What it doesn't taste like: grape, berry, or anything fruity. That's the biggest surprise for first-time bubble tea drinkers. The purple color makes people's brains expect fruit, and taro is the opposite. It's creamy, soft, and a little toasty.

Who tends to love it: people who like vanilla, horchata, sweet potato, or anything with a mellow, nutty sweetness.

Who tends not to: people who want bright, tart, fruity drinks. If that's you, skip ahead to our juice shop section.

Why Is It Purple?

Look at the color in the cup. For a purple bubble tea, it's surprisingly gentle. It's not neon. It's a soft, pale lavender.

That's roughly the color taro turns when it's blended with milk — those purple flecks in the root spread out into a gentle lilac. When you see a taro drink somewhere that's bright grape-soda purple, that color didn't come from taro alone.

Ours sits on the soft end of purple, which is what you want.

What's in the Cup

Per the Sharetea recipe: taro ice blended, finished with silky pudding.

The pudding is the golden layer you can see through the side of the cup. It's a soft egg custard, sweet and smooth, and it collects at the bottom of the cup under the blend.

No tea base is listed in the blended recipe. That makes it a different bubble tea from our Taro Pearl Milk Tea, which is taro mixed into black milk tea. More on choosing between the two below.

How to Handle the Pudding

This is the part nobody explains about this bubble tea, and it changes the whole drink.

The pudding sits at the bottom. You have two ways to go.

Save it for last. Drink the taro blend down, then finish with the pudding on its own like a small custard dessert. This is how most first-timers do it, and it's a nice ending.

Pull it up as you go. Push your straw to the bottom every few sips and pull a little pudding up with the taro. Custard and taro together tastes like a vanilla bean pudding cup. This is how our regulars drink it.

Either way, get the wide straw. Pudding clogs a regular straw almost instantly.

And don't stir it into the blend. Mixed all the way through, the pudding disappears into the texture and you lose it.

How to Order It

Sugar level: 50% to start. Taro and pudding both bring sweetness. Most of our regulars sit at 50%, and anyone who finds taro too sweet at other shops usually likes it at 30%.

Size: large if it's your meal-sized treat for the afternoon. Medium if you're pairing it with food.

Spoon straw: yes. The spoon end is handy at the bottom.

Dairy: it contains milk, and the pudding is egg custard. Not dairy-free, not egg-free.

Caffeine: the blended recipe doesn't include tea. That makes it one of the easier evening drinks on our board.

Swap the topping if you want. Pudding is the classic pairing, but pearls work too if you want chew instead of custard.

Taro Ice Blended vs. Taro Pearl Milk Tea

People mix these two up all the time, and they're very different bubble tea drinks.

Taro Ice Blended w/ PuddingTaro Pearl Milk TeaTextureThick, frozen, slushySmooth, poured over iceToppingPuddingTapioca pearlsTea baseNone listedBlack milk teaFeels likeDessertAn everyday drinkBest forHot afternoons, a treatSipping slowly, working, studying

Quick rule: if it's 95 degrees out and you want dessert, get the blended one. If you're settling in for an hour with a laptop, get the milk tea — it holds up much longer.

Where to Find It in Georgetown, Texas

We're at 1013 W University Ave, Ste 165, inside Wolf Ranch Town Center. Take the University Ave exit off I-35 and you're about two minutes away.

This bubble tea is worth ordering on the spot rather than taking on a drive. The pudding stays cold at the bottom, but the taro blend starts to soften as it warms, and a warm taro blend loses the creamy-frozen feel that makes it good. Drink it while it's cold.

Hours: Mon–Thu 11am–9pm · Fri 11am–10pm · Sat 10am–10pm · Sun 10am–9pm Phone: (512) 537-4053

The Dessert Shop Half of Our Menu

When September still feels like July in Georgetown, this section of the board does most of the work. It's our dessert shop lineup, and the Taro w/ Pudding — the menu-board name for the drink this post is about — is one of its steadiest sellers.

Oreo w/ Pearl is cookies-and-cream with chewy pearls under the blend. Thai Tea w/ Pearl blended is spiced and creamy. Coffee w/ Ice Cream pairs a mild coffee bitterness with a scoop on top. Mango w/ Ice Cream is bright and fruity. Strawberry w/ Lychee Jelly & Ice Cream gets its pink color from real jam. Peach Tea w/ Lychee Jelly is the lightest blended pick. Lava Flow layers mango with a spicy peach purée for that flowing "lava" look.

Halo Halo is our Filipino-inspired build. The traditional dessert it's named after often includes purple ube, a cousin of taro in color if not in flavor. We make it standard or as Halo Halo Ice Blended.

Ice Cream Shop Picks

Three of our blended drinks carry a real scoop on top, which covers an ice cream shop craving in the same stop.

Mango w/ Ice Cream, Coffee w/ Ice Cream, and Strawberry w/ Lychee Jelly & Ice Cream. If you liked the taro because of the custard at the bottom, the ice cream drinks are the closest match on the menu.

A Cafe That Doesn't Rush You

Plenty of people use our bubble tea shop as a cafe. Students from Southwestern with laptops, friends catching up after a stop at the Square, parents grabbing a quiet half hour.

For a long sit, the Milky Series is the better shelf, since blended drinks don't last. Taro Pearl Milk Tea is the taro option here. Classic Pearl Milk Tea is the original that everything else is measured against. Honey Pearl Milk Tea is softer. Hokkaido Pearl Milk Tea is rich and caramel-forward. Thai Pearl Milk Tea is warm and spiced. Coconut Pearl Milk Tea and Mango Green Milk Tea are lighter. The Golden Retriever piles four toppings into black milk tea.

Prefer tea with nothing added? Classic Tea and Honey Tea from our Fresh Brew line are brewed through the day and come at zero sugar.

Our Coffee Shop Drinks

If somebody in your group wants coffee instead of taro, we cover that too. We work as a coffee shop as well as a tea shop.

Coffee Creama is cold coffee under a salted cream cap. Coffee Milk Tea w/ Coffee Jelly blends the two worlds with coffee-flavored jelly cubes. Coffee w/ Ice Cream is the blended one with a scoop.

Juice Shop Flavors for the Fruit Crowd

If taro's mellow, nutty sweetness isn't your thing, this is the other end of the menu. It works like a juice shop, except the base is brewed tea instead of syrup and water.

Mango Green Tea is the easy first try. Passion Chess is tart. Berry Lychee Burst is floral. Peach Tea w/ Honey Jelly is mild and easygoing. Mango & Passion Fruit Tea is sweet and sour together. Honey Lemonade is the one people grab on the hottest afternoons.

Every drink here comes at 0%, 30%, 50%, 70%, or 100% sugar.

Soft Drinks Shop Swaps

Trying to cut back on soda? Our caffeine-free drinks do the same job a soft drinks shop does, without the can.

Tiger Boba is brown sugar pearls under fresh milk. Strawberry Coconut is creamy and bright. Wintermelon Lemonade has a honey-caramel note that lemon cuts clean, with a Wintermelon Lemonade Ice Blended version for hot days and Wintermelon w/ Fresh Milk for something creamy.

Taro Ice Blended fits in this caffeine-free bubble tea group too, since its recipe has no tea.

New Matcha Series

Our newest bubble tea lineup. Real matcha has a grassy, slightly bitter base, so it's the opposite of taro's soft sweetness — good to know if you want contrast next visit.

Matcha Pearl Milk Tea is the standard. Matcha Fresh Milk keeps it clean. Strawberry Matcha Fresh Milk is the pink-and-green layered one. Mango Matcha Fresh Milk is the fruit-forward version.

Taro Questions We Get All the Time

What does taro taste like? Like vanilla with a little nuttiness. Creamy and mellow, not fruity.

Is taro the same as ube? No. Both are purple, but ube is a purple yam with a sweeter, deeper flavor. Taro is a root with a milder, nuttier taste.

Why is taro purple? Taro root is white with purple flecks. Blended with milk, it turns a soft lavender.

Does Taro Ice Blended have caffeine? Its recipe has no tea, so it's one of our better evening picks. Taro Pearl Milk Tea does have tea.

What's the yellow layer at the bottom? Pudding — a soft egg custard. Save it for last or pull it up with the straw as you go.

Is it dairy-free? No. It contains milk, and the pudding contains egg.

What should I get if I've never had taro? This one, at 50% sugar. It's the friendliest way to try taro.

Come Try Taro the Right Way

Order the Taro Ice Blended with Pudding at 50% sugar, grab a wide straw, and decide at the counter whether you're a save-the-pudding person or a pull-it-up person. Either way, it's one of the most loved bubble tea drinks in Georgetown.

Sharetea Georgetown 1013 W University Ave, Ste 165, Georgetown, TX 78628 (Wolf Ranch Town Center) (512) 537-4053 Mon–Thu 11am–9pm · Fri 11am–10pm · Sat 10am–10pm · Sun 10am–9pm

Taro Ice Blended with Pudding: The Purple Bubble Tea Georgetown, Texas Keeps Asking About

"Okay, but what does taro actually taste like?"

We hear that question more than any other bubble tea question at our counter. Somebody sees a soft purple drink go by, wants it, and then hesitates, because they've never had taro and they don't want to spend money on a bubble tea they might not like.

Fair question. So here's the straight answer, plus everything else worth knowing about the Taro Ice Blended with Pudding before you order one at our bubble tea shop in Georgetown, Texas.

What Does Taro Taste Like?

Taro is a root vegetable, grown mostly in tropical parts of Asia. Cut one open and the inside is white with tiny purple flecks all through it. The texture of the root is close to a sweet potato, and on its own the flavor is mild, almost neutral.

In a bubble tea, taro tastes a bit like vanilla with a pinch of nuttiness. That's how Sharetea describes it, and it's the most accurate short version we've found.

If that still sounds vague, here are the comparisons our customers land on after the first sip:

• Like a vanilla milkshake that went a little earthy

• Like the sweet potato pie filling, but lighter and colder

• Like cookies-and-cream without the chocolate

manager@shareteageorgetown.com

Visit Us

Connect with Us

Wolf Ranch Town Center,

1013 W University Ave Ste 165, Georgetown, TX 78628
phone no: 512-537-4053

Store Hours

Monday - Thursday : 11 am - 9 pm

Friday : 11 am - 10 pm

Saturday : 10 am - 10 pm

Sunday : 10 am - 9 pm

Sharetea Gerogetown is owned and Operated by KVP 2 Store LLC