Thursday, January 21, 2010

Bubble Tea in Seoul


You know, I was in Korea for a year and 4 months, and never once did I see a bubble tea shop, or even a coffee shop that served bubble tea. I thought that the fad must have passed in Asia, because I was only able to get it in Chinatown at home. Saturday evening, though, we decided to go somewhere for coffee near my Korean class, and as we looked across the street, there was conveniently located a bubble tea shop. I ordered a hot green tea (powder green tea, the best kind) bubble tea. I've never seen a hot bubble tea before, usually when I get bubble tea, it's more shake-like than tea-like. But, nevertheless, this was a tasty tea, served with a spoon (think those spoons you get in most Asian restaurants outside of Korea) to scoop up the tapioca pearls. My friend ordered some sort of cold drink with the tapioca pearls, which also looked quite yummy. If you happen to run across this place in the Sookmyung Women's university area, you should definitely check it out. I also highly recommend the dalk galbi place across the street!!


If you are curious about what bubble tea is, see here for the wikipedia article.


To arrive, take the side street between exit 8 and 9, go under the train bridge and cross the street. Go up with the street with the GS25 on the corner and look for it about a minute later on your right.

7 comments:

  1. i've been here for 2 months and I've been looking for a 'Quickly' franchise location here in Seoul. On the Quickly plastic cups back in California, they had some locations listed and "Korea" was one of them. However I can't seem to find it anywhere :(
    The Quickly website doesn't have it, and my internet searches have been fruitless. Maybe I'll check this place out, since I can't find my beloved Quickly anywhere ...

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  2. Hmmm... I've never heard of Quickly before... but I'm from the east cost..

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  3. WHERE IS THIS PLACE!!!

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  4. if you go out sookmyung women's university station exit 9 and take the first right, you'll go under a bridge and cross a street. Keep following the same street and it will be on your left after another minute walk.

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  5. quickly is in myeongdong! the easiest way to explain how to get there is to go out exit 6 at euljiro 1-ga station and just walk straight down the street past a hotel & cgv (on your left) and lotte department store across the street on your right. if you keep walking you'll eventually see quickly on your left next to a turkish restaurant or something like that.

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  6. What exactly is a Quickly, anyway? Do they sell bubble tea?

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  7. Thanks to the blogger and the other anonymous commenters! I've been craving bubble tea (boba tea) and didn't see any around at all, even near most of the universities...which I thought was odd. I guess it's just not that popular outside of the Chinese/Taiwanese communities in the U.S./Canada as well as of course other Chinese-speaking regions in Asia. For example, it was almost non-existent in Japan, except for a scattered few in the Chinatowns. It was a luxury to have a boba tea there...had to go out specifically searching for it and it was kinda expensive...along with everything else in Japan...haha.

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