Horchata

Arizona Green Tea

 

Hey Cha

Bella & Suri

Flamingo Bloom

Tiger Sugar

Sugar Panda

19Nineteen

I Love Milktea

Gong Cha

Yi Fang

Ten Ren's Tea

Teaberi

Looking around for a Penny board at the Trinoma Mall made Monique quite tired.  We found ourselves seeking refreshments from Teaberi, over at the second floor fast food area.  With around P100 each, we powered down and just chilled!  Great father and daughter bonding!

Tea*Rock

Looking around for desserts at the UP Town Center, Monique and I chanced upon Tea*Rock at the end of the corridor on the ground floor.  I half expected the place to be an ice-cream parlor, and when it turned out that it was more of a tea shop with some fast food, I was a bit disappointed.  Lucky for me, they had some shaved ice, and we chose a big chocolate covered bowl for the two of us.  Technically, it wasn't exactly a shaved ice dessert; shaved ice desserts are made by machine-shaving flavored ice into a fine texture, but in comparison, their style is more like having plain crushed ice topped with chocolate syrup, taro gel, milk and chocolate bits.  Not bad though, it was refreshing, it was bathed in good quality chocolate and it was reasonably priced.  Together with the berry drink that Monique ordered, our bill came to P200.  We capped the night with smiles on our faces!

Coco Fresh Tea & Juices

Our visit to the Fisher Mall along Quezon Avenue gave us some good father-daughter bonding.  We were particularly happy with the Green Tea Macha drink (P125) of Coco, which is a newly opened Taiwanese tea and juice franchise.  The tall drink came with some sago and jelly, which made it so much richer in texture.  Sweetness level was just right.  I'll be back for more!

A Gantea

Vicky and Monique took out some pastries from Bread Talk at the Ayala Triangle for our brekky.  I didn't realize that there must be some functional tie-up with the Taiwanese A-Gantea and Singaporean Bread Talk; the tea shop is right inside the premises, and I surmised that the local franchisee of both brands must be one and the same.  The kids just loved their tea drinks, a good midnight snack can be had here for under P200 per person.

Mondo Juice + Sip

Mondo Juice and Sip have partnered up for a store along Rada St. in Legaspi Village.  Now, I don't know if the two store share a common set of stockholders or have the same franchise holder, but it seems that there is some synergy here.  Mondo Juice specializes in healthy juice slush, while Sip makes milk tea drinks (I tried the chocolate flavored drink which was very rich and flavorful).  We had a morning meeting with some (very esteemed) lawyers from UP Law 53, and we ordered some sandwiches--smoked turkey breast and beef pastrami to match our drinks.  Nice clean atmosphere, and the color scheme of the store is light and easy on the eyes.  We spent something like P300 per head for light mid-morning brekky.

Dakasi

Monique and I had some milk tea drinks at the Robinson's Otis branch of Dakasi.  I asked for half the regular dose of sugar and that made my drink just right for my taste buds.  It was a refreshing drink for the mid-summer heat!  It seems that milk tea has totally replaced mocha frappe as the favorite drink of this generation.  Kids just love the various brands that keep sprouting up (both local and imported brands alike), and even with drinks priced at around P100 per glass (it's not cheap for the average salary worker), these companies manage to stay financially afloat.  Talk about market demand--unbelievably amazing!

Bubble Tea

Anita recently invited Monique & myself to dessert at the Bubbletea outlet along Wilson St. in San Juan.  I was happy that the place served cakes and pastries, in addition to the pearl milk teas that it obviously was about.  The milk teas came in various flavors, and we had some lychee, kiwi, taro and green apple (Maxene and Danica just love the sago pearls).

The big surprise was that the restaurant serves the whole range of Japanese cuisine!  From sushi to rice meals and noodles!  Anita couldn't resist and shared an order of salmon sushi with Monique.  I had a piece and it was quite well prepared.  Pretty interesting combination--Japanese food, a dessert counter and Taiwan-style milk tea!

Monique is definitely hooked!  We had a fun time watching the tea drinks made by the shaking machine--it was a mechanical bartender at work!  Drinks go for around P100 each, and if you take some dessert you could spend around P250 per head.  If you have a meal, prepare something like P500 per head.

Share Tea

It's interesting how this milk tea phenomenon still manages to survive.  When it first started in 2008, I thought that in a couple of years, the novelty of it all would wear thin.  Apparently, it hasn't subsided as of this writing, and new tea stores continue to crop up in the metro.  I would imagine that the Wilson St. area has one of the highest concentrations of tea shops, and a couple of weeks ago, Monique and I visited the Share Tea store at the corner of Wilson and P. Guevarra Sts., while we were waiting for the car air-conditioner to be fixed.   The store area isn't that big, just a counter and a few seats, I would guess that the clientele usually order for take-out. Their teas are delightful, I had a lychee flavored drink while Monique had hazelnut.  These go for about P100 each, and the cold drink was a welcome relief under the hot summer sun.