KUNG FU TEA SHOP

November 12th was cold, one of the first nights to dip below zero degrees in the city and I was meeting a girlfriend for dinner and a Coupland reading at Ryerson university. Being in the neighbourhood of my favourite ramen place, Sansotei, dinner was set. We agreed to meet early to avoid the dinner rush. Ramen’s a quick meal though and we had some time to kill before the event. On my walk over I had passed by Kung Fu Tea Shop and their hot tea sounded like the perfect way to stay warm.

All of the drinks at Kung Fu Tea Shop are sweetened with honey and can be ordered with different levels of sweetness. Cold drinks can also be customized with different jellies, tapioca, red bean topping and choice of ice levels. The hot drinks only come in the large size. I ordered a hot rose milk tea, half sweet and my friend had the same with taro flavour. The colours of the tea were pretty pastels and mine had a light rose flavour, that wasn’t overpowering. The honey really brought out the floral taste and was sweet even at the half sweetness level. My friend’s taro tea was more mellow and had a stronger taro taste vs. sweetness. Both drinks were rich and milky.

When I was taking pictures of the shop, the girl behind the counter informed me if I showed her a picture of their ninja mascot on any social media outlet I could get a discount off my next drink. The chubby guy’s so cute, I’m sure he’d be popular even without the promotion.