197 TEA BAR — Restaurant in Salem

The only place on the strip that was open on a Sunday evening in the fall. MVP. Their drinks get more creative than most traditional boba shops. We tried the ube dream and the s'mores smoothie, and both were as delicious as they were creative. Their tapioca pearls are high quality and have that nice chewiness to them. The sugar level of their drinks hit the sweet spot for me without being overly sweet, with the ube dream being the more mild of the two. The s'mores smoothie definitely tasted like s'mores in boba form with differing textures inside. The ube dream was made with the ube flavor really infused into it and not just some cheap powder thrown into liquid. This spot is legit and they make their drinks here with a lot of care. The people who run the shop were also very warm and welcoming, which was a nice contrast to the gloomy day. It's always a blessing to find a new boba...

I decided to try the egg puff with ice cream after seeing it all over social media. I couldn't even eat 2 bites with the fake sugar flavor, and this is coming from someone with a massive sweet tooth. There are just way too many artificial flavors, though I think it was the chocolate sauce that was the culprit. It made me feel sick at the first bite. I think the egg puff by itself would have been really good! But it was totally covered in the disgusting chocolate sauce, so I didn't eat that either. For $12 for an inedible dessert I was pretty disappointed. Next time I'll just opt for regular ice cream from...

Ordered their Brown Sugar Matcha w Boba and it was so delicious!! One of the best drinks I’ve had in a while, sweet but still had that great smooth Matcha taste to it. The pearls are warm, chewy and basically melt in your...