Milk Tea Stop Round-up

I've been a milk tea drinker back to the days when it was only Quickly that serves it commercially in the malls. Eventually, the trend caught up in the metro, so much so that it started to eat up the "posh coffee" market share. I guess I would say that I have had my fair share of milk tea drinking experience enough to start writing this article that aims to round up the tea stops in the metro and give you, dear reader, a definitive guide on your milk tea choices. I am rating each milk tea stop based on 4 criteria: taste, variety, price, and service. A full star is awarded if they meet the criteria, half if it can be improved upon, and no star if it will take a long while to improve. So let's begin, shall we?

1. Zen Tea 2.5 out of 4
Relatively a lot cheaper compared to mall-based contemporaries, Zen Tea gives the best bang for the buck if your tea drinking is insatiable enough to require a serving per day. For a measly 65 pesos (sure that still can buy you a fastfood lunch) compared to the average competitors 100/tall tumbler, Zen Tea is a popular choice among students. The price you pay for its affordability? The taste. For one, the tea is not that recognizable, and so as the milk. Their products content themselves at being mildly sweet, so discerning one tea flavor from another is quite a task, amid them having quite a varied product line. They may have some revelatory surprise in the form of their Almond milk tea, but for most of their offerings, their tea mixes dangerously tread the watered down territory. Gladly, it doesn't cross the line and remains quite good amid the cheap price. Still, I have to question where they source their workers. I feel like they were former bus stewards or drivers even.
Best Sellers: Almond Milk Tea (aka Sky), Yogurt Cream Milk Tea, Pearl Milk Tea
Suggestions: their egg pudding is unusually really sweet, but add that to their Sky Milk Tea and wow a revelation happens.

Scores:
Taste: .5
Service: .5
Price: 1
Variety: .5

2. Gong Cha 3.5 out of 4
Probably a late-comer to the scene as it opened more in the South whereas the milk tea boom was up in the North and East side of metro, Gong Cha quickly caught up and gained reputation as the best milk tea in the metro. And that is not without reason, they probably are. Their milk tea has a distinct creaminess that you might not find in other brands. And while their milk cream looks strangely similar to Happy Lemon's cheese topping, it functions differently as a creamer instead. The price does not rip you off and for 95 bucks, you got a huge huge tumbler. Problem is, most of the time, half of that tumbler is ice. Request for the less ice option and your tea will arrive to you lukewarm. Kind of a huge problem, actually. Should not really bother you as even as those ice melt to water, the tea rarely tastes watered down. You would almost always see a long queue in Gong Cha, but it doesn't take long to get served as the service is often fast. Variety, yep, they have that, though I doubt anyone has actually explored their menu beyond Wintermelon and Earl Grey Milk tea. Those are their two most popular mixes.

Gong Cha Earl Grey Milk Tea with
Grass Jelly, pudding, and pearl

Best Sellers: GC Wintermelon Milk Tea, GC Earl Grey Milk Tea, GC Chocolate Milk Drink
Suggestions: Skip trying the Ice cream Milk tea and try a Taro Milk Tea with an additional Gong Cha Milk Cream, this shall send you straight to heaven.

Scores:
Taste: 1
Service: 1
Price: 1
Variety: .5

3. Happy Lemon 1.5 out of 4
Let's admit it, people go to Happy Lemon for their Rock Salt and Cheese drinks not for their milk teas. Going to Happy Lemon for Milk Tea is like going to eBay to find a wife. It's just not logical. While the rock salt and cheese drinks are to die for, their milk tea offerings are at best questionable, having too much strength that rival freshly brewed coffee without creamer or milk. It just doesn't go well with anything. Plus, don't let me mention the variety. The only variety they can offer on the milk tea department is the sinkers you can add to your milk tea. That's about it. Drink-wise, Happy Lemon is perhaps the most creative beverage stop there is. But for milk tea, you can get better elsewhere. Price is ok. 100 pesos for a medium (grande in Starbucks lingo) sized tumbler is an industry-standard. But still, milk tea from Happy Lemon? Can you see the long line? Girl friend, you need some intervention.

Happy Lemon's Cocoa with Rock Salt and Cheese

Best Sellers: Cocoa with Rock Salt and Cheese, Green tea with Rock Salt and Cheese, no milk teas at all.
Suggestions: Bored with the cheese drinks? Try this: order their Cocoa milk tea and request for an additional cheese. It's actually good.

Scores:
Taste: 0
Service: .5
Price: 1
Variety: 0

4. Bubble Tea 3.5 out of 4
Bubble Tea started as early as March 2008 when they opened a branch in Megamall lower ground. Their menu has changed very little since, and their rainbow tea selection (I'm calling it that as their selection seem to be a lot more colored than others) remains unchanged to this day, save for an inclusion of one new flavor introduced early last year. There is a reason Bubble Tea is popular other than its age in the Philippine market: they are the only tea stop that is actually a full Japanese restaurant. You would find it difficult to order anything unpleasant from their menu. Their milk teas are really creamy without losing sight of the tea, and one flavor is easily distinguished from the other, such is the case that choosing your favorite milk teawill be another difficult task. Avoid the coconut milk tea and coffee milk tea, though. Price point however is challenging. For a Grande size, they are charging 125 for the milk teas and 95 for non-milk tea items, straying dangerously near Starbucks territory, though you would find the convenience of not having to fall in line worth the extra pay. Plus, hey, free pearl or pudding with one of metro's best-tasting milk teas. Service is also hard to find fault from, everyone is nice and I have since become a frequent customer.

One of my favorite drinks from Bubble Tea:
JCC Iced Coffee. Yum!

Best Sellers: Taro Milk Tea, Royal Milk Tea
Suggestions: You really are going to have a hard time to go wrong with Bubble Tea, but you can try their Japanese Cheesecake Cream Iced Coffee for something new. Their iced teas are also suprisingly special, like the Lychee iced tea and Green Apple iced tea.

Scores:
Taste: 1
Service: 1
Price: .5
Variety: 1


5. Serenitea 1.5 out of 4
I cannot, for the love of me, understand what people find so good about Serenitea. Is it the cute mascot, the great store layout, the tea? I have no idea, but I personally avoid buying anything from Serenitea. Their teas, for whatever flavor you choose, all taste alike. I once ordered a Royal Milk tea and a Strawberry milk tea, and lo and behold, the only difference was their color. I find their milk teas too watered down and a tad too strong. It's like drinking iced water with some milk tea on it that bites. Service borders on the flimsy side. Last time I went there, they didn't inform me that there are free sinkers for the large sized drinks and they just served it off with pearls. Also, the beautiful ambiance their stores have is paid off by the fact that it's really warm inside. I practically sweat a bucket the last time I was in Serenitea in Eastwood. Same thing occurred in their Galleria branch that I decided to step outside while waiting. Price point is great. Same price as Gong Cha, though with a crappier tea on it, so I am not really sure that's a plus, but I'll give them that nonetheless. Their Okinawa tea is their most renowned offering as it's the only thing that doesn't taste quite like the others. Still, a meh for me.

Serenitea in Eastwood Cybermall

Best Sellers: Okinawa milk tea
Suggestions: Don't. Walk. In. In case you have, you'd be glad to try their Yakult offerings which are not really milk teas but will save you the trouble of ordering anything watered down.

Scores:
Taste: 0
Service: 0
Price: 1
Variety: .5

6. Sip 2 out of 4
What happens when you marry Bubble Tea offerings and Serenitea flavors? Sip. Yep. Another one of the watered down disasters, Sip does not offer anything good beyond the cute mascot and the deconstructionist layout. I have to give them credit for trying, though, they have a vast array of sinker offerings--albeit completely not being able to offer egg pudding! They have fruit crystals, popping bobas (which are horrible, forget them), jellies, and the basic pearls (which, in the two times I visited them, always manages to run out). Flavors are like Bubble Tea, but the taste borders closer to Serenitea, and sometimes even worse. Their hand-made taro milk is also hard to drink and extremely pulpy (in a bad way, I've tried a hand-made taro milk tea from somewhere that tasted really nice, not like this one) that I threw it midway. When I tried that one, it was like drinking vomit. Yeah, that bad. Service on Sip is really slow. On the times I visited them, they managed to make me wait for more than 10 minutes. The server reasoning that they only have one machine and one person to prepare the orders (which happens to be the same cashier). Seriously? What you may want to try is their imitation of Happy Lemon's rock salt and cheese, their Chappuccino, fusing out creamy Milk tea with a thick milk cream. My friend loved it, I thought it was OK, if not too sweet. Price point is standard, if not a bit non-standard just like how Bubble Tea was when they started. 85 for the cheapest and plainest milk teas, and as much as 100+ for more sophisticated ones. Sinkers don't come free.

White Chocolate Milk Tea with Choco Pudding

Best Sellers: Milk tea with pearl, Chappuccino
Suggestions: Settle it safe with their Chocolate Chappuccino or go adventurous with their White chocolate milk tea. Just don't ever get the popping bobas for sinkers. Terrible idea unless your drinking juice or iced teas.


Scores:

Taste: .5
Service: 0
Price: 1
Variety: .5



7. Saint's Alp 3 out of 4
A relatively new entry to the milk tea race is Saint's Alp. It has only two known branches (known to me, that is), one is in Katipunan and the other one at Global City in a somewhat obscure location. Their tea offerings are perhaps the creamiest I've tasted; their Taro milk tea, even besting Bubble Tea's, and their tapioca pearls having a joyful chewiness to them. Price is below Bubble tea's by 10 pesos but may very well challenge modern coffee shops--even their rustic and cozy interior will remind you of Starbucks, heck even the way the posters were styled. A grande milk tea sets you off 110 bucks. Sinkers are very limited, I believe, to pearls and puddings. Their offerings offer less variety but is more imaginative than its nearest competitor, Bubble Tea, though, still, for that price, I don't want to be falling in line, but I am pleased to say that Saint's Alp's crews are hospitable and pleasant.

Best Sellers: Taro Milk tea, Almond Milk tea
Suggestions: I urge you to try their bestsellers. Though, good luck with the Almond milk tea as that easily runs out of stock. Their classic black milk tea is also worth the try.

Scores:

Taste: 1
Service: 1
Price: .5
Variety: .5

8. Cha Time 2 out of 4 (Revised: 3 out of 4)
There's just no going around the fact that Cha Time and Serenitea are the most popular milk tea stops in the metro. It has a presence in major malls, shopping locations, and commercial areas. Chances are, you've passed by either and happen to see a major queue happening. If that piqued your curiosity for Cha Time, I'll be glad to tell you that you can skip it. Though they have a huge variety of drinks to choose from, hardly any is really good. Most taste watered down, the only exception being their chocolate mousse drink which, sadly, tastes nothing special--in fact tastes like MILO. Their Yogurt teas are somewhat reminiscent of Happy Lemon and Serenitea's Yakult mixes, so you're not missing much there. Service is quite fast on the other hand, and, just like Serenitea, uses that buzzing plastic circle thingy. What is their claim to fame, then? Well, perhaps the authenticity of just how Chinese their teas are, and by that I mean how unsweet. Theirs is the least sweet milk tea from all the tea stops I've been to and perhaps older people will enjoy these offerings, but not me, especially when the ice melts, heck it's just like water. Price point is same as Serenitea, maybe the reason why Cha time is quite popular. But for that price, wouldn't mind walking around, trying to look for a Gong Cha.

Cha Time's new Banana Milk Tea--indeed,
a revelation

Update: 06/10/2012: So I gave Cha Time Megamall a chance and I was surprised by how different their milk teas taste as compared to the one in Galleria. The new Banana milk tea absolutely tastes watered down in Galleria, while in the newly opened Megamall branch, it does taste like banana milk. Just the right sort of sweetness and not too watered down. The same can be said for their Taro milk tea which is, unfortunately, blessed with Taro bits that can spoil the flavor. I am thus revising the score of Cha Time to 3 out of 4.

Best Sellers: Grass Jelly milk tea, Lemon Yogurt Tea
Suggestions: Don't. Walk. In. I have no idea what causes lines in Cha Time, but seriously, the Grass Jelly Milk Tea is the best you can get and that's not even good.

Scores:

Taste: 0
Service: 1
Price: .5
Variety: .5

Revised Score (06/10/2012)
Taste: 1
Service: 1
Price: .5
Variety: .5

9. Tea 101 2.5 out of 4
Tea 101 opened their branch near ABS CBN (Tomas Morato) this February 2012 and very recently in California Garden Square. Their milk tea does not stray far from the taste of Cha Time, but is a bit better than Serenitea's. Though I've been disappointed with how their Royal milk tea tastes like their Wintermelon milk tea and just how awful both tastes--watered down and strong like Serenitea's. Price is the most affordable in the market, even beating Serenitea by a hair strand. For 90 pesos, you get a Venti size tumbler--with free sinkers! The variety of huge, but their milk teas are terrible as said above. Not the best, though their tea offerings are--for most of it--revelations and are one of the best in the market, I daresay. Thankfully, the service is fast and the price is just about right.

Best Sellers: Wintermelon Milk tea, Blueberry green tea
Suggestions: Skip the milk teas and try their green tea mixes.

Scores:

Taste: 0
Service: 1
Price: 1
Variety: .5


For now, that's all the tea stops I have covered. Soon, we'll add Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Cha Dao, Moonleaf, Fruity Froyo, and others. Feel free to drop a comment if you feel I have misreviewed your favorite tea stop.