New Experience: Chatime

Who would've thought that milk teas would be as huge as this here in Philippines? From Coffee, to Froyo, and now milk tea. One of those is called Chatime. The famous Taiwanese milk tea is finally in town and starting to captivate Pinoy hearts. Serves in regular and large sizes, and almost all of the drinks are less than a hundred pesos. What we tried the other day is one of the bestsellers called Grass Jelly with Fresh Milk and Chatime roasted milk tea with black pearls.

I was kind of disappointed with the location of Chatime in Makati though, it was in between Landmark and Glorietta. No seats and always crowded. But nevertheless, the drinks I tried so far are superb and I would love to visit and try other drinks soon!

New Experience: Gong Cha

Gong Cha - the Tea for Royals.

Tried Gong Cha yesterday while waiting for my sister as it was suggested by some friends since I love milk teas. Based on what I read, Gong Cha was first launched in Taiwan and now aims the whole Asia, and who knows? Probably the world. Haha. Good thing about it is that you can choose the sugar level of your order from 0% to 100% sugar.

There's three steps how to taste each texture of a Gong Cha drink:

1. Drink with your mouth. To taste the foamy milk on top.

2. Drink with straw. To taste the original tea at the bottom.

3. Mix the milk and tea. For the extraordinary taste of the mixture.

I must say, it all tastes differently with those 3 steps.

Plus, I like the happy faces and service of the Gong Cha crew. They were all welcoming and convincing. They even tried to explain everything to me. Haha. Since the seats were outside, when I was about to leave and look at them, they all waved at me. As in everyone. Haha. So sweet lang. :) Like ko yang good service since I am very makwento and I always talk to the crew and people around.

Gong Cha is located at 1st floor SM Mall of Asia, beside Music Hall and Timezone, in front of Bingo Bonanza.

Milk Tea with Black Pearl Jelly

Gong Cha Milk Green Tea

(Looks exactly like Green Tea with Rocksalt & Cheese from Happy Lemon. But two different drinks with different strengths of green tea)

Gong Cha Milk Wintermelon Tea

(my fave so far!)

http://gongcha.ph/

Since I have considered myself as a twitterholic, I have noticed that some of my followed people are tweeting about this Happy Lemon. I was kind of hesitant to try it because of two reasons: 1. Happy Lemon is located in Promenade 2. I live in Paranaque.

Milk tea. Why do people are obsessed with this? It was like the same trend when Frapuccinos became so popular where everybody's favorite is Java Chip from Starbucks.. then became the 'froyo'.. and now the milk tea.

Anyway, just to satisfy my curiosity, I traveled all the way from south to north just to try one drink - milk tea with black pearl sago that Ms. Digby recommended. Perfect timing because I was having bad day and battling if I should stay at Serenitea (10 mins away from home) or try the new Happy Lemon. Since I want to be away.. I went literally away from south to north.

So!

1. MILK TEA WITH BLACK PEARL SAGO. It was the safest drink ever. Haha. If you dont want to risk your taste buds and want to settle to the expected taste of what milk tea is. This is the drink.

Though, I must admit that it was love at first sight. I fell in love with Happy Lemon and not just that, the ambiance of the place. Quite hard to get a table/seat and pretty slow service but so understandable because of the long line with one cashier counter. After few days, I woke up craving for it because I wasn't very much contented with my first visit. :0

2. GREEN TEA WITH ROCKSALT AND CHEESE. As per my friend Chelly suggested because we both love green tea. Weird combination. I was told not to stir, use straw, and drink as it is. Meganon? So I did what the guy told me and it was surprisingly and unexpectedly delicious! Literally tastes like a green tea with a twist of rocksalt and cheese. :)

3. CRISPY COCOA MILK TEA WITH BROWN SUGAR JELLY. Again, just like number 1. No difference except for the brown sugar that melts slowly :)

4. LEMON HONEY WITH SEAWEED JELLY. Not really my type of because it tastes like peach or lychee. Haha It was a bit sour because of the lemon but not something that will make me go crave for it again. Seaweed jelly tastes like just ordinary green jelly. But Mikha did liked it so much probably her favorite drink. Didn't like it as much as her but I took a photo with it because I love the color of the drink. Haha

5. LEMON YAKULT MOUSSE SPIN. Obviously if you are a big fan of Yakult diz iz the shit! Haha. A bit pinch of the sweetness of the Yakult with a little touch of sour taste from the lemon.

Over all, Happy everyday with Happy Lemon! Just sucks that we dont have it here in Paranaque or Alabang area... YET. Please branch out! I cant wait to to try the other drinks the next time I visit again. Any suggestions?