At the beginning of quarantine, I purchased the Boba Book by Andrew Chau and Bin Chen. It's a gorgeous guide and recipe book to all things boba and tea. I was distraught at the prospect of a beloved business having to close due to Covid-19 (they aren't going to close anytime soon) and letting go of 400 employees in one day. So I bought the book and a bunch of merch. Like many people, I tried the whole strawberry matcha latte drink and practiced pouring the drink for that beautiful, layered IG-ready aesthetic. I had lofty aspirations to try as many of the drinks as I could from the book. And then quarantine fatigue set in and then we all got tired of baking sourdough and banana bread. By then, the bubble tea stores around me were reopening, so I haven't really tried making any more homemade tea drinks since. And yes, there's recipes for sparkling tea drinks that look pretty simple to make and absolutely delicious...but I'm over it. I am not making my own sparkly boba for a long time. Ain't nobody got time for that. But I do have time to admire nice packaging and gratuitious new TJ's products.
The shiny peach/copper font is a nice touch on this packaging - makes it look bougie. Bougie packaging earns points y'all.
The product description sounds so dreamy. Why yes, I can picture myself sitting outside or inside or whatever and allowing a little of this bubbly to lift my spirits I suppose.
OOO it's low in sugar. How nice.
2) People on the internet really like this product. It's a good product. But it tastes more like a seltzer than a tea drink, JUST SAYIN'.
3) The first couple sips does have a peach flavor..but after a while you don't really taste the peach. But there's certainly a peachy essence. The tea..I'm sure it's there but it's weak. I like my tea strong, to the point where I can taste and know that someone somewhere brewed this jawn with some real tea leaves.
4) It's still a very pleasant drink. It does have a very slight sweetness, which makes this better than seltzer. But I personally could go for stronger peach and stronger tea flavor.
5) I don't think this drink holds up to the tea from a respectable (Ima say it - Taiwanese) bubble tea shop (Happy Lemon in a Sunmerry bakery!!), but it's not bad at all for a TJ's canned drink. It definitely can be used in various applications for teas, cocktails, etc.
6) $3.99 for a box of four 250ml cans. Not expensive but not exactly a bang-for-your-buck deal either. But maybe worth it if you can't/aren't going out for tea shop teas?
TL;DR: Trader Joe's Sparkling Black Tea with Peach Juice Beverage. Sorta peachy black tea seltzer. 7.5 out of 10. Mantou Joe repurchase? Perhaps.
I still find this a little too sweet. Squeezing some lemon into it helps and makes the flavors pop a little more.
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