings wrinkle somewhat less.

Dumpling Filling
The filling consisted of pork and nappa. The dumplings themselves were flavorful and moist.

All-in-all, I was more impressed by the iced green-tea that I ordered with my dumplings. The tea came chilled and lightly sweetened. Moreover, the tea was made from quality tea leaves that were gently brewed. My iced tea was flavorful and refreshing. It had none of the bitter notes that come from tea leaf dust in tea bags.

Total for lunch: $7.84 after taxes, before tip.

For dumplings at home, I direct you to Ottawa's Yen Fung Ding dumpling shop or frozen dumplings that can be purchased at any of the larger Asian markets in Chinatown.

Frozen Dumplings

Particulars:
Nihao Tea House
81 Holland Avenue
(613)722-0088

In 1983, a tea stand owner in Taiwan, named Liu Han-Chieh, originated the first bubble tea. According to bubbleteasupply.com, this concession owner was the first to add tapioca pearls to a cold infused tea drink that was already popular among elementary school children. The original tea drink was made by taking brewed tea and mixing it with powdered fruit flavorings to sweeten it. It was then served in clear plastic cups. Liu Han-Chieh topped the drink with tapioca pearls, which promptly sank to the bottom of the cup, and added a thick straw. The result was a drink sensation that traveled the globe: Bubble Tea.

Several restaurants in Ottawa make and serve bubble tea. Of these, two tea-houses specialize in it. The first is Bubblicity. It has two locations, 730 Somerset Street West and 379 Dalhousie Street. The second is a newcomer, Maple Valley Tea World. It is located within the Byward Market Square, 55 Byward Market Square (Unit 14). Both serve well over a dozen different flavors of bubble tea in several preparations. However, the Maple Valley Tea World shop, sells bubble tea with pearls at prices similar to bubble tea-houses in Toronto: $3.99 for a large. Conversely, Bubblicity sells a regular-sized bubble tea with pearls at $5.25 a cup.

Both establishments sell bubble tea akin to what can typically be purchased in Toronto. The variety of flavours range from sour apple to mango and taro. The preparations include fruit juices, brewed tea and brewed milk tea. Both serve well mixed bubble teas that are not powdery.

My favourite preparation on a warm summer day is the iced bubble slush. Bubble slushes have fruit juice or water at their base and flavored jelly, not tapioca pearls. They are made by blending ice, a flavoring, and fruit juice or water together. The ice needs to be ground small enough to cool and thicken the drink, but not be discernible on the tongue. However, the ice should not be so fine that its melts too quickly, thinning the drink faster than it can be consumed. Both Bubblicity and Maple Valley Tea World serve good bubble slushes.

I found that I actually prefer my bubble slush from the Maple Valley Tea World. Firstly, the operator at the Maple Valley Tea World conservatively flavored the bubble slush I was served. At Bubblicity, there are times that their bubble slushes are so sweet that I cannot stomach finishing them. Secondly, at Maple Valley Tea World, even including tip, I don't need to break a twenty to purchase a pair of bubble slushes.

Maple Valley Tea World is also a real tea-house, whose selection of teas are comparable to the Nihao Tea House in the Wellington Village. Unlike the Nihao Tea House, which also serves but does not specialize in bubble tea, I don't need to explain to the high school student behind the counter how I want my bubble tea prepared. Like the Nihao Tea House, I know that if I order a tea-based bubble tea, quality infused tea will be used. After all, Maple Valley Tea House would be somewhat hypocritical if it sells tea leaves that it has no intention of brewing or serving. Bubblicity does not sell tea leaves.

If you want a refreshing drink on a hot day, visit Maple Valley Tea House for a confection that won't break your bank. Bubble tea is a wonderful treat. It shouldn't be a burden on your wallet.

Cheers.

Particulars:
Maple Valley Tea World
55 Byward Market Square (Unit 14)
Tel: (613) 667-6888

During my latest visit to the Nihao Tea House, my better half and I noticed something delightfully whimsical on the menu, "Home Made Jam Jam Cookie." How could anyone say no to cookies this cute? We couldn't.

Though the menu sported pictures of heart-shaped Jam Jam cookies, the available Jam Jam's were flower shaped. They consist of two cookie-cutter shaped cookie pieces, a layer of strawberry jam sandwiched in between, and a dusting of powdered sugar on top. The cookie pieces were soft and buttery. The jam was sweet, but not cloyingly sweet. The powdered sugar was very carefully added so as not to land in the exposed jam. The powdered sugar that ended up in the jam in the pictures was the result of my handling the cookie. At $1.39 each, Jam Jam's make great, while slightly expensive, treats.

Little did I know, Jam Jam's are actually a Canadian tradition that originated in the maritime provinces. Not two days after I bit into my first Jam Jam, I ran across a piece by the CBC about Canadian regional cuisine. Accordingly, Jam Jams are distinctively Canadian, being manufactured in St. John's, Newfoundland by a company called Purity Factories Ltd. since 1924. Purity's recipe for Jam Jam's takes 3 days. The is because it takes this amount of time for the cookies to absorb moisture from the raspberry and apple jam filling and produce Purity's Jam Jam's characteristic moist texture.

If you want to make Jam Jam's at home, here is an untested recipe from the Domestic Goddess website. The recipe doesn't look too difficult. However, I've a feeling the "letting the cookies soften" part won't be easy.

Oh, here are updated pictures of Nihao Tea House's windowed lounge and menu.

Lounge

Menu

Particulars:
Nihao Tea House
81 Holland Avenue
(613)722-0088