Milk Tea has become so popular in Manila that now, even well-established coffee shops are trying to join in on the fun. Two of the most popular cafe’s are now serving milk tea drinks to its patrons. The question is, were they able to pull it off? Or are their efforts to win back the market segment going to end up in spoiled defeat.

Case # 1: Seattle’s Best Coffee – SBC Milk Tea

What I thought about it: 

SBC offers milk tea in both hot and cold variants. I ordered a regular cup of iced milk tea a few weeks ago for PHP 110 (large costs PHP120). As of the moment, these drinks will be available only until March 2012.

At first glance, the drink looks pretty similar to most of the milk tea drinks out there except for one thing, SBC’s drink has red pearls. How did I like it? Err. Actually, it didn’t look too appetizing for me. I’m already used to black pearls way back from when Zagu first hit the market. Seeing red balls in my drink didn’t give me the same feelings of looking forward to the yummy, gummy sinkers. And once I tried them, they were soft on the outside but a little hard on the inside. It felt like the pearls weren’t properly cooked. They reminded me of regular gulaman but with a more solid center. So for the red pearls, the drink gets a fail mark for me.

Let’s now move on to the taste of the milk tea itself (the liquid part). I personally find the drink too sweet. I was expecting them to give me a more defined tea-taste but it was the other way around. Compared to most tea drinks out there, SBC’s milk tea leans toward the sweeter end of the spectrum. It’s also important to note that the sugar levels cannot be altered. The drink can’t be personalized for that matter.

To tell you the truth, I didn’t bother finishing my cup that day. After about trying 1/3 of the drink, I gave up.

PS: I have one friend who completely agrees with me on this drink. She’s a more fanatic milk tea fan than me. However, I do know of another friend who gave good comments about this drink. She says that she likes the sweetness and loves the red pearls. Personally, I found that weird, but of course I respect her own opinions. =) She’s not a big fan of milk tea.

Case # 2: Figaro’s Milk Tea Craze

What I thought about it:

Figaro took the milk tea craze a little more seriously by naming their new line of drinks just that- Milk Tea Craze. Unlike SBC that offered only one flavor, Figaro went ahead and experimented with five variants:

• Taro Pudding Milk Tea (PHP89)
• Strawberry Lemon Iced Tea (PHP75)
• Taro Pudding Chiller Feast (PHP100)
• Raspberry Milk Tea with Yakult (PHP90)
• Strawberry Milk Tea with Yakult (PHP90)

Last week, I went ahead and tried their Strawberry Milk Tea with Yakult. In all fairness to Figaro, I have to give them props for trying to create unique flavors of their own. Although I will put this a couple of notches higher that SBC’s milk tea offering, I can’t say that I’m in love with the drink either. There wasn’t anything wrong that I can pinpoint so let me just summarize that for me, strawberry+milk+tea+yakult=weird. :p

But because they have other flavors however, there’s a huge possibility that I’ll come back and try them too.

I think that tea drinkers who prefer fruity, tangy tastes should try this new product line.

My two cents on these two drinks:

Big coffee chains adding milk tea to their menu says a lot about just how big the Taiwanese drinks have hit Manila. However, I’m not so sure if these attempts at joining the bandwagon will pay off for them. After all, I think one of the main reasons on why these drinks are so popular is because they’re a nice alternative for when you’re not in the mood to go to a coffee shop or get a macchiato. Coffee drinking especially for young people (the students to yuppies age group) has reached its height already and of course, the market is always scouting for new options. Diversifying can be a great thing, but sometimes, it’s best to stick at what you’re good at and improve on that instead.

Instead of mimicking the Taiwanese pearl milk tea drinks, why don’t they create hot tea lattes instead a la CBTL.

As for the taste, I personally didn’t enjoy their bets but maybe others out there will. (If you’ve tasted them yourself, please feel free to comment below)

They also missed an important angle in the milk tea craze, the healthy option angle. Most tea shops can customize the drink’s sugar levels depending on the customer’s preference. Removing this option is a bit of a downer.

But again, kudos to these brands for responding to the market and paying close attention to what the people want. (I highly doubt that Starbucks will jump on the bandwagon though)

All in all, as a customer, all of this is great news to me. The more options I have, the happier I will be.

Note:  By most milk tea shops, I’m referring to Serenitea, Chatime, Gong Cha, etc.

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