Boba Quest: Arteassan

As part of Boba Quest 🧋, I'm trying and reviewing a new boba shop each week whenever I have time.

I was recently walking down the street earlier this week and noticed that the location that used to be home to Möge Tea (reviewed in Jan. 2025, 6/10) had a new sign up: Arteassan.

As you may have read on the news, there is currently a blizzard hitting New York City, so I did the reasonable thing to do and hunkered down under a warm blanket went outside to try a new boba shop!

(In normal weather you can take the 7, N, W via Queensboro Plaza or E, F, R via Queens Plaza to get there but I'd wait until the weather improves!)

I ordered a Cloud Ceylon Brown Sugar fresh milk tea with regular (100%) sugar and light ice (it's cold out!). The barista said that "Cloud Ceylon" was similar to black tea (TIL that Ceylon is an old name for Sri Lanka), so I expected it to be similar to a standard brown sugar boba milk tea.

• Boba: 3/4 the boba was well flavored, but just a little too chewy (not enough to be a problem but enough that I noticed).
• Tea: 2/4 on the other hand the tea felt weak and not as strong as I would've liked it. I don't think it was the boba overpowering it either.
• Bonus: 1/1 I'm going to give this as a pass today; it was clear they were still setting up the new shop and I don't want to penalize them for that. Plus, they were open during a blizzard! What more can you ask for? (Though to be fair, I walked past 3 other boba shops and they were also open.)

Total: 6/10, decent, but not worth getting in a blizzard. I'll probably visit it again in a month or two to get a more realistic impression.