On a crisp autumn night with the moon suspended in a perfect sphere overhead, we made our way to Boston Tea Stop for bubble tea and mochi ice cream. In high spirits after taking in the latest culture show, we decided that some dessert would be the perfect icing to a jubilant evening.
Bubble tea always makes me smile breitling superocean replica. It has been my post-beach drink of choice for a number of years. Back home in Hawaii, emerging from the surf just as the sun was setting, we would stop for bubble tea on the way home.
For those unfamiliar with bubble tea, in its traditional form, it is a beverage made by adding tapioca beads (the size of pearls) to milk tea. The chewy beads float around toward the bottom of the drink. Hawaii’s hospitable climate resulted in my preference for chilled bubble tea, but of late, Boston’s impending winter has sparked a dramatic behavioral change. (Did I mention the nifty, innovative plastic seals Boston Tea Stop applies as covers? I like the sealing technique because it makes for easy, spill-proof transport!)
Tonight, I am happily sipping the “hot” honey milk tea, and mulling over the mochi ice cream menu. I have been a big fan of mochi since I was a little girl. Every New Year’s my family rounds up to pound mochi from scratch. Everyone brings different fillings and garnishing-in addition to the traditional azuki (red bean), peanut butter and kinako (soy flour) mochi regularly make appearances. In terms of mochi ice cream, the pure, unadulterated vanilla usually wins me over. Sometimes less is more.
Nonetheless, the array of flavors at Boston Tea Stop is intriguing. There’s peanut butter, red bean, mango, lychee, green tea, blueberry, pumpkin, raspberry white chocolate, chocolate espresso, chocolate mint, cherry blossom, and strawberry dark chocolate.
With no vanilla to fall back on, we decide to be culinary daredevils-pumpkin, green tea and chocolate espresso win the flavor deliberations. In truth, I have to admit that pumpkin mochi sounds unlikely to be yummy yum. I distinctly wonder if I should have simply played it safe and stuck to Niranjana’s tried-and-true dessert recipes.
But the moment I take my first bite of pumpkin mochi, I am struck by how delicious it is-the ice cream filling has a tantalizing cinnamon taste to it. The green tea turns out to be good, too-but in a standard way. No flavor explosions like with the pumpkin. (By the way tag heuer replica for sale , I think they should rename this mochi “pumpkin spice” or “pumpkin pie.”) Finally, the chocolate espresso turns out to be my favorite-rich and creamy espresso expertly captured in frozen form. The consistency and thickness of the outer layer of mochi is just right all around.
As a last note, the atmosphere of the shop is nothing to rave about-this is not the romantic last stop you want to make if you are out on a mission to impress a date, but it might make a good, casual spot to stake out a small table for a one-man study session on a low-traffic night!
We bound out the door on an espresso-induced high, and admire the luminous moon.
Boston Tea Stop
54 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: (617) 945-0017
Hours of Operation:
MON-SUN: 12:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m.
AUTHOR’S BIOGRAPHY www.replicabestsale.co.uk
Kay Fukunaga was born and raised on three islands in Hawaii: Oahu, Molokai, and Maui. She attended Dartmouth College and worked as an economist in New York prior to HBS.
