Rewts brews up exciting new boba tea experience
Alongside Half and Half, Cup o’ Joy and Volcano Tea House comes the newest addition to quench USC’s tea obsession. Located opposite the popular restaurants Bacaro L.A. and Nature’s Brew on Hoover Street, Rewts Tea Bar offers a plethora of specialty teas, boba and coffee for those late nights or just for a simple cup of tea.
Known as bubble tea, pearl milk tea or simply boba, the Taiwanese tea-based beverage has taken Southern California by storm. The Taiwanese drink is a simple mixture of sweetened tea with milk and a chewy topping. The demand for boba milk tea has driven many shops to favor speed over taste however. Many stores use powders for a quick milk tea, and boil, then refrigerate, large amounts of tapioca pearls at one time. During the blending process, most stores powder, sugar and shake in an assembly line. This often leaves the boba with a rubbery texture and the milk tea tasting similar to a ready-made, instant mixture.
Co-owner Tony Chen, being a tea enthusiast himself, felt the need to provide the public with quality service and ingredients.
“People deserve better and I can do better,” Chen said.
In just a couple of months since its Dec. 14 grand opening, Rewts has received positive reviews as well as a very high rate of returning customers -— some four times a week and others who visit twice a day.
“All items are made from scratch, can be made cold or hot, with or without milk,” Chen said. “Everything is very customizable.”
True to its word, Rewts spares no expense to provide the very best for the customers. Down to the minutest detail, this tea bar always keeps the consumer’s health and satisfaction in mind. Each page of the menu not only categorizes drinks by type but also by nutrition and calories. Not many other stores go the extra mile and offer the option to replace an entire drink if it failed to meet the customer’s expectation.
“Ingredients are G.M.O-free. We use Stevia sweetener which is diabetic-safe,” Chen said. “For a drink place, the sweetener is the most important part of the recipe.”
The purpose of this is to give customers the sweetness without the negative impacts of regular sugar and corn syrup.
The store includes a variety of classic favorites and enough exotic flavors to satisfy the most skeptical customer.
“One of our main goals was to introduce people to a more interesting way of having tea,” Chen said. “We serve it plain, blended with milk, and tea blended with juices.”
During those hot So Cal afternoons, Rewts provides refreshing ice-blended drinks. For a quick picker upper, customers can’t go wrong with the “latteas,” or milk teas. Notably, this tea bar’s most impressive menu would have to be their tea sangrias, which blends the tangy taste of juice and expertly brewed tea. In addition to a variety of organic teas and all-natural boba, Rewts serves a limited coffee selection. Coffee fans can feel at home with Rewt’s shakerato: a shot of expresso shaken over ice, with a dash of simple syrup and topped off with their sweetener.
Of course, every new store faces its own set of problems. Though Rewts has had some rough patches, it has continually improved their already efficient operations without sacrificing quality. Customers crave Rewts’ boba so much that the store occasionally runs out before closing time. Yet the hazel hue of the tapioca isn’t the only difference between Rewts and other tea stores.
“It’s sweet and the starch itself is subtly sweet. That’s why most places start soaking it in sweetener to give it flavor,” Chen said. “Rewts uses turbinado sugar or raw sugar to enhance its natural flavor instead of trying to make it taste like something else, like honey.”
Some of their best sellers include their house-blend tea, a black tea with a slight floral finish, as well as the taro from their milk tea menu. The taro milk drink comes with small chunks of real taro. From their tea sangria menu, customers often ask for the blood orange and the Formosa.
Rewt’s modern decor and spacious interior welcome casual diners for a sociable afternoon or a quiet study space. Customers can sit near the bar and watch their drinks as they are crafted.
“Our main focus is for customers to be able to use this space how they want so they can enjoy their time here. That’s why the layout is kind of open,” Chen said. “You can choose a place where you feel comfortable. At the grass in the front, the back or at the bar.”
With a variety of regular teas, milk teas, ice-blended drinks, coffee and tea sangrias, Rewts boasts a spectrum of refreshments for both the casual tea drinker and the caffeine addict. Unlike a regular cafe, however, Rewts Tea Bar combines the experience of both a tea shop and a coffee house.
Expect to wait slightly longer than at a regular tea stop. Each drink is carefully tailor-made, which takes a little bit of time, but is worth the wait.
“Our ways of doing things are more geared towards being eco-friendly and healthy. And towards people who are conscious about their lives and having things healthy,” Chen said. “We really care about what we do.”