BOBAttle: The Quest for the Best Milk Tea in Town

With the number of milk tea places that have popped up and still are popping up, there's no way I could ever hope to try (or even know about) every single one of them. This review is by no means comprehensive, and I'll update it each time I try a new place.

Initially, I had planned on ranking all the places I've tried. However, I realized (1) that some places might be different but equally good and (2) that I'd have to keep adjusting the rankings after trying out new places. So I've decided that it makes more sense to classify them into 3 groups: YES, SO-SO, and NO.

I. The YESes

Chatime (http://www.facebook.com/chatimephilippines)
Location: Multiple branches in Metro Manila
Originally from: Taiwan
What I like: The consistency of their pearls: smooth on the surface, chewy but not too hard. The milk tea is well balanced: I taste the milk, I taste the tea, and the flavor balance is just right. Their cups are always well sealed. The price is slightly less expensive than most other milk tea places, without a drop in quality. Bonus points for the delicious chicken chop! Also, upon ordering/paying, customers are given a pager that vibrates and lights up once orders are ready--totally unnecessary for smaller stores, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.
What I don't like: The plastic they use to seal the cups is a bit hard/thick, so it's hard to poke the straw through it without some of the milk tea coming out.
My favorites: Chatime Roasted Milk Tea, Jasmine Green Milk Tea

Gong Cha (http://gongcha.ph)
Location: Multiple branches in Metro Manila
Originally from: Taiwan
What I like: Consistency of pearls, well balanced milk tea flavor, well sealed cups.
What I don't like: Although the milk tea flavor is well balanced, I'd prefer a little less milk and a little more tea.
My favorites: Matcha Milk Tea, House Special Milk Teas

Tokyo Bubble Tea (http://www.facebook.com/tokyobubbletea)
Location: Multiple branches in Metro Manila
Originally from: Japan
What I like: Huge selection of drinks, and the most wonderful option of having small bubbles (pearls), big bubbles, or combination. The bubbles are tasty, with a sweetish tinge, and the milk tea is good. More than a milk tea place, Tokyo Bubble Tea is a full-service restaurant with a well-trained staff and a HUGE menu of Japanese appetizers/snacks, sushi, mains, and cakes. And it's open till 1 am on weekdays and 2 am on weekends!
What I don't like: The prices are a bit higher than most, and the sizes are a tad smaller than most, though  still big enough for an enjoyable portion.
My favorites: Japanese Green Milk Tea, Jasmine Milk Tea (with combination big and small bubbles!)

Quickly (http://www.quickly.com.ph)
Location: Multiple branches in Metro Manila, Batangas, Cavite, Laguna, and Cebu
Originally from: Taiwan
What I like: Less expensive than most milk tea places. Quickly has been in the Philippines much longer than all of these other milk tea places, even before milk tea became popular, and the fact that it's still around says something about its taste and quality.
What I don't like: Nothing I can think of.
My favorites: Taro Ice

II. The SO-SOs

Dakasi (http://www.dakasiphil.com/)
Location: Multiple locations in Metro Manila
Originally from: Taiwan
What I like: You can ask for more tea, less milk, which is exactly the way I like it. The staff seem well versed on everything on their menu. Also, it seems that each branch offers a buy-one-get-one-free introductory promotion for the first month or two of operation. They also offer drinks containing bits of cereal--not my cup of tea (pun not intended), but I guess it's good to have that option.
What I don't like: The milk tea is nothing great, though not bad either. I wouldn't go out of my way to get it, but if I were craving milk tea and there were no other stores around, I wouldn't mind having some Dakasi.
My favorites: Nothing in particular. Maybe the Almond Milk Tea.

Serenitea (http://www.facebook.com/iloveserenitea)
Location: Multiple locations in Metro Manila, and one or two in Laguna
Originally from: Manila! Proudly Pinoy!
What I like: It seems each newly opened branch offers, just for a day, free upsize to a super-enormo size (not regularly available) when ordering one of their top 10 offerings in large size. I was lucky enough to walk by a new branch offering this. Fun!
What I don't like: To me, their milk tea tastes a bit watered down. Also, their staff seem to be among the most frazzled and disorganized I've encountered. At Serenitea, more than at any other place, I've experienced them running out of pearls, giving me the wrong order, and handing me a sticky cup.
My favorites: Uji Matcha

III. The NOs

Tea Talk
Location: Aguirre Avenue, BF Homes, Paranaque
What I don't like: The guy at the counter was completely disinterested and got our orders wrong. Their cup covers aren't leak-proof. The milk tea was just so-so, totally unmemorable. The pearls were mushy on the outside, hard on the inside, and all clumped together. Not going back.

Zagu (http://www.zagushakes.com)
Location: Multiple locations in Metro Manila
What I don't like: Their drinks taste completely artificial. Of course, they cost less than half of what other milk tea places charge, so I guess it's nice that there's a version more people can afford.

NEXT ON THE TO-TRY LIST: SenCha, BF Homes, Paranaque (http://www.facebook.com/senchamilkteaplace)

BOBAttle: The Quest for the Best Milk Tea in Town (A Prelude)

I've always loved milk tea or, as I used to call it back in the day, boba or bubble tea. (I suppose the term "milk tea" is more appropriate, since after all, you can have it with "sinkers" other than boba/pearls/bubbles, like grass jelly and pudding, or with none at all.) But back then, it was an occasional treat, something I had every few months at most but usually no more than a couple times a year. It wasn't that I deprived myself of it. It just wasn't such a widespread thing that it crossed my mind--or my sight line--often. Thus, I had it only when I really wanted it, when I actually had a craving for it come out of nowhere, and I had to purposely head in the direction of a boba place.

Today, however, whichever way you go, you're bound to encounter multiple milk tea places (and thus decide you want milk tea, or decide to have some even if you don't particularly want it!). In the late 90s, it was the Starbucks frappe; in the mid 2000s, it was fro-yo (Frozen yogurt). Today, it's milk tea. And it seems that milk tea has reached a level that neither of its two predecessors did. Sure, the Starbucks frappe was mega-popular, and yes, this did lead to other coffee chains opening to offer some competition (e.g., Figaro, Seattle's Best). But there was never a time when, at every turn, I saw a coffee shop/frappe place. Plus coffee shops have other offerings aside from frappes: hot coffee, hot tea, iced tea, juices/smoothies, and light meals--so not everyone who goes gets a frappe. At a milk tea place, you get milk tea (or some variation thereof).

The fro-yo craze likewise never reached the wild popularity of milk tea today. True, there were times when the line at White Hat was long enough to make me decide to go another time. But there were also times when it was completely empty, and for significant stretches of time; I've never seen a milk tea place empty. Maybe once or twice, but they didn't stay empty for long. And even during the height of fro-yo, I never saw all that many people walking around carrying a cup of yogurt. Today, whichever way you look, there's a person holding a glass of milk tea.

Perhaps that's a big part of the popularity of milk tea: you can have it on the go. Sure, you can have a frappe on the go, but then how would you fuss with the whipped cream and the straw? No, a frappe is best had sitting down, in the company of friends. Fro-yo, much the same: it's so much easier to walk around and suck milk tea through a straw than it is to walk around having to occasionally scoop up some yogurt and spoon it into your mouth. The drink + food aspect probably helps too. A frappe is a drink, although a heavy one. Fro-yo is food, although light. Milk tea is both! You drink the milk tea and chew the sinkers. Plus milk tea is generally less expensive than a frappe or a fro-yo. (Some people might include the argument that milk tea is good for you, but we all know that's just justification of our greed! Milk and tea are absolutely good for you, but whole milk is full of fat, and sugar is not so good for you.)

Sooo this introduction to milk tea ran much longer than I anticipated. I was planning on one to two paragraphs and then quickly moving on to reviews. I got carried away: I guess I've been ruminating on on the phenomenon of milk tea more than I realized. In the interest of avoiding a ridiculously and tediously lengthy blog post, I'll end this one here. Consider it a prelude. On to the reviews! :)