Ninja Bubble Tea

After a trying out the new Vietnamese restaurant, Delicious Pho, my best friend's family and I wandered around the corner to see what other new businesses have popped up in the new building. There is a new Brown's Socialhouse, a dried fruit & nut store, a little Chinese cafe that serves bubble tea and some random Northern Chinese dishes, a pet boutique, and the trending Ninja Bubble Tea. 

For the last few weeks, I've seen several status posts on Facebook checking in at this new bubble tea joint. This Filipino-run bubble tea joint is known for their candy bar bubble teas, reminiscent of Bubble Queen in Richmond. Some of them have strange names like "Yeahhh Nutella"... someone was running out of creative juices... At first glance, it seems like their prices are ridiculously high. I mean, bubble tea is already expensive; for some reason we are willing to pay $4 for sugar + milk. At Ninja Bubble Tea, be prepared to pay $5 for a single drink, and that is excluding pearls/jelly. 

Ninja Bubble Tea Menu & Prices

BUT, I did not feel like the five dollars went to waste. I've visited Pearl Fever before and was severely disappointed with how watered down my coconut milk tea was. At Ninja, the drinks have a thick texture, like a smoothie or milkshake, and the cups are massive. I repeat, MASSIVE.

Varieties of candy bars used in their 'Famous Smoothies'

I decided to give the Taro Ice Cream Smoothie a try. It had a little 'Best Seller' banner next to the name and it was a flavour I had never tried before. They have a stamp card system where every 10th drink is free. If you check into Ninja Bubble Tea on Facebook and show the cashier, there is an instant 10% discount too. I just didn't bother asking them for their Wifi password, but I probably should have.

Be prepared to wait a while for your drink. There is only one person making the drinks, one individual serving at a time. Watching my drink being made, I could tell the mixer wasn't strong enough to process the thick slush (they should've invested in a Vitamix!) so that doesn't really help with speeding up production.

Left: My friend's Oreo Ice Cream Crumble Famous Smoothie and Right: My Taro Ice Cream Smoothie

Just to clarify, in the Taro Ice Cream smoothie, the taro and ice cream are separate ingredients. And to be more specific, the taro is taro powder. My jaw was close to dropping when I saw half a cup of purple powder being dunk into the blender, and a teeny tiny bit concerned about the No-Name brand ice cream... or 'frozen dessert'. I'm sorry, it's just my health-conscious side kicking in. Thankfully, this didn't taste half-bad. It was thick and slushy so I know they weren't cheap and watering it down with..water. The taro flavour was somewhat faint but I suppose that can be expected. I'm really glad that the drink wasn't overly sweet, just sweet enough for a bubble tea and enough to satisfy a sweet-tooth craving.

This bubble tea joint is getting busier and more popular by the day; eventually they'll have to figure out a way to add more seating! At the moment, there are three tiny tables plus one mini counter, each seating around four people. For the large servings and above-average quality, I would definitely recommend Ninja Bubble Tea as one of the best bubble tea places in the Tri-Cities, with Bon Vivant Fashion Cafe following very closely. I'll be back when I'm feeling like splurging on my calorie intake. Next on my to-try list is the Reece's peanut butter one!



Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡