One late night I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and came across a tweet directed at all fellow Portlanders…
I was ecstatic about a new business in the Portland area – and not only that but a new family business! My first thought other than how good the food looked was that this would be something amazing to share with other Portlanders through Spoon University.
5 Flavor first had a soft-opening in the middle of February. Their grand-opening was held March 3, the first Saturday. A fellow Spoon member and I stopped by in the middle of the month and were ready to chow down.
We were immediately welcomed by the wonderful staff members as we walked in, and were given what turned out to be amazing recommendations.
The items that we ordered were:
-Brown Sugar Ginger Milk Tea with Original Boba
-Tropical Passion Tea with Rainbow Jell
-Popcorn Chicken (level 3 spice)
-Lychee Garden Tea
One of the most amazing things about 5 Flavor is that all of their teas are made to order. They use a Tea Espresso machine to make all of their teas (which only takes 90 seconds) and because it is customize-able to how you want, you can actually pick the sweetness level! The scale of sweetness is from 0 to 100, and for all of the teas we tried we picked a middle ground of 50.
Brown Sugar Ginger Milk Tea with Original Boba
Immediately after my first sip of this milk tea, I felt like it was Christmas time all over again (in a good way). The sweet taste of the brown sugar mixed with the spicy little kick of ginger tasted like I was in a gingerbread cookie dream. The original boba was of course, amazing. And post-drinking this tea I began thinking that the house-made egg pudding would have been a tasty add-in to the drink as well. I would definitely recommend this drink for those who aren’t typically a fan of tea but still want to try boba tea. Definitely a great introduction to the yummy boba world.
Tropical Passion Tea with Rainbow Jelly
Compared to the milk tea we tried, this tropical tea brought me to a completely different season: summertime! The mango flavors reminded me of being on vacation and as I looked out the window at the dreary day in Portland it honestly made me wish I was. If sunscreen actually tasted good, it would taste like this tea (trust me I mean that in a good way). In my opinion, a sweetness level of 50 was a little too sweet for this drink, and you could probably go down a tad if you aren’t a fan of super sweet flavors. Now that rainbow jelly though, that was an AMAZING add-in. 5 Flavor is nice enough to allow you to sample the add-ins, and after trying all of the jellies I fell in love with the rainbow one. Definitely a great combo with this tropical tea.
Popcorn Chicken (spice level 3)
WOW! Now, this is some good popcorn chicken. Crispy, crunchy, and flavorful. Even at just a spice level of 3, there was still a strong kick to it, but that milk tea definitely helped to calm it all down. We also got the sweet chili sauce to dip our popcorn chicken in and they were a very tasty combo. Next time I go, I am definitely going to be pairing this popcorn chicken with some of their sweet potato fries to get the full experience. I highly recommend this chicken, but if you are very sensitive to spice definitely go below the spice level of 3.
Lychee Garden Tea
We didn’t snap of a picture of this tea because it was just a sample size, but it was so highly recommended that we had to talk about it! After ordering all of our teas and sitting down to eat, a sweet staff member walked over to us and brought over an extra tea. She claimed it was her favorite and really wanted us to try it out! After tasting it, I don’t blame her. This tea was much different than the other two and I am so happy I tried it. The main flavor was a rose flavor, which typically I don’t lean towards picking but it was not overdone at all. The rose flavor was subtle and tasty, and exactly how you want rose to taste.
Overall, I am so happy that I decided to visit this new family business in the Portland area. The staff members were some of the friendliest people I have ever met, and the food and drinks were well worth the drive from North Portland. If you are in the Portland area, grab a couple friends and stop by 5 Flavor! You won’t regret it!
If you are interested in contacting 5 Flavor, click here.