Keep It Sweet [Chinatown]

Keep It Boba in Chinatown, SF

First place? Of course a little corner store in Chinatown that many people overlook. It has a selection of drinks from hot teas to slushies and smoothies and everything in between. However, the drink I was there for was classic green tea boba. Being a very small corner store in Chinatown, Keep It Sweet doesn't add-on much to the actual price of their drinks. A medium sized green tea boba was $3.75 and, for that price, the quality exceeded my expectations.

Here's the breakdown:

Tapioca Balls:

First off, the balls — the consistency was exactly what I hope to get every time I purchase a boba drink. It wasn't undercooked (looking at you, places that sell boba that I have to chew on for minutes); the boba was soft and perfectly cooked.

Overall Taste:

Now, the taste. The drink felt a bit watered down so the taste of green tea wasn't as strong as I was expecting. It could be a plus for those who don't necessarily like the bitterness of green/black tea on its own. As someone who drinks unsweetened green tea every day, I found this drink not as saturated as I hoped for.

Sugar Levels:

Next, the sugar. You can probably ask to make it more/less sweet but I wanted to let them just do a regular drink for me. To me, it felt like it was about 25-35% sweetness, which I liked. Again, I like the bitterness of the tea so less sugar creates quite a pleasant taste for me. If you think you wouldn't like that, you can probably ask them to make it sweeter for you.

Ice Levels:

Similar to sugar, many places don't allow you to choose the portioning of ice. (Again, you can probably ask to customize here but I wanted to keep it consistent). Their ice amount was perfect, in my opinion. They didn't fill up the whole cup and I only had about 1/4 a cup with ice, which creates a pleasant cold taste.

Boba:Drink Ratio:

Lastly, (and most importantly), the ratio of boba:drink. Keep It knew exactly how to portion it just right so I wouldn't have any tapioca balls left once I'm done with my drink. Hence, no waste!

Overall Rating: 7/10

Go visit Keep It Sweet at 1170 Powell Street and let me know your thoughts in the comments!