If you love soft and chewy textures like mochi and tapioca and shudder at the thought of sickly sweet chocolate desserts, then Sweet O'Clock in North York may be your key to dessert heaven.
Specializing in Taiwanese desserts, Sweet O'Clock (Instagram: @sweetoclock.tor, Facebook: Sweet O'clock) is all about the shaved ice, milk teas, boba (or tapioca), grass jelly, red bean, and of course, mango - dare I say, every Asian's favourite fruit?! What Sweet O'Clock prides itself on, however, are their “freshly made, cooked and served” taro balls, herbal jelly and tofu pudding.
There is a lot to choose from at Sweet O'Clock, and I really do mean a lot. The dessert shop's menu is separated into the 10 categories: Hand-made Taro Ball, Herbal Jelly, Creama, Cold Desserts, Signature Tea, Special Mix Tea, Fresh Brewed Tea, Pudding, Traditional Tofu Pudding, and Fresh Fruit Slush. Customers can even choose from 19 different toppings as add-ons such as barley, taro, peanuts, and various flavoured jellies, beans and puddings.
TARO BLENDED ICE CREAMA ($5.5)
A real thick and tasty creama with lots of taro flavour. I loved it.
SWEET O'CLOCK SIGNATURE HERBAL JELLY ($6.9)
Herbal Jelly + Herbal Blended Ice + Taro Balls + Sweet Potato Balls + Boba + Cream
I was not crazy about this dessert. It had a lot of chewy elements (i.e. from the boba and the sweet potato and taro balls) with no other texture to balance it. As a result, everything became very one-note after a few bites (the herbal jelly, although not chewy, was just soft). Also, the taro and sweet potato balls had very subtle flavours so with the flavourless boba the entire dessert didn't accomplish much else aside from filling my stomach. The one component I really enjoyed was the smooth herbal jelly, which I feel was overshadowed here by everything else.
SUPREME MANGO CRUSHED ICE ($8.99)
Oh, mango? SOLD! Chunks of ripe delicious mango served with vanilla ice cream all on top of thinly shaved ice. Winner.
HAND-MADE TARO BALL NO. 4 ($6.9)
Taro + Red Bean + Boba
The boba, taro balls and sweet potato balls return but this time, there was also red bean and taro. I much prefer this over the Signature Herbal Jelly because the red bean and taro contributed different textures to the bowl - it was no longer just soft and chewy bite after bite.
I think I made it pretty obvious here in terms of what I liked and didn't like at Sweet O'Clock. Looking back, I actually enjoyed all the toppings and components just not in those ratios. The Supreme Mango Crushed Ice was perfect, so I would't touch that, but if I could assemble my dessert at Sweet O'Clock it would consist of herbal grass jelly, ice cream, red bean, shaved ice, taro, and sweet potato balls. Ohhhh yeaaaaaaaa :D
*This meal was complimentary. The opinions and views expressed on this post are my own*