45 Degree Bubble Tea - Shaken With Ice [REVIEW]

Hanson Do

on Vancouver, Dessert

4 min read

I've recently begun a bubble tea phase. It's probably because my workplace is near a bubble tea place that lets you choose from all sorts of teas. I guess it's only fitting that when Eat With Mao hit me up to try out 45 Degrees Bubble Tea House, I was all in. With a few other food bloggers, we tasted a ton of drinks, some on the menu, and some not.

Disclosure: This was a complimentary tasting and all opinions are my own.


Drink Lineup

Drinks:

Team Mao came here for an evening bubble tea session and I had a taste of the following:

  • Phoenix Oolong Mousse with Pearls ($5 + $0.50)
  • Rose Oolong Mousse ($5)
  • Ultimate Fruit Punch ($6)
  • Black Dragon Milk Tea with Caramel Jelly
  • Rose Osmanthus Milk Tea
  • Green Apple and Pear with Four Season Oolong Tea
  • Peach Oolong Milk Tea
  • Toffee Black Tea Milk with Espresso

The drinks without prices have not yet made it on the regular menu, though I can imagine their pricing being similar and you might even get it by referencing this blog post!

Being on their feature menu, I had to get a mousse. The Phoenix Oolong Mousse was a mix of phoenix oolong with a salty caramel milk foam. The tea had a distinctive lychee profile to it which was pretty good with the mousse. To drink this properly, one presses down on the open lid, perches their lips on the cup, and tilts it 45 degrees. This allows the designed tea to mix with the mousse properly as it enters your mouth. At $5, this is just about on par with other independent bubble tea shops in the city. It's not Chatime cheap, but they also don't have 2000 locations around the world.


Phoenix Oolong Mousse with Pearls

The staff were quite enthused to instruct me on this practice and dare I say the practice worked. Ordering pearls meant I had to get a straw to fish out the leftover pearls, but kudos to the shop for letting customers choose how they like their tea.

The Rose Oolong Mousse was our other mousse of the night. I wasn't a huge fan of this as it was hard to get down to the syrup using the prescribed 45 degree technique which left a lot of rose tea in one gulp which wasn't particularly exciting.

The Ultimate Fruit Punch was made with real fruits which was a good sight and would be good for the friend you bring who actually isn't into bubble tea or coffee. It's $6 but likely a healthier choice for anyone trying to make conscious nutritional choices.

Out of the other drinks, the Peach Oolong Milk Tea was my favourite. It'd be a disservice to give it a formal review as it's not a mainstay on the menu yet. If you can visit, I'd definitely give this one a try.


Drink Lineup

No word on how the drinks are flavoured, but the strongest point of any of these teas is the variety of teas (a few oolongs, jade, pu-erh, and traditional black and whites) which make this bubble tea house worth its chops in my book.

For those who are a fan of customized ice levels (a la Chatime or Shiny Tea), they will be pleased to know that 45 Degree Bubble Tea House cools their drinks through shaking with ice, but fill their cups to be served chilled and with no additional ice. That's a huge draw for me as it helps to maintain a consistent flavour and allows the mousses to be tiered and still be served chilled.


Menu

Features:

The interior of 45 Degree Bubble Tea House is basically a blank slate at this point. There's a ton of art displayed at the front but the inner walls leave much room to be decorated. There is however, free Wi-Fi, 4 outdoor seats, and about 20 more seats inside.


Inside 45 Degree Tea

The cups used here deserve special note. Those will smaller hands will enjoy the ease of holding these firm cups as they employ a smaller circumference than Chatime. However, only one size is available for each drink.


45 Degree Tea Art

Service:

Here you'll place and pay for your order prior to receiving it. The menu at the cashier is nicely illuminated so you can easily make a drink choice and you'll pick up your order at the side counter once it's made. The staff were courteous on our visit and bothered to explain the difference between Milk Tea and Fresh Milk Tea on the menu (the traditional milk teas use milk powder for the authentic Taiwanese experience).


Outside 45 Degree Tea Bubble House

Final Thoughts:

One-liner: A solid bubble tea house offering an array of tea leaves and chilled drinks served with no additional ice
Highlight: Phoenix Oolong Tea
Price per person: $4-$7
Would I go back? Yes.