Gong Cha, my new favorite
If you've been following my blog for a while, you would know my predilection for milk tea, like Serenitea, Chatime and Teatap. I actually first got to try Gong Cha in Hong Kong despite there being branches already in the Philippines, but they were situated a ways at both ends with me living right smack in the middle. Irene and I tried a couple and were instantly hooked and eager to get more when we came back but the locations of their branches were big hindrances.
I finally got a chance to try Gong Cha in SM Mall of Asia when I visited a Lego exhibition being held there also, so I used the "hitting two birds with one stone approach" and got to try it out.
The branch was situated in the non-air conditioned area of MOA, near the bowling area. Irene and I each got a drink from their House Special series. I got Winter Melon (P95) while Irene had Black Tea (P95) both with pearls (P15) added. Irene picked the same drink as the one she had in Hong Kong, while I wanted to get something different. The house specials biggest feature is the milk cream floating at the top.
Things we noticed are that our drink cups were the same semi-thick ones from HK but the cover has only been secured by tape compared to being sealed there. I guess the ones here want you to experience the sensation of sipping the milk cream similar to Happy Lemon. My wintermelon milk base tasted something like the wintermelon tea from Tasty Dumplings, quite different from wintermelon milk teas I've had before.
When I heard they had opened up a branch in Glorietta 4, I cajoled Irene into going there just to buy Gong Cha. I also added a side trip to visit Eat my GF (I'll blog about it in the future).
I got another different drink this time, Alishan Milk Tea House Special (P95) while Irene got her default Black Tea House Special (P95); we added pearls as you can see. I liked mine a lot, it’s a smoother tea, fresh tasting with a sweet aftertaste. This time, we requested them to just seal our cups, since we like to shake the cups to mix the milk cream into the tea before drinking. Irene felt her tea a little lacking in taste and after having sipped enough, went and added an additional order of milk cream(P40), which made her tea extra creamy.
You can see some green powder from the peek a boo window of the seal. We asked and were informed that this was matcha powder. It’s actually more for visual purposes since the amount is too small to make a taste contribution.
We've since tried both branches twice. The second visit to the Glorietta branch was lackluster, not enough flavor for both the tea and milk cream. The drinks were also not cold enough. The second visit to MOA, we just did a drive through, dropped off Irene, and I went to circle a bit and picked her up with the drinks. This time, there was a little problem with her seal, resulting in spilled milk tea when she reversed the cup to shake.
We can now conclude that the milk tea in MOA is much better compared to the ones from Glorietta 4. Recently, I heard about them opening up a branch in Megamall soon. I can't wait since I've seen a few interesting things on their menu that I want to try. I think Gong Cha is going to be my new favorite, even though I've really cut down on the number I've been drinking.
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