Jen Tea is a bubble tea spot in London straight from the home of bubble tea, Taipei Taiwan. Tucked away in a hidden corner of an alley in Spitalfields, blink and you’ll miss it. If you don’t know of it, you probably won’t come across it. The crowds here and the popularity of the shop prove its quality. When we visited the shop was packed and the queue spilled over to the streets. There are numerous bubble tea spots in London, so, what is their selling point? One word: authenticity. They are going for authenticity here. And you can tell from the exterior to the interior to the menu and to the drinks.
What is bubble tea?
Bubble tea, or boba, is essentially a cold milk tea drink with chewy tapioca pearls, when combined a truly wonderful sensation. The classic drink is the brown sugar milk tea. Then came fruit tea drinks that are better accompanied with bubbles or jelly, that are ideal for summer and the heat. Two quite different drinks to be honest, but both are loosely termed as bubble tea today. These drinks are quite old drinks in Taiwan and China, they date back decades. They aren’t the uber trendy social media friendly drinks over there that they are currently here in London. There’s a new bubble tea spot opening up every other week on every other corner of the London streets. Every other blogger is posting a picture of their bubble tea drink. In Taiwan and China, these drinks are as common as water – I mean even McDonalds do a bubble tea drink.
And cheese tea??
So, what’s the trend in Taiwan and China now? Cheese tea! People are queuing up hours upon hours for this sensation. It has taken the imagination and taste buds of this region by storm and completely changed what people perceive as a drink or a bubble tea or a fruit tea drink. I will not go into further detail here as I want to do a more detailed post on cheese tea and where the best places in London are where to try them, so I don’t want to repeat myself. I’ll keep it brief here. What does it taste like? It is basically like drinking cheesecake and if you get the strawberry cheese tea (which you absolutely should), it’s like drinking strawberry cheesecake. Now, I don’t know if this makes it sound more or less appetising. This drink is completely different to traditional bubble teas, you’ll taste the fruity drink (maybe like a refreshing watered slushy?) plus the slightly saltiness of the cream cheese at the top of the drink. With each gulp you have to ensure you get both and then you truly appreciate and enjoy the drink. There’s actually a particular way to drink them and if you don’t drink them at that angle, you’ll have a completely different experience.
Our experience at Jen Tea
What attracted us to this spot is their authentic menu. We’ve found our favourite London bubble tea drink (i.e. the classic brown sugar milk tea) and I’m sure they do a brilliant one here, but it was an extremely hot day in London and I’m on the search for good cheese tea in London, so I was here for the strawberry cheese tea. I had high hopes because of the authenticity vibes I was getting with this place, they must do a good cheese tea right? Firstly, ordering was easy, the lady serving us was very nice and efficient. Nothing to it to be honest. Our drinks were made to order and they came out fairly quickly. They actually got one of our drinks wrong, but they corrected it right away and very politely too. How was the strawberry cheese tea? It was good. I loved it. It tasted that much better with the weather being scorching hot. It wasn’t as good as our favourite one (in Manchester), but nonetheless, a good shout for a good cheese tea in London.
Getting there
Nearest station: Liverpool Street
Nearest mosque: East London Mosque
Parking: Most if not all the roads behind the East London Mosque are free evenings and weekends, but there is literally a competition for parking spaces. So, be prepared to drive around in circles and wait till you find something to pounce on.
