Piyo means drink. We read the cup first.
Chai houses, juice bars, coffee shops, falooda counters — Piyo Halal is a guide to where to drink well, and to the ingredients hiding in syrups, toppings, and foams that most menus never mention.
Drinks hide more than food does.
Nobody serves a kabab with mystery gelatin, but drinks do it constantly: jelly cubes in falooda, marshmallow foam on hot chocolate, carmine-tinted pink drinks, cream liqueur flavorings in "dessert lattes", wine-based vanilla extracts in syrup. The menu rarely says, and the barista often doesn't know.
Piyo Halal treats every drink like an ingredient list waiting to be read. Each listing in the guide marks a drink either "clear cup" — every questionable ingredient confirmed with the shop — or "ask", with the exact question to ask at the counter.
We're compiling the guide shop by shop, starting in Chicago, and publishing what the shops tell us, in their words.
Three kinds of places, one guide.
Chai houses & cafes
Karak, masala chai, Kashmiri pink chai, and the late-night chai spots where the kettle never cools. We note which shops brew with loose leaf and what's in the pink.
Juice & smoothie bars
Fresh-pressed sugarcane, falooda counters, smoothie chains. The fruit is fine — it's the jellies, boba, and whey boosters we read the labels on.
Coffee & dessert drinks
Third-wave shops and dessert lattes. We record which syrup lines the shop pours and what their maker publishes about flavor carriers.
The Chicago drinks guide is steeping.
Shop visits are underway. Leave your email and we'll pour you the guide the day it's ready — one email, nothing else.