Blueberry Bubble Tea - Costa [@NLi10]

 We have a whole lot of cinemas in Birmingham - and two multiplexes are pretty close to our house (15 mins on the bus) so with 30 mins to show-time I'll frequently book a ticket and show up just as the trailers start.

To help with this I like to pick up a drink and a snack, but unfortunately sometimes that doesn't pan out and I have to resort to cinema food!  Starbucks actually has decent Chai Latte but Costa has never managed to get me to settle on one drink.

Today I decided that I'd go with a 'soft' drink as I was quite warm and had their Blueberry Bubble Tea for £4.40 as the Cola bottles were £3.75 and this felt more luxurious

It certainly looks that way and has the flavour filled popping bubbles which I prefer.

Overall the initial fruitiness was good, but the main body of the drink was a bit watery (maybe due to the ice) and not a patch on the Happy Lemon bubble teas that I love.  While I'd say this is a step above a make-at-home bubble tea its more of a squash with bubbles arrangement.

Ideal for a cinema visit, but I'd have much rather they gave me the tea based version instead of the juice!

I'll have to keep looking through the menu to see what else there is.

Bubbleology - Milk Tea Mixology Kit - Taro Flavour [@NLi10]

 I got this bubble tea kit for Christmas, but had been saving it til the weather was a bit warmer as it's nicer as a cold drink (the bubbles in warm drinks are a little too unnerving). 

It has everything you need - except the milk, and ice - in the box and is enough to make 4 decently sized drinks.

The instructions tell you how to mix all the bits together, but the QR code also links you to a video that says slightly different things.

It says you can use plant based things too so I used almond milk

It does worry me that they keep saying that it's science

Impressive little kit!

For the Taro version you pop the powder & milk in the blender and give it a zap, and then microwave the little tadpoles

Unfortunately I put it on for a few seconds too long and it popped.  Three seconds less and I'd have likely been fine.

I managed to get them all into the pepsi glass

I then added the blended milk mix (with a little blended ice too) and gave it a swirl.

And it worked surprisingly well!  The smells were those of the bubble tea shop, and the taro tasted pretty authentic too.  Using the non-dairy milk seemed to have not changed a thing and worked really well too.

My complaint with these has always been that it's more of a posh milkshake than a novelty tea - but behold - they say you can add 1/4 of pre-made tea to the mix for a more tea based drink - so for the next set I'll do that and see if it makes a difference.

I'll probably add another review for the tiger stripes one.