Who Is Better - Bubble Tea Fight
I can say I am crazy over bubble tea, I have at least 1-3 cups every single week. Over these few years I have tried many different brand, starting from those neighbourhood bubble tea store to Sweet-talk, Sharetea, Itea, Gongcha(Li-Ho), Koi, Blackball, U-Cha and many many more.
After much consideration, I have decided to do a Bubble Tea Brand Fight, I took two common drinks in different store and try them one by one to see who is actually better.
The common drink fight #1: Bubble Milk Tea, 0% Sugar, Normal Ice
From Left To Right: LiHo, U-Cha, Blackball, Koi
Overall Milk Tea taste is bland, it taste too milky instead with a good mix of tea fragrance.
However the good point is they use golden bubble just like Koi, therefore the texture of pearl will be generally softer and chewy.
#2: U-Cha Bubble Milk Tea, SGD $3.30 I used to work in bubble tea store and I remembering Milk Tea is actually Black Tea + Coffee Creamier.
For U-Cha Milk Tea, it taste more like fresh milk + black tea instead of the usual creamier milk tea, in my personal opinion it taste kind of weird as the tea and milk doesn't match well. But their packaging and design is one of the cutest among all of the different brand.
#3: Koi Bubble Milk Tea, SGD $3.40
Milk tea is smooth and light, probably one of the best milk tea among all. You can taste the fragrance of creamier but yet very like sweetness as I have it at 0%, well balance with Tea & Creamier. Golden bubble is always the softest and super chewy, Koi pearl had never fail me.
*Best Choice For Milk Tea*
#4: Blackball BOBA Milk Tea (Basically Pearl Milk Tea), SGD $ The texture and taste of milk tea is too bland and not much tea fragrance, kind of disappoint me, maybe sugar level is too low therefore it is not as nice as what I expected.
But I believe a good milk tea will still be good even though there is no sugar, therefore Koi is still a better choice. Liho is slightly better than Blackball in this case, but still prefer Koi.
Next Up, Fruity Green Tea Series.
I decided to go for Passionfruit Green Tea, 0% Sugar With Pearl.
From Left To Right: Koi, Blackball, U-Cha
#1: Koi Passionfruit Green Tea With Golden Pearl, SGD $4.00
This is definitely a damn good choice for people who love sour/refreshing drinks, the entire drink is filled with Passionfruit seed and fruit, if you never like them you got to try other brand. 0% turning this into a super sour drink, I think if I opt for 30-50% sugar it will be perfect because I love passionfruit seed!
As usual, the pearl is perfect and chewy! I love how koi keep the consistency of their pearls! *Thumbsup*
#2: U-Cha Brimmer Passionfruit Tea + Pearl, SGD $4.50 (Fixed Size) U-Cha passionfruit tea turns out to be extremely refreshing and fruity however I think it is a little too sweet after awhile, the sweetness should be from Natural Fruits Sugar as there is no extra sugar syrup added into this drink. U-cha is generous for this drink as you get to see real fruits into the drink and it feels so much more worth the dollar as it's real! Pearl is pretty good, I kind of love it because it's soft and chewy, pretty well done.
#3: Blackball Passionfruit Green Tea + Pearl, SGD $ I drink this almost every single day and I love how Blackball control the sweetness/sourness of their Passionfruit Green Tea, the only down side is there is limited Passionfruit Seed given. This is my everyday drink because it is light, not too sweet but not refreshing enough comparing to Koi & U-cha. Pearl is much more sticky and harder compare the two other brand, texture of pearl change every single day therefore no consistency for pearl texture.
Overview:
Koi is one of the most innovative in terms of ordering and preparing drinks system, queuing for Koi used to be really long but now with Self-service counter it is so much faster. They also offer wide variation of drinks starting from Milk Tea, Fruity Series to even Coffee, they are well known for good milk tea and perfect pearl but pricing wise is a little steep as compare to other brands.
Blackball, typical bubble tea store queue system where you have one line for ordering and one line for collection, waiting time depends staff/outlet, time and day of your purchase, estimate waiting time is about 10-20 minutes. Their main business consist of bubble tea and also bowl dessert, they are well known for good Grass Jelly, Taro Ball (All on dessert bowl series) but they do pretty well in their drinks too. Normal Bubble tea pricing, $2plus - $3plus, pretty sensible.
U-Cha is probably the newest store among all the other brand, an alternative choice of Liho, they have Cheese Tea concept and declared to mention they serve high quality tea. They also adopt typical one line ordering and collection queue system however service is not really good, the staff seems to be unaware of their own drinks and preparation time took 10 minutes when there is no other customer(Pretty disappointed)
LiHo the change from Gong-Cha, but I think a lot people still prefer GongCha (To Be Honest, Even me!)
Creating new invention of Cheese tea and it trend for a period of time. I have yet to try them but they are really close to the old concept of Gong-cha, adopting the same order and collection queue system but definitely better organise as compare to U-Cha. Price wise is also on the steeper side.
If all bubble tea shop will close down only keep one, which will be your pick? I think I will choose KOI, because they have almost everything everyone need and even serving the best pearl ever. What about you?
Go Grab Yours Today, All the Brand Can Be Found At: 23 Serangoon Central, Nex
Singapore 556083
Xoxo,
Andrea
