Mom & Pop Shop - Milk Tea

This is my favorite drink. I love milk tea. I swear Japan has this drink down pat. I was waiting for my coworker, Josie and her family in Ropppongi one day. They came to Japan to visit their family, who were stationed at Yokota, but they were for some reason meeting up at a smaller base, which was in Roppongi. Who knew? And this base in an area that you would have never guessed was Roppongi. It looks so...suburban. It was like a 20 minute walk from the station. No problem for me, but for the Americans...they wanted to take a taxi... Anyway, back to the food aspect. I was a little early and they told me they would call me when they got close, so I wandered around and found myself this cute little mom & pop shop that was the only shop for what seemed to be a good 5 block radius. It was run by this ojiichan and obaachan who looked like they were in their 90's. They were so cute shuffling about the shop. So I ordered milk tea that came in its own little flask, complete with mini cream pitcher and even minier beaker (behind the cream pitcher) filled with gum syrup.

Gum syrup has got to be the best part about drinks in Japan. Most American places only have the granulated sugar for its patrons, but in Japan, granulated sugar is for hot drinks (as it dissolves very quickly). But granulated sugar does not dissolve so well in iced drinks, which is why most places will give you gum syrup, which is basically simple syrup for your cold drinks so that it is sweetened instantaneously and you don't have those granules at the bottom of your drink while the top portion remains unsweetened. Talk about instant gratification for the customer!

Anyway, milk tea. Milk tea is basically tea that has been brewed to double strength, to which you can then add cream and sugar to taste. The best bargain milk tea was the Lipton 500ml carton that you can buy at any convenience store for 105 yen. It's very good, though this past winter, they had a premium milk tea which was really milky, very rich and creamy for 137 yen. That was excellent, though sometimes my cheap side got the best of me and I had to rationalize paying 32 yen more for the premium brand.

They also had milk tea Alfort chocolate cookie biscuits at one time and Super Cup made a limited edition milk tea ice cream. Those were both fabulous. I love milk tea flavored anything. I love the combination of sweet and creamy with the fragrance of the tea leaves. My former dorm buddy Lindsay (self-proclaimed tea snob) from Cali introduced me to Lady Grey tea, the more floral and I guess spicier, for lack of a better word, companion to the standard Earl Grey. I've always bought the Twinnings blue box and have never been disappointed when I have used it for milk tea though I am certain you can use any black tea brewed to double strength.

This is the one drink I wish we had on a regular basis in Hawaii.