Ikoi Cha has been popping up in the Metro Vancouver area lately so we wanted to see what it was about. Currently there is a location downtown and another in Burnaby around the Renfrew-Collingwood area. We went to the downtown location and there was lots of cafe seating on the inside. The look was quite modern and neutral with woodsy and white coloured furniture.
Taro + Mochi milk tea
I was super excited to try this drink because it looked sooo good in the photo. Unfortunately, it was far too sweet. The milk tea was pre-made and sweetened so we weren’t able to customize it in any way. Usually this is fine because we’ve ordered uncustomized drinks before and it wasn’t too sweet. However their milk tea was very sweet (in my opinion) and with the added mashed taro and mochi, it was almost too sweet to drink. For a $8 drink, I was highly disappointed.
Matcha milk tea with mochi and red bean
I wish I could say that this drink was better but unfortunately, it was even sweeter than the previous drink. Either they use sweetened matcha or add quite a bit of sugar syrup to it because it was far too sweet to even drink. We took our drinks to go as well so we weren’t able to have them fixed in any way. The matcha milk tea had a hint of matcha flavour amongst the strong sweetness and the red bean, also having been sweetened, did not help. This drink was also $8 and that price would be fine if the drink was tasty but it was yet another disappointment.
We had high hopes coming to Ikoi Cha but both left disappointed and as though we wasted our money. Their drinks are at a higher price point than other spots in Vancouver which made us expect a premium experience but it was not that at all. While I love that they offer oat milk as an option, we probably won’t be inclined to return.
