Factory Tea Bar (Fremont, CA) – Blogger event meet ups make me a little nervous tbh. It’s intimidating meeting other people who super creative and social when you aren’t always the latter. Luckily, I’ve met a few of the other bloggers in attendance before – including Michael from Between Balloons, who organized the whole thing!
I’ve had Factory Tea Bar’s milk tea before when my sister’s picked it up for me, so I was excited to come and try out their other drinks! I hadn’t been to the shop at this point so I’d get the full experience.
It has a good amount of space and I like the insides. They have a cool Da Vinci inspired mural along the wall with the San Francisco skyline and golden gate bridge and another side is decorated with different album covers and records. Apparently they used to have one in So Cal that had a beach theme complete with sand indoors, but that one just closed down. =/’
Factory Tea Bar is focusing on creating a fun community space – which I think this side of Fremont needs. There aren’t that many hang out spots and FTB provides a bunch of board games and events like open mic night.
While we were hanging out, we each tried a few drinks from their menu. I ordered the Classic Milk Tea with Coffee Jelly, the Matcha Latte with Boba, and their Coachella lemonade in Passion Peach. I really liked the classic milk tea – it’s got a nice tea flavor while also not being overly sweet. I stuck to 75% because I like things a little on the sweeter side. I liked that the coffee jelly infused my tea with a coffee flavor, but I don’t like the texture in my drink. I would just stick to boba in the future.
The next drink is the matcha latte that was with regular boba. As you all know, I’m not a big fan of matcha – I find the taste too strong and grassy for my liking. I LOVE green tea – but in tea form with loose leaves, which how it’s consumed in Pakistan. But I figured since I was out here to try some of their top drinks – so why not? And I was pleasantly surprised. The matcha blended with the milk tea really well, so you get hints of matcha flavor without being overpowered. I would make sure to keep this drink stirred since the matcha flavor does separate and gather at the bottom, and if your straw is all the way to the bottom you will get that grassy flavor. Their boba is really good too – it’s nice and chewy, making it addicting!
And finally the Coachella Lemonade. I was told that these are on the sour side, so I made sure to increase my sugar level for it. I kept it plain since I like my lemonade simple. They come in 5 flavors: original, passion peach, lychee, strawberry, and grapefruit. I got the passion peach – partially for the color because it was so vibrant but i also genuinely enjoy those flavors. A lot of my fellow bloggers thought these were too sour for them, likely because it’s all freshly made versus concentrate, but I liked it because of that; I love tart things so it’s up my alley. I do think getting the peach one would be better if you’re not crazy about sour flavors because it’s naturally sweet so it balances it out. This would be perfect on a day as hot as Coachella. 😉
I also got to try their snacks. The popcorn chicken was decent, It was cooked perfectly and the outside was crispy but it was too peppery for me. I wish it also had a more flavorful spice blend because it’s missing that! The pepper doesn’t provide the same intensity and flavor the way the multi spice blend does. The chicken wing and gyoza were good as well. But, my favorite snack were their seasoned fries. SO ADDICTING. At first i wanted to call them garlic fries, but another blogger called them sour cream and onion fries and i think that’s much more apt. It’s super addicting like the chips, so you’ll easily finish your order.
There was also a beef noodle soup that may be coming to the menu – it was in the testing phase. And we also got to try their dessert menu which is also coming soon – with shaved ices! There are several available including lemon and lime. I loved the presentation of these!
Overall, I would totally come back to FTB. I already knew I liked the classic milk tea but they have a lot too offer from the lemonades to their other unique drinks like their rose milk tea. There’s something for everyone and a bunch of fun flavors to try as well. And i’m totally coming back for those fries. It always makes me happy to see my hometown get more hang out spots – there were only so many places you could go to when I was in high school!
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