At the Rose Tea Cafe in Squirrel Hill, the menu invites you to eat pearls – not the jewelry,… At the Rose Tea Cafe in Squirrel Hill, the menu invites you to eat pearls – not the jewelry, the Taiwanese delicacy.

When I walked into Rose Tea on a Wednesday at noon, the host pounced on me as I searched for my own seat in the sparsely populated cafe. He ushered me to a window table instead, where two places were already set out, and within five minutes he had raced back and forth to gather my drink and food orders.

For starters, I had a passion fruit green tea with tapioca pearls. Known commonly as bubble tea, which originated in Taiwan, my drink caught my eye from Rose’s three-page listing of green, black and milk teas and other specialty drinks uncommon in American-style cafes.

Bubble Tea Cafes have a habit of springing up near college campuses, but in case you have yet to savor a bubble tea, they are usually made of tea and fruit flavoring or straight fruit juice with about 20 tapioca pearls on the bottom that you can swallow whole or chew as you drink the tea through a large bore straw.

Rose Tea Cafe 5874 Forbes Ave. 412-421-2238 $6-$11

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