Sharetea — Restaurant in Sandy Springs

[Time & Date of visit]: multiple weekday afternoons.

[Location/Ambiance]: In the same plaza as Jinya ramen. Parking can get filled up quickly nearing close to 5pm due to the steak restaurant valets. You can always park in the Lowes lot and take a short walk. That way it'll be worth the calories.

Inside it's a bit narrow and cramp, with the two top tables running along opposite of the cashiers / tea making station. The front counter area actually has the best lighting if you know how to use it.

I'm hoping that there will be more outdoor seating when the weather warms up. Fingers crossed.

[Service]: Fast-casual - There have been times where I didn't hear my order be called out and there are just people standing and waiting in front of the tea making station that blocks the way. Luckily the "boba-rista" / manager is nice enough to remember my order and walk it to me.

I mainly went on soft opening days and all times everyone has been nice and informative to explain the different drinks and toppings. I'm hoping that they continue with this kind of customer service.

[Drink Highlights]: Hokkaido Milk tea - The first time I had this was in the SGV location in Los Angeles, and I remember the light brown sugar taste to the tea. It's my go-to drink because it isn't too sweet and I feel it's pretty balance of tea and milk. Definitely recommended.

Mango green tea creama - This is pretty interesting because you don't sip it through a straw unless you get toppings. The creama is more like a whipped cream cheese topping. It's a bit lost in translation for those unfamiliar with this type of tea. Pretty much you cut two horizontal incisions in the tea lid, one to drink from, the other for air pressure. When you drink out of the slit, the tea chases the cream cheese so that you get a contrast of flavors all in one. I'm glad to say this isn't a powder tea, as there were pulps of mango at the bottom of my drink. It's refreshing and just a taste of sweetness in one.

Strawberry blended ice w/ aloe jelly and ice cream - this is more like a smoothie dessert than anything. Which isn't bad if you are craving actual dessert after some ramen next door. Just fair warning, go a little less on the sugar.

{Summary}: What's different than some boba tea shops in the Buford Hwy / Duluth area, is that Sharetea usually only sells one size. Albeit leaning towards a large for an average of $4.50 (as of Feb 2018) for each drink. Is it worth it? Yes, even though I'm not even that big a fan of boba tea. So to me that speaks highly of what Sharetea is offering. I do appreciate the variety of drinks they have and that they are consistent on the flavors so far. I also hope that the new flavors that the Los Angeles locations get don't take long for our Atlanta location to put on the menu.

P.S. The LA locations also have a punch card - hopefully we...

This is one of the first bubble tea places I discovered, years ago. They are ok, but there are better options. A few times they e made my drink wrong and I got sick from it (too much sugar at one time makes me really sick; I ask for 0-25% sugar but sometimes they make a mistake). The place is very loud - the blenders and just everything involved in preparing the drinks is just very loud. That, plus the music playing, plus the cashier wearing a mask…it’s very tough for me to hear in this environment. Their cashiers aren’t trained to articulate or enunciate - fine, most people aren’t, but when the place is so noisy it makes ordering correctly very challenging. I got the Hawaii Fruit tea, and she mumbled through something about them not adding any sugar to it when I asked for 25% sweetness. But this drink is REALLY sweet. I will have to toss or save for tomorrow most of it. So it would be nice if they’d include on their menu which drinks you can adjust the sugar on and perhaps even a “sweetness indicator” on the non-adjustable ones. EDIT: the drink did, in fact, make me feel sick. I also found out is contains 95g of sugar. For reference, a can of soda contains 40g. This is just WAY too much.

Pros: fast, efficient service, large variety of types of tea (sweet, fruity, creamy, etc.), clean, serving size is big for the price.

Cons: very loud, hard to hear & understand the cashier (EVERY time I go, not just once), many drinks don’t have adjustable sweetness but you have to “guess” which ones; it’s not written anywhere. The drinks are far, far too sweet.

Overall, I prefer Tan Cha and Tiger Sugar, and a few others, over this place. I originally intended to try Teamo today, but they have a giant children’s party going on and the whole place was filled with 40+ women and their kids, so I walked here instead. It’s definitely not in my top 10...

Lack of COVID-19 Precautions

While they have plexiglass, hand sanitizer, and employees wearing masks, this place has no occupancy limits, the door was closed, and there were no fans in use to bring in fresh air. The space available for customers is already a tight one and I counted 25 customers present during my visit, not to mention the 4 or 5 employees also on staff. The establishment has no signs outside regarding wearing a mask so many customers were without one.

Compared to other bubble tea establishments around Atlanta, this has been the least safe and proactive one I've been to during the pandemic.

*Edit: I support small businesses defending themselves from baseless negative reviews; however, there are Google reviews for this business mentioning lack of COVID precautions (by people who I have no connection with from months ago) so mine is not baseless. I stated my observations. I acknowledged some COVID precautions taken and pointed out others that were not in place. This is a fair review. I did not even mention the drink (Black Milk Tea with bubbles, no ice, 30% sugar) I purchased as my main focus was the safety aspect of the business (therefore I named the review "Lack of COVID-19 Precautions"). The drink tasted great, but was rather sweet for my expectations of 30% sugar. Overall, would order again maybe with no sugar.

If a business of any size would like to survive a pandemic, they should ensure that their customers feel safe and take such reviews as constructive criticism instead of getting their personal contacts to call out negative reviewers by name, searching for their information on social media, and post it all in a new Google review to vilify. I very rarely post negative reviews so, owner of this Sharetea location, feel free to look that up as...