50 嵐

Location: 129號1樓, Daxue Rd, Sanxia District, New Taipei City, 237

Boba Taiwan Grading (BTG): 75.5/100

Number of Stores: 500 (in Taiwan)

Price of the Boba Tea: 55 TWD

Order: Boba Milk Tea (Large Pearl), Regular Sugar Levels, Regular Ice Levels

Overview: 50 嵐 is a boba tea chain located primarily in Northern Taiwan, known as the most popular place for a boba run in Taipei. Its tea is exceptionally well made and its pearls are on the harder and chewier side. 50 嵐 is a solid boba place for boba lovers.

Boba Taiwan Grading Overview:

Quality of the Boba Tea (QBT): 63.1/80

Quality of the Pearl: 29.1/40

• Chewiness: 8/10 - The pearl is extraordinarily chewy, with a just-right elasticity to the pearl. It requires at least four to five chews for the pearl to be fully absorbed in the mouth. The rebound from the chew is immense.

• Hard/softness: 6/10 - The hardness of the pearl is slightly too extensive, and could be more enjoyable if the pearl were only slightly softer. However, the style of hard and chewy pearl is quite agreeable.

• Relative size: 2.2/2.5 - The size of the boba is only slightly too small for the straw, perhaps because the default size of pearl for 50 Lan is "Small Pearl". It is also slightly too small for the mouth but makes up for its size in its quantity.

• Amount of Pearl (relative to Volume of Drink): 1.9/2.5 - There are many more pearls than there are tea. There is also too much ice, after finishing the tea, and conflicts with the eating of the leftover pearls.

• Lumpiness: 5/5 - There were no lumps of pearls that made a jam in the straw, which resulted in full points.

• Taste (or sweetness level): 3/5 - There is barely any taste in the pearl, with the minimal regular rice-doughy flavor that most pearls have.

• Spherical quality and perfection (of pearl): 3/5 - The pearls are consistently round and spherical. However, when bitten into, they can hook onto teeth and create not a clean feeling to the pearl, but a sticky one.

Quality of Tea: 34/40

• Sweetness: 8/10 - The tea was not too sweet, and did not have too little sugar either, with just the right amount. The sugar has a honey-like syrup flavor but is not overly honeylike or syrupy.

• Milkiness: 7/10 - There is a little milk detectable in the milk tea, offering a tea-to-milk ratio slightly favored towards the tea.

• Concentration of tea: 8/10 - There is a large amount of tea detectable in the milk tea, offering a tea-to-milk ratio favored towards the tea.

• Aftertaste: 4/5 - The aftertaste is the syrup of the tea that is left in the mouth much longer than any other ingredient, as well as the pearl, which takes much longer to chew because of its exceptional elasticity.

• Wateriness: 7/10 - The amount of water is quite good, but can be made slightly more in order to counteract the effects of the strong syrup used to sweeten the drink.

Quality of the Shop (QS): 12/20

• Delivery Speed: 3/5 - There was nothing exemplary of the speed of delivery, which is the reason for the base point of 3 points. The order was completed in around one and a half minutes, including the payment and the recieving of the order.

• Quality of Store: 3/5 - There was nothing exemplary of the quality of the store, which is the reason for the base point of 3 points. It is clean and organized as a boba store should be, with a reasonable amount of lighting and working space. The working space can be larger, because of the number of staff present (3).

• Quality of Service: 3/5 - There was nothing exemplary of the quality of service, which is the reason for the base point of 3 points. The server was neither extremely friendly nor was she extremely professional. She worked with two others, one of whom welcomed and thanked customers, in a robotic and high-pitched tone.

• Quality of Utensils: 3/5 - There was nothing exemplary of the quality of utensils, which is the reason for the base point of 3 points. The cup was of very good quality, with wonderful insulation and thickness. The straw was an average straw, and yet when it sliced into the plastic wrapping, it failed to cleanly punch through (it made it in one stroke however). Most things were a positive normal, and so the points given were positive normal.