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.

Food Review: Haiku

Sushi Maki Plate

Teriyaki Donburi

Total repletion

Not exactly the best haiku ever written, but if there's any restaurant as poetic as a 17-syllabled poem, it would be, er, Haiku, located in Greenbelt 3.

Specifics

Location: Greenbelt 3 below cinema level
Cuisine: Fusion Japanese (as listed in clickthecity)
Type of Service: Casual
Target Market: Mostly Japanese due to near authenticity of the dish
Budget: 450 pesos / head, roughly around $7 a meal, $9 if you order appetizers / drinks.

Customer Experience
I read that an average New Yorker meal costs around $7. This is my measuring stick when choosing a restaurant. That is, if the price of a meal in that restaurant is above $7, then I file it under "expensive" and avoid it until there is an actual occasion for it (think birthdays or proposals, no?). Thankfully, Haiku managed to enter the $7/meal bracket, and come to think of it, Italianni's is actually more expensive.

So a casual eat-out and try-this-old-resto-sitting-there-forever-but-we-don't-really-wanna-try-it-out thing has to be had and I invited a friend to tag along to try out more stuff.

One thing I can say about the service is that they're friendly and prompt. The thing with Haiku is that you never need any reservations to eat here. Just walk in and eat.

We've had traditional Japanese dishes mainly as as my friend has it, "if they can cook the basic stuff, well, then they can cook the experimental / fusion ones better." So yep, that means we ordered Katsudon (Har har) and Japanese chicken curry. We also had a platter of their All Maki Platter, which sets you off at an incredibly low price of 299. 16 pieces of Maki, man such deal! 

And what can I say about the food? Delightful.

(I just have to take a mental note that for the last few days I've been eating out with friends, I always end up finishing my rice and they don't. It makes me feel fat and maybe I should watch out my own rice intake, really. Mental note down.)

The Katsudon is just perfect, the meat tender and the rice that they paired it with is the perfect Japanese kind of sticky. The curry was a bit on the spicy side, which I like but my system tends to disagree with as almost as short as 3 minutes into the curry, sweat beaded up on my forehead. The Maki platter has 16 pieces of maki, 4 Spicy Tuna, 4 Tempura, 4 California, 2 Salmon, and 2 Tuna makis, this is something 4 people can split. You couldn't go wrong with it, although at the end of it, I kind of wish we did some more experimenting and not stick with the basic Japanese. Maybe some other time.

Ambiance
Haiku is not particularly noisy at the time we were in and the air-conditioning is just proper. The lighting is a bit dim, suggesting that it be for more formal or romantic gatherings. My main gripe with Haiku is how unfinished their ceiling is, which is counter-intuitive to their beautiful furnishing. Also, the CR. Why is there no CR in there? The nearest CR is outside Haiku, near the escalators to the cinema level. This is inconvenient, especially with dates, as ladies often want to freshen up after dining.

Verdict
I would like to be cheeky and hand out a verdict in 17 syllables, but the exercise above already told me that I suck at writing haikus. Good thing, eating one is not that hard.

Service - 4
Product - 4
Ambiance - 3

3.7 out of 5

Food Review: Bubble Tea

Bubble Tea at SM Megamall

Well, well, well, we meet again Bubble Tea, my first milk tea love. What separates Bubble Tea from all the other tea stops is that they're no noob in the Philippine market. They've been in Manila for more than a year and the fact that they managed to raise their prices all the while expanding and retaining their customer base is by far no simple feat. Back in 2009, their Large (which is actually medium in Serenitea) Royal Milk Tea is priced at 80 pesos, and their most expensive milk tea, the Coffee Milk Tea (which I have not tried!) sits comfortably at 100 pesos. Came late 2010, the prices got jacked up to flat 115/125 for regular and medium prices respectively across all the milk tea drinks. What turned me off with this move is the fact that I used to buy this stuff for 80 bucks, why should I pay 125 for it when its virtually the same? And with price in the equation, is Bubble Tea worth your money? Read more below.

Specifics

Location: Megamall, Building A, Lower Ground near food court (other locations: SM North EDSA, Tomas Morato)

Concoctions: Milk Tea, Tea, Milk Tea Slush, Japanese Food

Type of Service: Casual Dining

Target Market: Yuppies, Tea Drinkers, Chinese

Price Range: 115 to 150 pesos

Customer Experience

Compared to other tea stops that propose Chinese authenticity, Bubble Tea claims Japanese origin. The servers will greet you, "Irrashaimase!" once you step in and offer you their menu. What I loved about Bubble Tea is they improved their customer service after their price increase a year ago. The waitresses are always smiling and the new casual dining system just makes everything work more easily. You sit and no longer need to fall in line. Very convenient. The downside to this is that expect to pay more. For instance, the Royal Milk Tea you get here will set you off at 125 pesos, where as you get a (very) Large Earl Grey Milk Tea at Gong Cha with triple Js for the same amount. Kind of feels like ripping you off if you look at it that way. I asked the manager of Bubble Tea why their tea is more expensive than others and I was offered the explanation of the casual dining system and that their ingredients are imported from Japan. Besides, their tea comes with pearls by default so that shouldn't be so bad, though would have been better if you are given the option to throw those out and have pudding instead, right?

The star of Bubble Tea's menu

Service is quite fast. The waitresses won't make you wait long before your order is served.  Food is almost often served as fast as the drink you ordered. One misgiving I have is that often when you order a drink, they would miss giving you tissue. Yep. They sometimes miss, so if you're particular with that as I am, I suggest you always pay attention because the moment you start drinking that milk tea, you might forget about everything else.

Offerings

I've practically tried everything in Bubble Tea's menu, save for the Coffee Milk Tea which is just confusing (I mean coffee and tea in one?) and the hot teas. The Green teas I didn't spare either, though there's something so acidic about their Apple Green Tea that makes my stomach crunch with pain at the end of each medium-sized cup.

Taro Milk Tea

At this rate of familiarity, it is safe to say that it's hard to go wrong with Bubble Tea. Their Royal Milk Tea is just that: Royal. The milk and the tea just mixed right and not a hint too strong or too weak. It's like drinking something so refined, you can't tell the ingredients apart. The Royal Milk Tea is the base of all their other milk tea drinks and since it is good, every product derived from it is also good. Though, I tend to disagree with the Japanese Green Milk Tea, it's just not a good fusion. Royal, Taro, Strawberry, Chocolate, Almond, Jasmine, Honeydew Melon, you can practically have one everyday. As for their Cold teas, you can go Apple, Strawberry, Lemon, Yocca (Yogurt green tea), and Peach, all are terrific! Their milkshakes are good, too.

I haven't asked if we can remove the bubbles from the tea, but I guess you could. I once ate there with a friend who disliked the bubbles (tapioca pearls, that is), but we missed the chance of having them taken out. As far as I know, you can tweak the sugar level and even add pudding or vanilla ice cream (but seriously, vanilla ice cream?).

The Seafood Korokke, 5 pcs of potato balls with microscopic seafood in them, priced at 135. Can you believe that before it's only 60 bucks and does not go with that icky salad?

The best thing perhaps about Bubble Tea is that you can also order savory. They have dishes, Japanese Fusion dishes, ranging from Maki and Sushi, to baked rice melts. I thoroughly enjoy their Chicken Teriyaki Doria and their Curry plates, which comes with a side salad--which I don't eat!

The tea taste and the savory dishes just makes Bubble Tea one of the tea stops to beat in my list.

Competition
It's hard to really pin down who Bubble Tea is competing with directly. Their price point is way out of everyone's league, except maybe perhaps for Saint's Alp. You can perhaps think Bubble Tea is competing with Teriyaki Boy, which they edge out on by offering the current fad--Milk Tea. Then again if it's just milk tea and milk tea we're talking about, Bubble Tea is in a bit of a difficult position. Their prices are too steep compared to say Gong Cha or Serenitea. Happy Lemon is another story as Happy Lemon's milk tea offerings are, well, questionable at best, compared to Bubble Tea. Cha Time is of no concern, I already dubbed it as the "tea place to go to when there's just nothing else," and almost everyone I know agrees with me on that.

The Black Tea with Japanese Cream Cheesecake. I say, yum!

The good thing about Bubble Tea is that with these new competitors (milk tea stops), they made new products like the Yocca Green Tea (which is yogurt on your green tea, which is really good, and the Japanese Cream Cheesecake drinks (their version of Happy Lemon's rock salt and cheese), but where as the competition has "drinkable cheese," theirs is more of ready for the scooping. Yep. Stubborn as an ice cream, that cheese, though it's really good and pricey (135 bucks for a large cup).

Verdict
So like an estranged lover, I went back to Bubble Tea after trying all these other tea stops. Taste for taste, nothing beats these folks. Their service is also good and well beyond reproach. But with price in play, you would think twice. A similar tasting Earl Grey can be purchased at Gong Cha for a relatively lower price, so why bother paying 125? Then again, if I am in Megamall and it's fancy Milk Tea that I want, well, I know where to go.

Service - 4
Product - 5
Ambiance - 3.5


4.17 out of 5 stars.

Food Review: Serenitea (Updated!)

Serenitea at Eastwood

Milk Tea is all the rage these days! Remember back in the days when it was only Quickly that offered mass-commercially palatable milk tea? Those days are gone now. This means, Milk Tea is now a fad. Soon it would dissipate into the niche it once occupies once the fad turns to fade and demand dies down. For now, here is a review of one of the hotly discussed tea-serving place: Serenitea.

Note: this review has been updated since I last wrote it with new pictures and a final verdict. Updates are written in blocks of italicized text so it would be easy for those who have read this to discern which parts have been updated.

Specifics

Location: Eastwood Cybermall, imposing on the entrance door, impossible to miss (there are other locations all over Metro Manila, but this one gets my review)
Concoctions: Tea
Type of Service: Pay and Claim
Target Market: Yuppies, Tea Drinkers, Chinese
Price Range: 75 pesos to 120 pesos~

Thingamajig for getting your ordered item

The new thingamajig when I revisited. So much better. And cuter

Customer Experience
The idea behind Serenitea is to make it as authentic a tea experience as possible without having to deviate from experimenting here and there. The menu board is littered with authentic-looking tea items from various parts of Asia and some experimental ones (Exciting Yakult Tea!). Their bestseller as I was told was the Hokkaido Milk Tea. Unfortunately for me, I wanted to experiment and ordered something else. So I ordered the Large Wintermelon Milk Tea. A very tall cup sets you off 105 pesos. Not bad, considering you get a smaller size at 100 bucks in Happy Lemon and 125 in Bubble Tea (without egg pudding). The furniture and ambiance of Serenitea, is well, serene and a bit minimalist. Though this one in Eastwood is very in-your-face and out in the open, it suggests that you take your drink for a walk through the expanse of Eastwood City.

Large Wintermelon Milk Tea at 105 pesos

Open-faced store here at Eastwood

Service was quite on the slow side given that I managed to argue about Contagion with my friends and end up agreeing on disagreeing before my thingamajig buzzed. Took around 10 to 15 minutes. It also didn't help that the couple in front of me were being meticulous and at the same time clueless. At some point the people at the counter were uninstructive and very trusting of their customer's judgment of what they are ordering. You can tweak the ice and sweetness and for 105 you get add-ons to your drink like my favorite "egg pudding" or pearl. You can apparently add some toppings for no cost, but the counter person made it sound like I would need to pay something so I said no to it, to which he strongly suggested that I add some "sinkers" and I was like, OK, give me the egg pudding.


The second time I was here, service is recognizably faster--given the meticulous couple has probably been busy elsewhere that night, although I noticed how their crews remain to be apathetic. These people don't seem to love working and seem to loathe customers silently. I mean seriously, frown at me much when I have been smiling at you since I got to the cashier? Very friendly, sir. Very friendly.

I got the Wintermelon Milk Tea as mentioned above on a relatively friendly price. It was, well, throat-bustingly sweet and was more than sorry that it did not completely agree with my taste buds. Some people will like this drink but the sweetness (at the default 100% level) makes me wonder if their other teas are as sweet. Something tells me Milk Tea isn't their specialty and that specialty still belongs to Bubble Tea. The tea is also a bit on the strong side, kind of like Cha Time. But hey, it's as authentic as they promised.

For the second time I was here, I owe it to myself to order the bestseller. The Hokkaido Milk Tea is actually really good with just the proper sweetness. The tea strength is also proper, with each component (tea, milk, and caramel, etc) perfectly combining into a seamless discernibly distinct taste. If it is your first time in Serenitea, this is the drink to buy. This or the Royal Milk Tea--which is the simplest most enjoyable tea on any menu.

Cozy furniture

As I have said earlier, the fixtures and furniture used in Serenitea is classy. But what I noticed is just how badly ventilated Cyber Mall is. I could not wait to get off Serenitea, actually, because it was incredibly warm where I was seated--I was sweating loads and it didn't look like I was enjoying at all. I hope Serenitea would find time to address this as the temperature is unwelcoming.

Competition
Price point suggests that they are competing with Cha Time. What makes Serenitea more viable is that the menu board is not as unfamiliar as Cha Time. I managed to visit Cha Time three times and so far, everything I ordered is regrettable. Serenitea comes off on the safer side, and even if I got a very sweet drink, I can say people will rather order a very sweet drink than a bland one that Cha Time serves. Happy Lemon on the other hand is a different story as that one is more on the experimental and on the slushie side of things. You go there for the "fun" drinks not strictly for tea. If you want tea, your best bet is Serenitea. They have all sorts of tea at the best price.

Verdict
What to say of Serenitea? Well, mixed. The fixtures are good, but the service and store temperature is just utter crap. Not bad, utter crap. You can put up with it, though, because you're getting good value for money. I mean 105 pesos with "toppings" or sinkers as they call it on a VENTI size cup is not something you can pick up in say, Bubble Tea or Happy Lemon. They offer the most stuff for the same price compared to competitors and if I want tea, I know this is my stop. But other than that, why should I go here instead of Happy Lemon? I mean larger does not always mean better, right? Perhaps the long line? That's the only thing I can think of against Happy Lemon's favor. Not to mention, Happy Lemon offers friendlier service and has a wider range of offerings compared to Serenitea. I really think Serenitea (at least in Eastwood) can do better, and how I wish they would already.


Service - 2
Product - 4.5
Ambiance - 3


3.17 out of 5

Food Review: Jollibee's Hashbrown Burger

I love hash browns; If I can eat only one thing everyday for the rest of my life, it would be hash browns. You can imagine my delight when Jollibee launched their Hash Brown Burger just this September. Unlike KFC's Tower Burger where the hashbrown is a padding to the patty to make the burger tall, Jollibee's offering is a tad bit simpler in execution. Let's head on to the review proper, shall we?

Packaging

One thing I have liked about Jollibee is how they are moving from using plastic and styrofoam packaging into paper and cartons. For the hash brown burger, they used a simple wax paper and carton packaging as pictured above. 

Product Composition and Caloric Content

As you can see from the image above, a beef patty and a single cheese is in between two hash browns, it couldn't get any simpler than that. (I chose to have my ketchup removed as I don't really like ketchup, but by default, it has ketchup in between the Hash brown patty and the beef patty.) These hash browns are baked, so you have less to worry about cholesterol-content-wise. Calorie content-wise, as per my research, baked hash browns have more calories than a fried one, though. A baked hash brown can contain as much as 190 calories, where as a fried one has 150~. The burger patty that Jollibee used here is the same one they use for the Regular Yum products. This patty is, as per official records, 95% imported beef, with only 5% fat. At most, this accounts for 145 calories only. The cheese slice clocks in at 70 calories. Over all, the Hash brown Burger will set you off at 595 calories, give or take.

Please note that this is not at all official and based only from speculation on the general caloric content of each component found in http://caloriecount.about.com/. If you think, the calorie content is a lot more than KFC's Double Down, officially declared by KFC to have 540 calories, then I would like to point out that a single chicken fillet is around 300 calories, give or take.

Taste, Texture, Value for Money, Combination Correctness

I daresay, this is the best Jollibee product ever made ever since the Burger Steak. I would possibly get clinical depression if this gets taken off the menu board. Seriously, it's that good. It's better than your girlfriend, plus the price point, too: a definite value for money. The saltiness of each component is just right, with the hash brown acting like a proper substitute for the bun--given how starchy it is, it feels like a proper bun. The soft texture of the hash browns also plays well along with the juicy beef patty. 

The cheese is a bit of a conundrum though, but I think it has its purpose, though I haven't realized what even after three servings. Nonetheless, the combination of the ingredients make the final product still very delightful.

Price and Competition

The Hash Brown burger sits above the Regular Yum in terms of pricing and well below the Champ. For an a la carte order, the Hash Brown Burger is priced at an affordable 64 pesos. Adding a drink will set you off at 80 pesos. It is not offered with fries, because, hello, hash browns: potatoes. 

Along with the hash brown burger, Jollibee has released a side-product called "Baked Hash Brown" which is priced at 28 PhP. Looking at this pricing, the hash brown burger is really a good deal. Two hash browns are already pegged at 56 pesos. You basically pay 8 pesos for the patty and the cheese slice.

The Hash Brown burger brings to mind KFC's own hash brown sandwich offering: The Tower Burger. Between the two, I'd have to go with Jollibee's effort. For one, you barely taste the hashbrown and chicken fillet in the Tower Burger; for another, it's restrictively more expensive. The combination in the tower burger does not make much sense as compared to the Hash Brown burger.

Price point considered, the main rivals of this offering inside Jollibee are the Chicken Sandwich, priced at 39 pesos, the Regular Yum, and the Yum with TLC. Of course, it is expectable that during the first month of offering, a product will shoot high in the sales chart. For the long run, it still remains to be seen if the sales will continue to be as good. Being a rice-eating country, the hash brown burger also faces competition from the Burger Steak, which sits almost at the same price point--a la carte.

Outside Jollibee, there is little to no offering to rival it directly. It is a unique offering which is delightful enough to secure itself. Nonetheless, I fear this will become a novelty product, which will see seasonal promotion and availability like the similarly good Tuna Pie--available only during Lenten Season plus give or take three months. I wish it to be staple as it is a very good offering, so fingers crossed.

Verdict

Yay! Never haveI this been delighted about a product offering from a fast food chain that it merits a review.  Nonetheless, if I can eat only one thing for the rest of my life, it would be this. A firm 4.75 out of 5 stars. So try out the new Hash Brown burger and tell me what you think about it.

Food Review: Happy Lemon

I haven't done this in a long while, so let's get to the specifics.

Location: Greenhills Promenade Mall (Mallfront) besides Starbucks and Coffee Bean

Concoctions: Tea, Coffee

Type of Service: Pay and Wait

Target Market: Yuppies, Tea and Coffee Drinkers, Chinese

Price Range: 75 pesos to 150 pesos~

This place is very curious. It is situated in between Starbucks and Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, seemingly unafraid of competition. What does it have to offer, a lot you haven't tasted anywhere yet. Not to mention the smiling insignia of the Lemon Boy. In a sense, the place does not look serious at all, as if all is fun and happy. Thus, Happy Lemon.

What they offer in Happy Lemon is nothing but beverage, however. No pastries and stuff. Service is currently running under a DRY RUN warning when I got here. But given the competition, they offer a unique menu: some of the most peculiar drinks I've noticed have Rock Salt and Cheese, or Seaweed Jelly in them. This really calls for a try out.

Offerings

On my first visit, I played it safe and had the Choco Cream Puff Milk tea priced at 85 pesos. This is a reasonable price and comparable to Bubble Tea's prices before they decided to commit suicide by shooting their prices up to as much as 125. How was it? Really good. It is milk tea with distinction.

The second one I had was the Blood Orange Iced Tea with Seaweed Jelly. Sounds peculiar and tastes pretty odd, too. It is a bit on the sour side and not one for my liking.

On my third visit, I had me a Rock Salt and Cheese concoction. The waitress was instructive enough to tell me not to use a straw and I didn't. This, my friends, is heaven priced at 90 bucks. Seriously, if you want to know what heaven is like, this is the cheapest you can get. My appreciation was too much that after finishing my first cup, I bought another one.

Service

As I mentioned, service is on a dry run but was nonetheless fine. Use of credit card was not possible yet, but I didn't mind as I don't swipe anything less than a hundred bucks, really. The service crews are pleasant and knowledgeable of what they sell and are even to a point instructive and too happy.

Over-all rating

Bubble Tea was my once most favorite Tea stop. Then it had to die by shooting its prices high above into Starbucks territory. They're still up and running, but wouldn't wonder if they die in two years. Happy Lemon seems a viable and fun alternative. Everything here seems Happy. Their claim to having the world's yummiest drinks is no joke and I give them that.

4 out of 5.