Behind the Scenes with Milk Jar Café

The fun thing about Cincinnati’s food scene is that it is forever growing. Every time you turn a corner something new and trendy is popping up, and I love this. I also love seeing new food culture brought to the Queen City as well. Within the last few years, Bubble Tea and Rolled Ice Cream have become a new favorite of many people in many different cities. Like other cities, Cincinnati was put onto this growing trend by the owners of Milk Jar Café, Jimmy Lin and Kevin Chen. What is Milk Jar Café you ask? Milk Jar is a café that serves the most recent popular desserts that include, Thai Ice Cream (rolled), a Cereal Bar, and Bubble Tea.

THAI ICE CREAM: What’s up with Rolled Ice Cream? With Rolled Ice Cream it’s all about the show. The process takes about two minutes. It starts with a cream base and your choice of mix-ins. It all gets combined on a cold surface set to a temperature of -18 Celsius. Then its chopped and mixed before it hardens. After that, it is smoothed out and rolled. After the process is over, the customer gets to choose unlimited toppings to place onto their ice cream.

BUBBLE TEA: Bubble Tea has been a popular Asian drink that has been around the USA for the past decades. The evolution of bubbles comes from the traditional Black Ceylon Tea combined with milk and bubble (Tapioca or Boba as it is commonly called). Customers can choose their base tea and their toppings. Boba adds texture to tea. Fruit Tea is also an option here at Milk Jar. Customers can choose to blend their tea with the fruit they prefer. They newest trend in the milk tea industry is Milk Cap and it is delicious. I was able to try their homemade Milk Cap Tea. Milk Cap tea is a tea that is topped off with soft, salted, creamy cheese foam. This tradition is big in Asia and very trendy. The idea here is to be perceived that you are drinking cheesecake on top of tea. The foam tastes just like cheesecake.

CEREAL BAR: Cereal Bar is a new trend that is growing in California and New York. Jimmy and Kevin thought, “hmm, its pretty simple why not add it to our café as well”. The process is simply allowing customers to choose their favorite cereal from a list, choose their dressing or drizzle, choose their toppings and then finally fresh milk will be provided to them.

Let’s take a pause and discuss how Milk Jar came to be:

Milk Jar Café opened in Hyde Park on September 1, 2018. Childhood friends Jimmy and Kevin wanted to combine three things: Rolled Ice Cream, Bubble Tea, and Cereal. Both friends are of Asian descent and culture. Like many other entrepreneurs who are proud of their culture, Jimmy had the idea to combine western treats of Asia with eastern treats of Asia. Ice cream comes from western Asia while Boba Tea is more from the eastern part of Asia. Jimmy then brought Kevin in on the idea and Milk Jar Café was born!

Owners, Jimmy and Kevin

Press Play to September 2018:

Uniqueness is a key factor at the forefront of opening any new food/drink location. What is cool and unique about Milk Jar is everything is fresh, and they do not use powders like most bubble tea companies. The teas are fresh and imported from Asia. The way they make their Boba Tea is different from American tea shops. If fruit is used, its fresh pressed fruit mixed with tea. They strive to bring more Asian culture into what they are doing. Fresh tea leaves, fresh fruit, everything is FRESH! What is also unique is the combination of Rolled Ice cream and Tea. It brings the business of ice cream and tea together. Most shops are just one or the other.

Another awesome factor to this duo is they are environmentally friendly. The cups that the tea comes in are reusable. If you bring your cup back, you will receive 5% off your next order. They also have a reward stamp card program. Once you have received 10 stamps you can get a Rolled Ice Cream or Tea of your choice for free.

Rolled Ice Cream and Bubble Tea?! Yes, Please!

In China the culture is to drink cold dessert tea while hot tea is more for social and religious purposes. The most common teas are Jasmine and Oolong. In China, these are the teas that they drink when friends and family are over. In Japan the most common tea is Matcha Tea. They offer tea in a fast-casual style environment. Their menu is filled with fun tea combinations as well as different ice cream combinations. I asked them what the top sellers of tea and ice cream are, and they quickly raved about Jasmine Tea and the Cookie Monster Ice Cream.

I enjoy a good trend especially when it comes to food. However, with any trend you either love it or hate it. I can say I have become a big fan of the Bubble Tea trend. I love a good tea and then adding Boba to it for texture. I also enjoy a different but familiar ice cream flavor. While doing the behind the scenes, I was able to try three of Milk Jar’s desserts.

The ice cream flavor I tried was the Banana Pudding. It was their vanilla milk-based liquid mixed with Nilla Wafers and Bananas. It literally tasted how it sounds. It was delicious! I got the fruitiness from the bananas while the creaminess came from the ice cream itself. Then add the crunch of the Nilla Wafers and boy was it a party in my mouth! This was definitely a good choice.

Now I couldn’t come to a Tea spot and not try their most trendy tea. I tried the Watermelon Jasmine Tea with Milk Cap, the Dirty Milk Boba, and the Thai Milk Tea with Boba. Dirty Milk Tea is Caramel or Brown Sugar milk with flavored custard pudding. Thai Milk Tea is simply Thai Tea with a splash of Half and Half poured on top. I must say all were amazing and brought something different to my taste buds. I enjoyed everything I tried and can say Milk Jar is my go-to spot when I what a Thai Milk Tea.

I truly enjoyed my experience at Milk Jar. They will provide you with excellent service, affordable tea and ice cream, and friendly smiles. Trying anything on the menu will be a real delight. We hope to see you there and don’t forget your delicious bubble tea or ice cream on the way out.