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The Whale Tea is a bubble tea company that has come all the way from Nanjing, the former capital of China. They have over 300 outlets in China alone as well as others around the world. Named after the whale because it symbolises strength and sustainability. They pride themselves in trying to match the amazing taste of bubble tea along with dazzling and eye-catching visuals. London is full of bubble tea spots now, but with their dramatic, iconic and distinctive “flaming” visuals, you cannot miss them. They’ve definitely done well to stand out visually. Top marks for looks. However, what about the taste? Did it live up to its mega status in China? Was it good enough to compete with other boba heavyweights?
The answer is an emphatic YES.
The Location
They have three stores in London: one in Queensway, one in Greenwich and the other in the Stratford Centre. We visited the Stratford branch while we were in Westfield Stratford. It is about a 10 minute walk from Westfield. It was difficult to locate in the mall as Google Maps was just sending us around in circles. After asking someone, they tentatively directed us towards a small cluster of Asian eateries and lo and behold we found the Whale Tea in there!
The Experience
We were attended to by Joyce, who was extremely accommodating and lovely. She explained their drinks on the menu, which are ultimately divided into the following categories: brown sugar, peach resin lava tea, fruit tea, whale crystal and aiyu golden jelly. They have the classic bubble teas like the brown sugar boba and strawberry fruit tea, but they also have some really unique looking and sounding ones like the creamy avocado, lava milk tea and passionfruit lava! Joyce was kind enough to offer me and my wife four drinks (thank you Joyce!)!! But we chose to just try two (we don’t like milking invites…). We opted for one of their best selling brown sugar drinks – the Flaming Whale and a fruit tea – Perfect Lychee.
Flaming Whale
The Flaming Whale is the classic brown sugar boba but with creme brûlée at the top. I’ll be honest I’ve had similar creme brûlée bubble teas at a couple of other spots (one being one of the biggest names in the game) and I never really enjoyed it. I felt they should be two separate drinks – the top half with the creme brûlée and the bottom with the tapioca pearls, and trying to combine them was just messy and pointless. However, this one right here was WOW! You sip the top creme brûlée cream from the whole provided at the top leaving some of the cream to enjoy with the rest of the drink with your boba straw. Devour the rest of the drink with the straw and you get this wonderful concoction of luscious creme brûlée, caramely brown sugar, smooth milk and the chewy tapioca. Genius! This one was a winner right here.
Perfect Lychee
The Perfect Lychee drink was a fruit tea (tasted like peach tea) with real pieces of lychee. This had a super refreshing taste to it and lychee being one of my favourite fruits, this couldn’t go wrong really. I do wish the fruit tea itself had more lychee flavour itself as this is what I assumed it’ll be. Nonetheless, I really did like this drink too. My wife did not like it as much and found the real lychee pieces a tad awkward.
Edit 30/09/2022
Cheese Tea
We were invited again this year to sample their new range of drinks: an exciting new cheese tea range. They call it the Cheezo series. They also had a new Biscoff bubble tea drink that we got to try too. Let’s talk about the Biscoff drink first. This one is most definitely for the Biscoff lovers. Essentially, the classic brown sugar bubble tea drink is smothered with Biscoff butter and then finally topped off with Biscoff crumbs (a generous amount – too generous because it is a drink that is sucked up via a straw I would suggest only have a little amount dusted on top for the flavour). It was a good drink and if you love Biscoff, you’ll probably love this. But, we’re not here for this drink.
We were here to try out the new cheese tea drinks. Cheese tea is an alternative to bubble tea – it consists of fruit or green tea (usually) with a layer of cream cheese topping. When done right and drunk right, you should get the fruitiness of the drink along with a little hint of salty and creaminess of the cream cheese. I describe it like drinking cheesecake. It may not sound appetising, but trust me, it’s really good when done right. It is the big craze of China and Taiwan. The Whale have four exciting flavours to pick from: strawberry, mango and passion fruit, peach and kiwi. Our favourite was the kiwi one. It was super refreshing and the lovely sweet and tangy kiwi flavour was complimented perfectly by the very slightly salty cream cheese. We were surprised to see that they actually use real pieces of fruit in these drinks too! Gives it that added bit of quality. Bravo! This might have just become our favourite cheese tea in London!
My personal recommendation: the flaming whale and the kiwi cheezo drink
Overall, a lovely bubble tea spot that is not only visually tremendous, but the taste matches the looks too! Their menu contains some really interesting looking drinks as well as the classics. I am sure whatever you try from here, you’ll enjoy it. This spot seems like one of those you just have to visit numerous times because it is so hard to choose what to order. I’m definitely intrigued to go back and try some of their other offerings (of course I’ll be getting the flaming whale again while I’m there!).
Getting there (Stratford Branch)
Parking: Stratford Centre car park or Westfield car park and then walk (for about 10 minutes).
Nearest Mosque: Westfield has a prayer place.
Nearest station: Stratford
Getting there (Queensway Branch)
Parking: Q-Park Queensway
Nearest Mosque: Queensway Market Mosque
Nearest station: Queensway
