Day Day Drink

Day Day Drink is a Taiwanese tea shop on William IV Street, at the southern edge of Covent Garden where the district runs down towards Charing Cross and the Strand. The brand traces its roots to Taiwan's Japanese period, when the island's sugar industry flourished, and it describes its approach as the Japanese Shokunin craftsman spirit combined with a Taiwanese innovation mindset. Everything on the menu is built around one ingredient: a golden caramelised sugar the shop calls Kara Sugar.

That sugar is made from Taiwanese sugarcane using traditional caramelisation techniques and, according to the brand, is produced only in Huawei town. The results are deliberately slow. The Kara Sugar cheese mousse foam is made by hand with brand cream, fresh milk and rich cheese, takes an hour to prepare and is served only twenty drinks at a time. A separate lemon Kara Sugar process removes the bitterness from the fruit while keeping its aroma, and the same stir-fried sugar method, inherited from the Japanese Showa era, goes into a handmade Kara ice cream made with fresh milk from small farms.

Taiwanese bubble tea in Covent Garden

For Taiwanese bubble tea in Covent Garden with a genuine story behind the sweetness, the signature list is the place to start: Kara Sugar Lemon Tea, Kara Sugar Pearl Tea Latte, Kara Sugar Pearl Creamy Milk, Kara Sugar Pudding Tea Latte, Pineapple Spring Tea, Day Day Mixed Fruit Tea, and matcha or cocoa milky teas finished with cheese mousse foam. The flagship Kara Sugar series is described as having a burnt fragrance without bitterness, which is the point of difference from the brown sugar drinks found elsewhere.

What to expect on a visit

This is a compact, counter-led shop rather than a sit-down cafe, suited to picking up a tea to take away between the piazza, the Strand and Charing Cross station. Staff will recommend a tea if you are unsure where to begin, gift cards are sold, and the shop takes business orders for offices and events. Opening hours run from midday into the evening, seven days a week. For the larger international chain version of the same drink, Gong Cha is a few minutes away on Garrick Street, and the rest of the dessert shops in Covent Garden are listed in the directory.