I have never felt more insane than when I brought home five cups of boba, tea and smoothies at 8 p.m. Located on Forbes Avenue near Pitt’s campus, the teas from Fuku Tea were quite sweet, especially with the addition of boba topping or jelly for an additional upcharge.
First on the list, and the sweetest drink, is a small mango smoothie for $5.40. For the additional price of $0.50, I added the mango jelly for a total of $5.90. The price wasn’t terrible; every other boba shop in the area charges similar prices.
The taste of the smoothie was delicious, however the added mango jelly was overly done. With every sip, I received a mouthful of sweet and chewy jelly instead of the liquid from the tasty smoothie.
The flavor for both components was fairly strong, the jelly overpowered the smoothie in both quantity and flavor. The whole drink was sweet enough to describe it as diabetes in a cup.
I mean, maybe some of you are interested in a large quantity of jelly in your beverage. Yet, I wasn’t looking for a snack, but a drink, and the jelly filled too much of the cup to leave space for the liquid.
On a positive note, unlike tapioca pearls, it kept well in the fridge overnight. The jelly does fine in liquid, and every drink that had jelly inside tasted similar if not the same to how they did the night before.
Next was a large brown sugar milk tea for $5.65, a signature beverage on the menu. The boba was still quite warm and the brown sugar flavoring was blended directly into the milk rather than swirled on the edges with a syrup.
It had a very uniform flavor that wasn’t grainy compared to other iterations of the drink I’ve had. The sugar was blended well with the black tea.
Another signature drink was a small Thai tea with added jelly lychee for $5.40. The drink had this beautiful shade of orange that reminded me of fall. Although the flavor isn’t considered seasonal, the hints of its tasty grass flavor let me imagine I was consuming freshly fallen leaves.
This drink, like the mango smoothie, also had the same quantity of jelly inside. Although, the lychee jelly was not nearly as overpowering in flavor as the mango. This led the drink to taste more balanced.
However, I was a little disappointed that their machine did not completely seal the cup, allowing some of the boba liquid to leak out into my car.
The last signature drink I ordered was a small “Black & Gold,” their number one seller of mango-passion fruit flavored green tea with added strawberry popping boba topping. At $4.90 I didn’t think that the drink was very Pittsburgh-y other than its name.
The name makes sense since it contrasts two flavors together, but it was just a simple fruit tea that tasted strong in both the tea and boba flavors.
The last drink I had was the least sweet: completely unsweetened small wild berry tea at $4.80. After trying so much sugar, it was a shock to have one with no sweetness inside of it.
Yet, the tea wasn’t bitter or super strong in its flavor. Would I drink this again without sugar? Absolutely not. If you cannot have sugar, it is a good option.
The entire experience of Fuku Tea was a very milky one. I was a little surprised that only 1/10 of the signature drinks were fruit flavors. While they also have custom drinks, I suppose thatw means that in the customer’s eyes – and my eyes – milk tea is superior.
If you find yourself close to Pitt’s campus, stop by for something – but ask for light jelly if you’re thirsty.
