Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea Plano — Restaurant in Plano

Update: Upon learning there is a change in ownership, I am updating my review to more accurately reflect the service under new ownership.

Original Post:

I am leaving a 5 star review solely because I love the owners and this particular tea shop, BUT...

They recently hired some new employees. I'm not sure if because they are on vacation for the holidays (they deserve a break for working so hard, honestly) or if they are just cutting their personal work hours (also deserved). But for the last few weeks, I don't feel like I've had a single order done properly the first time.

I understood at first because people are new and need time to be trained and learn, but I feel like with the volume of orders and how many regulars come in and out of the shop, they should at least know the signature and more popular drinks by now.

Most orders have taken 10-15+ minutes to complete for two drinks in the last few weeks, even when there aren't orders ahead of mine. My friend and I have had to get drinks remade on multiple occasions because they either use the wrong jelly or didn't add jelly at all. We usually get our drinks at 30% sweetness level, and both of us have had issues with the drinks being too sweet in recent weeks.

Which comes to my next - and biggest - issue with the new hires:

One of them dropped my cup on the ground while preparing my drink, so I tried asking quietly for her not to serve me a cup that'd been dropped. She didn't hear me while she was pouring the drink into the cup, so I had to speak more loudly which ended up making a scene. She got a new cup and poured the remaining drink from the blender into it... but then poured the contents from the contaminated cup afterwards to serve to me. I refused the drink and it was remade, but my experiences every visit after that interaction have been not too great.

Every time I've come to the shop since then, that particular new hire has been there. We make eye contact, and she glares at me. Which, I don't care if she doesn't like me, but please be professional and serve me the correct order -

My order today was the signature Yi Fang Fruit Tea with 30% sweetness and green tea jelly. And let's just say that when I finally took a sip of the drink, it definitely was not 30% sweetness (I went home with it before drinking).

I will add the disclaimer that while I don't prefer overly sweet drinks, I order 30% on the occasions I do get boba because I am Type 2 Diabetic. The fact that this drink feels like 100% or even higher sweetness level feels like an intentional act because the new hire doesn't like me. Every drink I have ordered since the new hires appeared have had incorrect sweetness levels, but this time was way too sweet. They use a machine to portion out the sweetness. I can't imagine how you'd be able to get it wrong so many times without either not knowing how to use the machine properly... or doing it intentionally.

Take this review as you will, but I will probably stop visiting as often until I hear the...

I’m not sure what happened to this place, but the drinks have taken a nosedive. Did the recipe book get lost in a black hole? Did the staff collectively decide to wing it? Because nothing tastes fresh, and it seems like no one actually knows how to make the drinks on the menu.

I literally watched them pull out an iPad to look up how to make a drink—like a student cramming for a test they forgot about. Ordered a taro latte, and when it arrived… it was brown. I don’t know what kind of experimental taro they used, but in all my years of drinking boba, I’ve never seen taro looking like it just got back from a mud run. It tasted like powdered mix straight from a package—definitely not the rich, creamy taro flavor I was expecting.

To top it off, I told them I’d be back in a few minutes while I ran to the store next door. Came back 15 minutes later, and somehow, my three drinks still weren’t ready. Either they were harvesting the ingredients from scratch, or time moves differently in this place.

Overall, if you’re craving a drink and a test of your patience, this is the spot. Otherwise, might be time to find...

Friendly staff that can advise you on different drinks to try and recommend sugar levels depending on the contents of the drink (ex: may want to increase sugar level with mango drinks in the winter as mangos harvested that time of year have more tartness than other seasons).

I've tried and liked the Green Tea Jelly Lemonade and the Mango Pomelo Sago. There was a new tea available today, the Ponkan Fruit Tea, which was also good and unlike any other fruit tea I've ever had. I had to look it up later; Wikipedia says it is a hybrid of mandarin and pomelo.

The YiFang Pancakes filled with custard are tasty. I plan to try them with the brown sugar pearl filling in the future. You can also order them with taro, cheese, or plain.

Update: YiFang pancakes with brown sugar pearl are a hit with the kids. They keep me from...