This medium muscat grape drink with lychee ($10.50) was actually very yummy, but was it worth 15 minutes of my life spent at work to pay for it, and then another 5 minutes standing around waiting for it to be made?
Probably not.
I do love muscat grape though – the kasugai premium grape jelly beans are out of this world.
Ogu Ogu
127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
(tagged as bubble tea because even though it’s not bubble tea, that’s the general vibe of it)
This is not really a restaurant, and this is not really a review. It is more of a description of a vibe and a general sense of feeling that I get when I drink a small $9 flask of bubble tea.
I don’t think there’s really any argument about the quality of these drinks. They are tasty, they are inventive, and they actually have a number of elements not found elsewhere. The Grapefruit Green Tea Slush with Fruit Jelly ($8.50) is a good example of this, where these guys experimenting with new ideas, for example putting the jelly at the bottom of the cup and not throughout it, actually changes the experience. It tastes pretty good, but again I’m reminded that we just spent $8.50 on a bubble tea.
This Black Milk Tea with Panna Cotta ($9) was also actually very good. Again a daring move from the mochi mochi team putting panna cotta at the bottom of the drink. Very tasty, and I think better than the option from Xing Fu Tang which incorporates panna cotta as a separate element. The price element comes out again though, even more in this case. One of the other things about these teas is that you’re actually not getting a large 700-800mL cup like you would normally. These are quite compact, slim, hip-flask like situations, so I think ultimately you’re paying around 3x the price for what you would pay for a standard milk tea a couple of years ago.
Whilst bubble tea has always been a discretionary spend Machi Machi certainly takes the idea of it as a luxury good to the next level. I don’t think your average public selective school student or university student really has access to buying and drinking these all the time, but there’s always the international student market.
UPDATE JANUARY 2023
We found ourselves back at Machi Machi, this time in Hurstville, about 14 months on for a $9.50 Grapefruit Mango Cream Smoothie with Kanten Jelly. It actually did taste very good, but looked nothing like the picture, and again I’m left wondering to myself – who is the target market for this product? Because it sure isn’t us.
machi machi Burwood
5/127-133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
This will be brief.
Ah yes, this brown sugar cone was quite bad.
I enjoyed this early grey iced tea, much more so than my partner who hated it.
That’s all.
You’re welcome for the high quality content.
The Alley Lujiaoxiang
Shop 4067, Level 4/175 Church St, Parramatta NSW 2150
If you plug Xing Fu Tang (幸福堂) into Google Translate it will tell you that the first two characters – 幸福 – means happy, and the last character – 堂 – means hall. While technically correct, that’s not the full gist of “幸福”.
幸福 (Xing Fu), to my understanding, is more than just a feeling of happiness. It is a feeling of bliss, of comfort, something than just 快乐.
While a nice thought, my experience at Xing Fu Tang was not actually very 幸福. I got a honey lemon tea with additional rabbit panna cotta on top. It was strange that I didn’t realise it at the time, but the panna cotta sat on top of a plastic film, and was not direct contact with the drink. The drink itself was way too sweet, with no option to select the amount of sugar. While honey is obviously sweet, I did not expect it to be just this sweet.
I just didn’t really like it. I’m sure the drinks where you can specify your sugar load would be better, but I just don’t think I’d ever come back.
Xing Fu Tang (幸福堂)
181/569 George St, Sydney NSW 2000
0401 411 040
Let me tell you about a vibe.
Back when my partner worked in Concord, she would often come home with milk tea from Bengong. We always enjoyed their milk tea, imbued with a stronger tea flavour than most outfits. We were therefore suitably surprised and a little bit proud when we found that they had opened up a branch in Darling Square. The Concord Hospital boba tea shop had finally made it.
I really enjoyed this Tea Cube Milk Tea when I first had it. I was confused when they asked me to choose a flavour, and I chose lychee. I thought it was so cool that they had somehow created this drink where they put concentrated tea into jellies. I went back a couple of days later and asked for one but without fruit flavouring, and the staff member looked at me as if I were crazy but was ultimately happy to oblige. What I got was a simple milk tea with a lot of ice. I was an idiot. The tea cubes weren’t actually tea cubes, merely fruit cubes.
The Wuwu Oreo Sundae was pretty good! Just a soft serve over hot brown sugar and boba syrup, with an oreo on top. It melts quickly so be sure to eat it just as fast.
Bread is bread. This particular strawberry flavoured bread was not that good.
Bengong Black Haymarket
91 Harbour St, Haymarket NSW 2000