Cactea (Takapuna, North Shore City, New Zealand)

Do you find some of the bubble teas out there taste quite bland? Well if that is the case for you then I would suggest give this Bubble Tea spot in Takapuna called Cactea. I had tried a lot of bubble tea places in Auckland and so far nothing compares to this place in terms of taste and portions, if you check out most of the reviews either in Google or Zomato they all rave about the bubble tea here because of those two main reasons. This was the last Bubble Tea place in Takapuna we wanted to try, I hope it was one of the first ones because once you visit this place, I bet you will come back.

The last time we went here was almost closing time, so it was quiet and were the only ones in the shop, we were attended by their staff promptly. We tried three of their bubble tea, first was their signature range called Brown sugar pearl with coco, milk, chocolate syrup and milk foam (NZ$9.90) and honestly this was the most chocolatey bubble tea I ever tried, it’s like drinking liquid chocolate, it was nice and sweet complemented by that milk foam and additional boost of chocolate goodness from that syrup. Any chocolate lover should add this to their list of places to dine in.

Next was from signature range also and it was the Brown sugar pearl with taro, fresh milk and milk foam (NZ$9.90), again another great drink, not as sweet as the chocolate but it was good specially when hot. Made with tons or real pureed taro, it was so generous the consistency was thick like a milk shake.

The third was from Potted plant milk tea which when not covered will look like a potted plant, we grabbed the Matcha flavour (NZ$8.90) and this one was potent, will definitely please all the matcha aficionados out there. The matcha flavour is overpowering like this Matcha green tea offered on Japanese tea ceremonies. This tea is complemented by crumbed chocolate cookies which resembles the soil on the potted plant.

All teas was nice and strongly flavoured and if you love big bold flavours then like I said this is your bubble tea place. While the price is a bit higher than most, you get more bang for your buck because serving size is larger than most, while it might be as tall as the other bubble tea container, those plastic cups have a bigger diameter, giving more amount of milk tea than most. They are also generous with their boba pearls, where they give you at least a quarter to a third of the volume of their cups, plus it has a nice texture to it, cooked al dente but not under cooked, each pearl has a nice bouncy bite to it, they are sweeter than other pearls too and it has this molasses taste that we really liked.

This place offer more than bubble tea, as they serve burgers, chips, rice bowls, wontons, pasta and chicken to name some, so if you are also hungry their dishes which had some good review too are an added bonus. Will definitely try those next time we go back here, specially their dessert range like the French Toast with Boba Pearl.

Place was nice, well decorated compared to most, nice lighting, great setup and most of all amazing service too.

Cactea
Address: 6 Hurstmere Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622, New Zealand
Phone: +649 963 6249
Website: https://cactea.business.site/