Tastea

Having passed through the food kiosks situated outside People’s Park Complex quite a number of times, we barely paid much attention to the offerings that are beignets served up at those stalls until recently — the area is often jammed up with crowds passing through and gazing at what those stalls have to offer, while the stalls do generally serve up items that are more tuned towards the Chinese audiences. Whilst Tastea is a stall that had operated from its premises for quite a while now, it was only in recent times that we had noticed about their offerings aside from bubble tea. Primarily being a drinks kiosk serving up bubble tea as well as a variety of Taiwan-style dessert featuring jellies, boba and Mochi balls, it seems that Tastea had recently added a new line-up of Cheese Cream Mochi in the past couple of months. The range of Mochi with Cream Cheese comes in four (4) different flavours of mochi — one can either go for the Mochi with Cheese Cream to come in a pack of a single flavour such as that of Matcha, Sweet Potato, Bean Powder and Oreo, or go straight for a mix of all four flavours with their Mix Mochi with Cream Cheese.

While the easiest option to give all four flavours of the Mochi with Cream Cheese a try would be their Mix Mochi with Cream Cheese, we were a bit concerned with the pricing over the item. On the photos illustrated on the menu, it does seem that the Mix Mochi with Cream Cheese came with just as many Mochi pieces as the ones that only came with an individual flavour would — the pricing at $12.80 for the Mix Mochi with Cream Cheese against $5.80 for a box of Mochi with Cream Cheese with a single flavour of Mochi was a little ludicrous in our view. Considering so, we eventually went straight for the Sweet Potato Mochi with Cream Cheese instead. The Sweet Potato Mochi with Cream Cheese came with Mochi pieces that is in a shade of purple; it also comes with a small container of cream cheese and some crisp wafer bits that are packed in a small ziplock bag. Pouring the crisp wafer bits into the box, the whole idea about having the Sweet Potato Mochi with Cheese Cream was to dip the Mochi pieces into the cheese cream, and then have some of the crisp wafer bits to cover the cheese cream-coated Mochi pieces for an added texture. The Sweet Potato Mochi with Cheese Cream does not attempt to reinvent the wheel here; the Mochi pieces did come with a firmer bite than what we expected initially, though is still bouncy and chewy on its own with a slightly sweet note in its finish likely from the sweet potato. Meanwhile, the cream cheese did add a slightly creamy texture and a slightly tangy note to the Mochi — something almost akin to the cheese foam one would expect at bubble tea kiosks; the wafer crisps does add a light crispness for a slight variance of texture as it should. Overall, a rather decent dessert item that is worth trying once for the curious, though an item which we are unlikely to order again especially given its price point at $5.80.

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Price: $1 - Promotion?

Good and cheap. Standard wintermelon tea with agar/aiyu jelly. Good enough to quench my thirst.