Located in Breeze Taipei Station (微風台北車站), ZeZe (tel: (02) 2389-9872), which opened last month, advertises itself as a “matcha tea specialty store.” Its menu of lattes, bubble teas, ice cream and cakes would probably make tea traditionalists scream, but the sweets do a good job of highlighting the smooth, robust and very slightly bitter flavor of matcha, or finely ground green tea.
The store’s best-selling drink is its cherry pearl tea (櫻花珍珠抹茶拿鐵, NT$105 for a medium cup), which is a matcha latte with pink tapioca pearls. Unlike green tea lattes sold in many other drink stores, ZeZe’s version has very little sugar, which allows the matcha to shine. The pink tapioca pearls actually have a hint of rosewater, instead of cherry flavoring, which makes it a surprising — but successful — complement to the tea. The drink tastes great with the matcha dainagon red bean Swiss roll (抹茶大納言紅豆瑞士捲, NT$80).
ZeZe also sells matcha-flavored candy and cookies, which make a good emergency gift idea if you are in a hurry to catch a train or bus. The company’s matcha chocolate crunch (抹茶脆餅, NT$99), a puffed rice ball covered in matcha chocolate, is especially tasty.
Photo: Catherine Shu, Taipei Times
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