YiFang Tea

Some of the tea shops that open in Orange County have cult-like followings that are only hard to understand given how many alternatives are available locally. Our discussion typically goes like this: “Yes, Omomo Tea Shoppe makes good drinks, but why stand in an hour-long line for them when there are two or three really good options within walking distance?”

YiFang Tea was like that. Opened at Irvine’s Orange Tree Square plaza in 2021, the Taiwanese tea shop had lines waiting out the door before it served its first drink, a testament to the power of social media buzz. Like several other chains, the interior was designed to look like you were stepping up to an old-fashioned tea stand that just happened to be inside the glass windows of the plaza. YiFang’s backstory focused on a grandmother’s inspirational pineapple jam, which (along with other fruits and preserves) was integrated into the chain’s drinks.

The teas – primarily fruit juice and tea mixes with fresh ingredients, including a noteworthy mango and grapefruit drink with sago palm jellies, a YiFang Fruit Tea loaded with sliced apples and passion fruit seeds, and peach tea – all looked good, but were too easily consumed, while leaving bits of fruit to be eaten separately or discarded. A brown sugar pearl cocoa latte was quite special, balancing caramel and chocolate notes, but also packed with cream and sugar.