Monday, March 8, 2010

8 Juice




Restaurant: 8 Juice

Cuisine: Drinks/Desserts

Last visited: March 6, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

4151 Hazelbridge Way – In Aberdeen Mall
Range
: $10 or less


1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!


Food: 2.5 (Based on their #1 drink only)

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: n/a – in a food court

Overall: 2.5

Additional comments:

  • Healthy desserts/drinks
  • Fresh fruit
  • Made upon order
  • Specializes in drinks only
  • Fresh fruit juices
  • Milkshake/yogurt drinks
  • Cash only
  • Asian Jugo Juice

**Recommendation: n/a – but if you’re going to go get the #1 house special – Mango + coconut milk + tapioca + pomelo drink


This is basically the Chinese version of Jugo Juice. 8 Juice is located in the Aberdeen food court. They specialize in fresh fruit drinks and everything is blended, shaken, stirred upon order…like a bubble tea place….but they have no bubble tea.

This is pretty much one of the only places in Richmond serving mango, coconut, tapioca and pomelo drink that is so famous in Hong Kong. You can’t even find this drink at many bubble tea places because the “tapioca” is not pearls – the tapioca is “sago” which is smaller and white in colour.

In Hong Kong the most famous place to have this dessert/drink is Hui Lau Shan. I love it! If you’ve had that then this place is really not good. I was so disappointed. To be fair it’s the only thing I’ve tried on the menu…but if it’s their “No.1 House Specialty” then I don’t have much hope.

After Twittering about the mango, coconut and sago drink the last couple days I had a major craving and decided to check this place out. The guy was really nice, but unfortunately my craving is not satisfied and I don’t think it can be because I don’t know anywhere else that serves it.


On the table:


Mango, Coconut Milk, Tapioca and Pomelo Drink 2.5/6

  • It’s the “No 1 House Specialty”
  • Compared to Hui Lau Shan in Hong Kong it is not good
  • It was really watered down, frothey, but almost bland. I couldn’t taste much mango or coconut milk and it was a major 'save money' move.
  • The mango juice has a very light mango flavour and they blend it with 2% milk and a touch of coconut milk which I couldn’t taste at all.

  • There were small bits of mango in the drink, not a lot though. Some of the mango was hairy though….pieces that were too close to the seed.
  • There was even less pomelo. The pomelo is very shredded into each sliver or ‘pocket’ so you have individual “strands” of it. Pomelo is basically an Asian grapefruit. It’s sweeter and not bitter though. It’s quite neutral in flavour.
  • It’s a drink that you need to chew with all the fruit and tapioca. However the tapioca is so small you just end up swallowing them unlike the bigger black tapioca pearls.

8 Juice (Aberdeen Centre) on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. I haven't tasted the original one in HK but I think the one from Little Bean in the Yoahan food court is pretty good. I wish there more more mango and pomelo in it though.

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  2. Blech, I tried this place on Sunday and I agree, it was just bland. I had a mango/strawberry juice, which had neither mango nor strawberry flavor in it. I watched them make it and after weighing a tiny amount of fruit, they add WATER to it before blending. I'm not sure where they get magical water from but where I come from, about three blocks down the road, my water doesn't have any flavor to it so I didn't have high expectations after seeing that.

    Using some sort of juice would've made a world of difference but I'm guessing they didn't want to cut into their profit margins. I can't say I'm surprised since they probably don't get enough business to cover the monstrous rent that Aberdeen Center charges but they're not going to get much money if their product sucks this much.

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  3. Even though I actually like their #1 drink, I don't think I will ever go there again because they falsely advertise their drink sizes. If I remember correctly, I ordered a medium size drink which they say is 16 oz but in reality it's only 12 oz (I measured)! No big deal if they are off by an oz or so but 4 oz? They run the same scam with the other sizes too. I don't patronize businesses that are sneaky like that.

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  4. Kooty - Thanks! I'll try that one...I had the same problem here..not enough mango or pomelo! Pomelo is cheap too!

    Ed - I didn't see you! I was there for hours catching up with a friend! Wow so even their fruit juices suck? Yikes!

    Anonymous - what?! are you serious?! That is sooo sneaky! Ok I think I'll join your boycott. Lol I love how you measured! You take eating as seriously as I do!

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  5. No way! I love the House Special! I order it every time I'm at Aberdeen! So yummy! I have no complaints about it, everything is good and the right amount if ingredients too. PS. I order this with half sugar, and it still tastes good. Not as as sweet as it regular, but still yummy! Mmm

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