UniTea is a cute and convenient pit stop for University of Michigan students who either wake up too late to make coffee, or decide on their walk to campus that they actually need that morning milk tea that they left their apartment thinking they could do without.
You can tell that they really know their customer base really well when you notice the mirrored sign they put up in front of their windows on William Street, reading “If you look this good without matcha… imagine with it!”
There are only two food options on the menu other than their soft serve ice cream — an egg waffle and a taro pandan sticky rice with coconut cream — but the drinks are the main stars. They have milk tea, regular coffee and matcha all between $4 and $7.65.
Their hot caramel coffee for example is a good example of something easy to mess up being done really well. The caramel is full of personality, but it doesn’t overpower the coffee. Snce it is not an espresso or latte, it comes across as an uncomplicated and refreshing beverage. Based on appearances alone, you might even think that it was a regular black coffee before you tasted it.
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The cafe is perfectly situated for anyone living west of campus and south of William Street, on their way to the Diag, which is a block east of the shop at Maynard and William.
Their iced tea is also to be commended. It is crisp and refreshing, without being overly sugary.
There is nowhere to hide from the floor to ceiling windows facing Tower Plaza. Three tables fill the space, typically functioning as a place for customers to wait for their order to be efficiently completed. With a comfortable view of the intersection — as long as you don’t mind the constant coming and going of people — it can provide a relatively quiet and private place for you to work on your laptop or read a book.
An easy place to get the energized effect of being around strangers, while staying in a caffeine fueled little bubble of privacy — a bubble you can periodically pause to take in the people shuffling between campus and the rest of downtown; the usual drum beat of Ann Arbor life.
Drew Saunders is a freelance business and environmental journalist who grew up just outside of Ann Arbor. He covers local business developments, embraces his foodie side with reviews restaurants, obsesses over Michigan's environmental state, loves movies, and feels spoiled by the music he gets to review for Ann Arbor!
