Avocado Cheese Tea Has Arrived in the East Village

It’s been a very cheesy start of the week— what with the Museum of Pizza’s opening—but we’re not about to let that stop us from informing you that cheese tea has arrived in the East Village.

If you’ll recall, we’ve been anxiously awaiting the St. Marks branch of Mi Tea, the Chinese chain that specializes in teas topped with salted cheese foam.

But wait! What’s this? Moge Tee, a budding chain with locations in Flushing‘s and Manhattan’s Chinatowns, has opened a third store at 20 Cooper Square, replacing dearly departed Cafe Zaiya. Where Zaiya sold delicious “cheese domes,” Moge Tee is serving up hot and cold teas topped with dollops of cheese foam (more of a heavy cream, really). Also on offer are teas blended with dragon fruit, avocado, watermelon, and other fresh fruits and berries rather than the powders found at some of those other bubble tea spots around the corner. And yes, you can throw in some tapioca balls if slurping cheese foam isn’t a sensual enough beverage experience for you.

As we noted last month, cheese tea could be the trend that replaces matcha, but who says you can’t have one trend on top of another? I tried an uji matcha tea topped with cheese froth and Oreo crumble. The cheese, said to be imported from Australia, tasted somewhat like a super-salty mascarpone, and had the consistency of whipped cream. In retrospect I should’ve upped the Insta factor by ordering the avocado tea with cheese foam. Cheese-tea rookie mistake.

Here’s a look at the menu.