#lelecha

When people say “Let's go get milk tea." nowadays it generally refers to getting some sort of beverage. It is not just limited to milk tea, but it could also refers to fruit tea, fruit juice, milk shakes, yogurts or even coffee. The most popular drink is Mixue’s lemon tea or bubble tea because they are generally the cheapest. Bubble tea with boba are not as common nowadays because I think they are not trendy anymore.

In the cities and especially around shopping districts, there are beverage shops in every corner. Competition is high so instead of coming out with new drinks frequently, accessories such as delivery bags, cup sleeves, straw wrappings and toys are released to stimulate purchase. As a result, there grows collectors who collects those limited release.

A word of caution:

This is a consumerism trap.

Milk tea are not healthy. Sugar is added when they are making the tea concentrate so even “no-added sugar” option does not guarantee no additional sugar in your tea.

Lelecha is a modern tea café, specializing in hand-crafted beverages made with real milk, premium tea leaves, and fresh fruit. It was founded in Shanghai in 2016. This location also has baked goods. I think they went viral for their giant egg tarts.

The baked goods were limited to four items: giant butter caramel egg custard tarts, tiramisu custard tarts, tiramisu tale (cake), and the green book (matcha cake).

For drinks, they have milk tea, pure tea, and fruit teas. You can specify the level of ice and sweetness. Add-ins include boba, cheezo topping, taro balls, jellies, crystal boba, etc. No grass jelly.

Floral quartet oolong milk tea ($4.49 for a medium), added milk mochi, no sugar added, less sugar. I wasn’t sure what milk mochi was but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t chewy at all but was pasty like overcooked rice. The rest of the milk tea was good – not overly milky (the sign of using real milk), pleasant floral tea flavor,

Butter caramel egg custard tart ($5.49): served warm! The pastry had thin, flaky, crisp layers. The custard was thicker than usual, silky, smooth, delicate, eggy and not too sweet. The caramel was drizzled on and added some sweetness but not as much as I expected.

The bakery is cute and homey. The door handles look like long baguettes. There is no indoor seating but there are a few tables outside. Parking was easy to find. It’s in a strip mall.

4 out of 5 stars