Vegan tapioca drink at Rinrincha

Tapioca milk tea originated from Taiwan has been very popular in recent months. Though there are several places in the downtown where you can drink it, it was difficult to find a vegan version. However, I’ve found one at last! On the ground floor of the main building of Entetsu Department Store, there is a tapioca drink shop Rinrincha (林林茶). It is beside the entrance, where there was Subway shop before.

On the wall, they have posters of two kinds of drink they have. One is Tapioca Peach Jasmine Greentea, which I don’t think they had before. During the lunch break, I went there to try it. After buying a ticket from a vending machine and bringing it to the counter, I waited for a minute. Fortunately, there were only a few customers, and I could have a seat. When I passed by the shop last Sunday, there were so many customers that it seemed to be difficult to sit at ease.

This is Tapioca Peach Jasmine Greentea. Since it was Jasmine tea, it wasn’t green despite of the name. It was fruity with a flavor of peach. But the flavor of jasmine was relatively weak. Maybe I was so absorbed in tapioca pearls on the bottom of the cup that I couldn’t notice it clearly.

It was fun to suck up tapioca pearls through a thick straw. According to some websites, they are made from cassava, but I noticed immediately that the ones I was eating had a flavor of black sugar. As I like black sugar, it was a pleasant surprise. Later, I learned that the shop features these black sugar tapioca pearls. They were elastic and bigger than I expected. They reminded me of a substantial dessert like warabimochi. You may like them if you like gummies.

When I finished the tea, there were still some pearls remaining on the bottom, under ice. I managed to suck them up but wondered if there was a trick to eat them smoothly. Maybe I should have stirred the tea occasionally to float pearls.

Unfortunately, Rinrincha is a temporary shop that will be closed at the end of September. I hope they will open a similar shop somewhere in downtown. There tapioca pearls are so good.