Hi Friends! A new dessert power-house has come to down and it goes by the name of ZenQ. These franchises have been popping up all over Metro Vancouver.
ZenQ is the sister store of the infamous Chatime that I’m sure most of us have seen around by now. Chatime has been making it’s entry into Vancouver for the last two years and now it was time to bring in ZenQ. They currently have locations in Richmond, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver. A Surrey location is currently in the works too.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of going to the media event hosted at the no. 3 location of ZenQ. This spot is right beside an escape room which makes it the perfect location for a good time out. I’ve only been to their location that was a combined Chatime and ZenQ in Coquitlam so I was excited to be able to go to an independent one.
Prior to this, I’ve only tried drinks from Chatime so I looked forward to seeing how they fared against each other.
Lychee black tea
I don’t get fruit teas often because I find that the tea flavor becomes an afterthought but it wasn’t the case with this one. You could definitely tell that this was black tea at first sip and the light fruitiness of the lychee helped dull the bitterness that can come with black tea.
Earl grey milk tea with grass jelly
I chose to try this one because it’s their number 1 drink. I’m not a fan of earl grey tea but I would probably get this one again. The bergamot flavor from earl grey tea was floral and present and the milk made it creamy. I liked that it came with grass jelly instead of pearls too because it added a herb-y earthiness to it.
Homemade taro milk
Apparently you can’t get homemade, fresh, natural taro milk tea any where else in Vancouver since usually powder is used. Despite the fact that it was made from real taro, it was still purple! Imagine enjoying a taro milkshake but hot. That’s what this drink was like. I got it unsweetened and the natural flavors of the taro helped sweeten it up all on it’s own. I would definitely be back for this.
The thing that sets ZenQ apart from most bubble tea joins is that they offer Taiwanese desserts. Being that I lived in Taiwan for a year, I was interested to see how these matched up to the ones there.
Taro frappe
This is their top frappe and comes with taro flavoured frappe flaked ice, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, fresh taro and Q balls (glutinous rice balls). The frappe was more sticky than flaky and soft in texture. The starch from the taro root must of contributed to this happening. The taro flavour isn’t too strong or artificial and there was a light sweetness to it. I’m not sure what the sauce on top was but it added a nice pop of purple colour. I liked the addition of fresh taro but wasn’t a fan of the Q balls. Since this was a cold preparation, the Q balls firmed up in the bowl and this prevented them from remaining soft and chewy.
ZenQ tofu pudding
The first thing I thought when this came to the table was “this is gorgeous!” The tofu pudding was soft and silky with a light sweetness to it. The peanuts added a nutty savoury note and the Qballs and pearls a chewy textural element to everything. It was amazing! Unfortunately the bowl was quite shallow so it looks bigger than it was. This was disappointing because we couldn’t get enough of it.
Tofu pudding with taro: This was a taro rendition of the ZenQ tofu pudding. Because taro was added, there was a lot less of the pearls, Q-balls and the peanuts. We got this one to go and the portion was definitely smaller than if you had it in store. It was equally as tasty though. As with the frappe, the Q balls were not as soft as we would of liked so I think they might be better if you have them as a hot preparation.
