Brown Sugar Tapioca Latte at Chakasho, Jiyugaoka

Salut! It's Yoko, your gourmet hunter.

Do you like tapioca drinks (bubble tea)?

Lately, tapioca drink shops have been opening one after another in Jiyugaoka...

What is this boom?

I have no idea why tapioca drinks have become so popular,

but there are now about six tapioca shops in Jiyugaoka.

Every few meters, you see girls giggling with a tapioca drink in hand.

Hmm, a mystery. But I'm dying to know.

In the end, I finally gave in to temptation the other day and went to Chakasho!

The Huge Line at Chakasho

Chakasho is a tapioca drink specialist known for authentic Taiwanese high-mountain tea and tapioca pearls and jellies made with Japanese ingredients.

It already has shops in Shin-Okubo (the flagship), Harajuku, Iidabashi, Shimokitazawa, Nogata and Hakusan,

and the Jiyugaoka branch opened on May 17, 2019.

This is the second day after the Jiyugaoka opening. Just look at this...

The line stretched from in front of the bank across the street from Chakasho, then about 50 meters down the side road.

The line was out of control, so I gave up that day. Lol.

I found out later that to celebrate the Jiyugaoka opening, they were running a half-price sale on the whole menu for two days.

I couldn't let it go, so last Sunday around 6 p.m. I went back, and it was empty!

Even so, about 10 people were in line, so I looked over the menu while I waited.

The menu is posted on both sides of the entrance door, and they also hand one out so you can choose while you wait.

Chakasho's Wide Choice of Toppings

I asked a woman who looked Taiwanese, who was managing the line, a few questions.

Me: "What's popular?"

Her: "What do you like?"

Me: "Milk or brown sugar, I guess."

Her: "For milk, the most popular is the Hokkaido Milk Tapioca."

Her: "And if you like fruit, there's also fruit tea on the back of the menu!"

It seems the fairly classic ones are the popular ones, lol.

I decided on the Hokkaido Milk Tapioca and the Brown Sugar Latte Tapioca with black sesame!

One highlight of the menu is that the grass jelly is free!

Grass jelly (sencao jelly) is made by boiling down a plant called sencao (Chinese mesona),

and in Taiwan it's loved as a jelly with herbal-medicine benefits, said to help with detox and cooling a fever.

It's a slightly bittersweet jelly. I don't think it's as bitter as coffee jelly.

There are lots of toppings, and black sesame, peanuts, Oreo, homemade cheese cream, kinako (roasted soybean flour) and more can all be added for ¥70 each.

Since I was there, I had the grass jelly added to the milk tapioca, and the bill came to ¥1,150.

The menu said you could choose the amount of ice and sweetness, and I wanted both drinks less sweet,

but I was told that can't be changed, so I gave up on that.

After a wait of about 10 minutes, they were ready!

There's a staircase up to a second floor, but they said you can't drink inside Chakasho, so I moved to a nearby bench.

On the left is the Brown Sugar Latte Tapioca with black sesame, and on the right is the Hokkaido Milk Tapioca!

The fact that they look the same is just your imagination, lol.

The brown sugar syrup coats the inside of the cup, and they hand it to you to stir yourself, so it looks marbled and pretty.

Here it is after a good stir. The Hokkaido Milk Tapioca doesn't have "brown sugar" in its name, but it has that brown sugar sweetness too, lol.

A brown sugar base seems to be Chakasho's signature.

If you don't like very sweet bubble milk tea, it's better not to stir it all the way.

Even fully mixed, it was about as sweet as an afternoon milk tea, so I don't think it gets too sweet.

The Brown Sugar Latte Tapioca with black sesame has powdered black sesame in it, which gives it a nutty aroma.

It isn't just the drink: the tapioca pearls themselves have a brown sugar sweetness, so it was delicious even when only the pearls were left!

I sucked a pearl up the straw and it shot right to the back of my throat and made me cough, lol (a classic bubble tea moment).

Chakasho is especially recommended if you want a brown sugar bubble milk tea, so if you're curious, go check it out!

See you next time. Au revoir!

Chakasho

2-9-8 Jiyugaoka, Meguro City, Tokyo 152-0035
10:00–22:00, irregular holidays
03-5356-4650