Brisbane One in South Brisbane is a moderately new block of apartments. Although it took a little bit of time to get their commercial occupancies filled, recent years have bought with it quite a few exciting openings that make me wish that I lived on site. Recently Orange Tea took up lodgings on the ground floor, sharing the space with Sam's Chicken.
Given the prices of bubble tea these days, we were happy to line up on opening weekend for their buy one get one free promotion. Whilst in line, we were then further enticed with buy one get one free vouchers in exchange for five star reviews on google.
The menu was pretty much the same as their Sunnybank store, offering interesting options like gelato tea and of course their signature orange tea. Service was fast and efficient, especially given it was opening day.
The first time we went, I had an orange tea and Dr L had the lychee oolong tea which was one of the limited free drinks.
Compared to other bubble tea stores, orange tea actually offers one whole orange in its fragrant green tea while other shops just mix in orange juice. The result is a far fresher and crisper experience which stands out to me as a must order. Dr L also remarked that his lychee oolong was fresh but mellow, making for a delicious beverage. The dedication to plastic straws is also a definite selling point.
Wanting to utilise our vouchers, we returned twice within quick succession. The next time we enjoyed our drinks with dinner from Sam's Chicken. Dr L had a taro milk tea and I had a smoky oolong tea with smoky oolong gelato. Dr L was particularly impressed that the taro was made with fresh paste and that they were very generous with the portions. The tea was fragrant and the milk was creamy, definitely one of the better taro milk teas around. My smoky oolong with gelato was unique as it was delicious, the smoky flavours definitely came through and I was pleased that the drink was sweet enough with just the ice cream in unsweetened tea.
In fact I enjoyed my gelato tea so much that on our last visit, I had the black tea with a scoop of earl grey gelato, this time infusing some floral scents into my beverage. Dr L opted for papaya milk which was unique to this chain, we don't think we've seen it anywhere else in Brisbane. I was really impressed with the generous chunk of papaya that they blended into Maleny milk. Both drinks were again well received. Given how close this store is from home, I have no doubts we will be back in no time.
Price Range: Less than $10pp
Taste: 8/10
Value: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: 7/10