Pineapple Oolong (Bubble Tea)

So yesterday was the Montreal Tea Festival! After two years of virtual festivals following the first in person one in 2019, it was really nice to be back to a real life event. Sadly there were less vendors this time around, and I think maybe some of the buzz and excitement from the success of the first year had died down – but that’s easy to understand after the pandemic.

Even with less vendors I ended up spending quite a bit on a solid assortment of tea samples, teaware, and treats for myself. I also sampled a lot of tea, and drank my fair share of RTDs and bubble tea during the eight hour event – and that’s where this comes in! There were actually two bubble tea stands this year, so of course I got a bubble tea at both. It stood out because I don’t recall a single bubble tea vendor in attendance in 2019.

Of the two bubble teas I ordered, I think this was my preferred – but there were other cools things about the second stand that I’ll get to in a minute with that tasting note! I’m just such a predictable person though that of course I wanted to try the pineapple. It was great though! Tasted sweet and ripe and had blended up/pureed pineapple in it as well; so a very true/authentic pineapple as opposed to a flavoured powder addition. What was best though was how much actual tea was included too; this was clearly a pretty roasted/oxidized oolong base and it had a lot of grilled nuttiness and roast to it that combined with the pineapple created this explosion of flavour that made me think of summer barbeques. Not too sweet and not undersweetened either!