Do You Want a Tea Cocktail Mar-tea-ni or a Bubble Tea with Mixology

Tea is the new coffee! As more and more restaurants, cafes and hotels starting to sell more exotic teas, a few of them are now trying to get creative in order to offer something unique. Here are two very good examples:

Mar-tea-ni

Berkeley’s Asha Tea House (2086 University Ave.) has always been a place for people with different levels of tea appreciation, including teenagers craving sweet boba drinks and connoisseurs who spend hours steeping top-grade high-mountain oolong leaves in a traditional gaiwan. Now there’s something for the boozehounds among us, too: Since August, Asha has been serving a small selection of tea cocktails. The drinks, which are available after 5:30 p.m., offer convincing evidence that tea and alcohol do, in fact, mix — better than you might imagine.

Bubble Tea with Mixology

The Frozen Old Fashioned bubble tea cocktail at MoPho tastes just like a standard version of the classic drink, but with daiquiri-like texture of blended ice and the squishy presence of tapioca pearls or gummy blobs of flavored jellies sucked through a fat straw. “I don’t think you can get any more fun and lighthearted than a boba tea,” said Jeff Gulotta, co-owner and manager of MoPho. (Gulotta, like many, prefers the more traditional word “boba” over the more popular “bubble” in describing the Southeast Asian drink.

Given these two examples it seems that the possibilities are endless. Have you have tried to make a cool tea drink before at home? Perhaps you should try out making this bubble tea and add some additional creativity to it. Feel free to share.