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Tokyo tapioca tea takeover continues with a new massive boba drink stand in Shibuya【Photos】

Casey Baseel Oct 5, 2019
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Mr. Sato refuses to back down from gigantic sweet tea challenges.

SoraNews24’s crack Japanese-language reporter Mr. Sato got to where he is in life by always staying hungry. He does this both in a figurative sense, risking his very life in pursuit of scoops, and also in a literal sense, by just eating a lot.

But in his never-ending quest for self-improvement, Mr. Sato has recently learned the importance of staying thirsty too. So after downing one mega-sized tapioca milk tea on the streets of Tokyo, he went looking for another, and that search took him to Toki Seven Tea.

Toki Seven Tea got a bit of a jump on Japan’s current boba boom, opening its first location in 2017. It’s now got close to a dozen branches in Tokyo, but the one Mr. Sato visited might have the best location of all of them, as it’s on Center-gai, the street of shops, restaurants, and bars that runs right into the world-famous Shibuya Scramble intersection that’s adjacent to Shibuya Station.

The cafe has a full lineup of tapioca tea drinks, available in medium, large, or mega sizes, and, of course, Mr. Sato opted for the mega, which is a full liter (33.8 ounces).

▼ Although it sounds even more decadently impressive when you say it’s “1,000 milliliters.”

At 770 yen (US$7.15), Toki Seven Tea’s giant tapioca tea is quite a bit cheaper than the similarly sized drink offered in Tokyo by rival chain Mot Tram, and with his budgetary concerns alleviated Mr. Sato cheerfully ordered a mega-size jasmine milk tea, which was promptly served to him in a massive cup.

▼ Japan is usually a land of much more modest food and drink portions, and Mr. Sato wondered where Toki Seven Tea gets their giant drink containers from.

A quick sip told Mr. Sato that Toki Seven Tea’s boba is delicious, but in a different way from Mot Tram’s. Whereas Mot Tram’s boba is a syrupy pseudo-solid at the bottom of the cup until you stir it, Toki Seven Tea’s is milder in flavor, with the looks to match. From the very start, you can make out individual tapioca pearls, and while it’s still definitely sweet, the sugariness is kept at a level where it’s still refreshing and has a crisp aftertaste.

Because of that, Mr. Sato found himself taking sip after sip, soothing his parched throat during an unusually hot and humid autumn afternoon.

There’s only one potential problem, which is that Toki Seven Tea’s giant boba works so well as a drink that Mr. Sato forgot about pacing his tapioca slurping, and ended up with plenty of pearls left over at the bottom of the cup.

Luckily, though, he’s got an idea for how to use them.

Shop information
Toki Seven Tea (Shibuya branch)
Address: Tokyo-to, Shibuya-ku, Udagawa-cho 23-11
東京都渋谷区宇田川町23−11
Open 11 a.m.-11 p.m.
Website

Photos ©SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]