Tao Kae Noi’s Bubble Milk Tea Crispy Seaweed Taste Test: Nice Or Not?

This sweet snack is a first for Tao Kae Noi, which usually produces more savoury seaweed bites like its popular tempura seaweed. The bubble tea seaweed has 108 kcal per serving vs a cup of BBT with pearls, which contains about 278 kcal. The packet has a decent air-to-product ratio with the seaweed cut into typical rectangular strips, which are roasted before being coated with powdered milk tea. It smelled pretty strongly of tea leaves, which was nice. On first bite, the seaweed packed a nice crunch but tasted just like plain old roasted seaweed. The earthy, tannic quality of the leaf only surfaced after a few seconds along with a hint of milky sweetness — akin to the flavours in a cup of nondescript instant teh tarik. Not bad, but we prefer our seaweed salty instead of sweet.

The Salted Egg Basil Tempura Seaweed is a new addition to Tao Kae Noi’s salted egg yolk seaweed series, which consists of the Original Salted Egg Tempura Seaweed and Spicy Salted Egg Tempura Seaweed. Chunks of thicker, very crispy batter-coated seaweed are dusted with salted egg yolk, chilli powder and basil seasoning. Instead of briny, umami salted egg, the slightly medicinal and herby Thai basil overwhelmed the snack. Along with a too-generous kick of sugar. The texture’s quite nice, though.

Get the Bubble Milk Tea Seaweed as a fun gift for your boba-addicted friends. As for yourself, well, swipe a piece from them to try, then save your own calories for an actual cup of bubble tea. And we’d pass on that Salted Egg Basil Tempura Seaweed.

Crispy Seaweed Bubble Milk Tea ($2.70) & Salted Egg Basil Tempura Seaweed ($3.20) available at TaoKaeNoi Land (Suntec City), major supermarkets, and online at Redmart, Qoo10 and Shopee.

Selected photos: Florence Fong & Zoey Chow