Day & Night Tea House has arrived in Eugene, bringing a taste of Hong Kong with it.
Perfect for dates, studying, hanging out or as an excuse to leave campus for a boba run, Day & Night has a great ambience despite its far location from campus.
It offers free Wi-Fi, aesthetic backdrops for photos (of you, your group and your drinks), a high bar with an ample number of outlets — not just your usual wall sockets, but also USB cable ones — round tables with chairs and even a TV connected to a Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 with games including Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, NBA 2K15 and even Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy.
Compared to the older spots around the University of Oregon, Day & Night does not offer the widest individual drink options; however, it does offer the most interesting variety compared to D.I.Y. Tea & Beyond, Rabbit Hole, Milky Way and (fairly new) Bobahead.
Located on 515 E. Broadway, Day & Night’s drinks are more expensive than other shops around campus, priced from about $4 to $7, but only some are well worth the steeper price.
Here’s a roundup of my recommendations:
-
Hong Kong-style milk tea with boba: This drink gets the distinct flavor — barely bitter black tea flavor but softened by the milk — just right without being overwhelmingly sweet, which is a mistake most shops make.
-
Brown sugar lava milk tea with brown sugar jelly, boba: Despite the drink having extra brown sugar poured down the sides, you can’t really taste the extra sweetness. It comes off as an added caramel-y aftertaste to the milk tea. I would also suggest adding regular boba to it, for the added texture and brown sugar flavor.
-
Green grape boba tea with crystal jelly: This fruit tea with the green grape pieces and crystal jellies were a texturally satisfying mix, the chewier jelly complementing the soft grape bits. Just sweet enough to quench your thirst but still leave you wanting more.
This café also stands out for offering Hong Kong-style milk teas (priced around $5), a unique option in the Eugene area, as other locations are Taiwanese-owned. Around the world, Hong Kong is well known for their milk teas, which have stronger flavors and are sweetened with either condensed or evaporated milk.
Day & Night’s pearls were not too chewy or sticky. However, they were steeped in sugar longer since it has a comparatively stronger caramel-y taste; the pearls themselves are also a bit smaller.
There are six types of popping boba: mango, strawberry, passionfruit, yogurt, lychee and peach. When stores buy boba in bulk, these pearls come in syrup-filled buckets. Typically, most shops do not do a thorough enough job straining the pearls of their sweet syrup, but that taste is, fortunately, not present in Day & Night’s drinks.
The only snack option at this point is bubble waffles — egg-based waffles made in egg-shaped waffle irons. Day & Night’s bubble waffles have crispy edges but retain a hearty doughiness that isn’t soggy or too chewy. Their waffles are sweet enough to be eaten alone and are about the size of a large dinner plate. It’ll leave you wanting more though, since you’ll probably unintentionally wolf it down.
Because these drinks are more unique, they have some interesting names and just as interesting drink compositions.
Lava milk is as delicious and cool-looking as it sounds. It gets the name “lava” since it has a layer of melted sugar that gets dripped down the inside of the cup. So when the drink gets poured in, it looks like the syrup is flowing (like lava) down the rest of your cup.
Fruit tea booms are quite similar, except most of their pairings are with popping boba, hence the “boom.” I think these drinks are your best bet if you’re not sure what to get first.
Any drink under the Yakult set is a fruit tea medley mixed with the iconic Yakult yogurt drink, filled with plenty of fruit pieces and paired with jelly. The drinks are almost too full of fruit and jelly, so you end up with so many toppings that it’s more eating than actual drinking.
Day & Night also offers a unique set of “winter special matcha,” which in quality is unmatched compared to the other boba shops. It’s stronger, has a more aromatic taste and doesn’t have the taste of added (artificial) sweetner to it.
The fresh-made cheese crema teas are made with a generous helping of cheese crema, a creamy foam that tops the drink. The cheese flavor is tasty and light but still leans closer to just being a foam. These drinks are good, but if you’re looking for a sharp cheese flavor, you won’t find it here. Since these drinks are closer to $7 in price, the other drinks are better options.
Despite its distance away from campus, Day & Night is well deserving of the title as best boba in Eugene.
Day and Night's tea yakults are popular orders at the boba tea house. Day and Night is a new boba tea house located in Eugene, Ore. on Nov. 22, 2019. (Maddie Knight/Emerald)