Homemade by Rachelle: The Tea Series

In my food journey, I'd like to share my newest discoveries in gastronomic pleasures (which have turned out to be my favorites) and one of which is the Chatime. This is located at the Second Floor, SM North EDSA, Main Mall.

Though I'm a self-confessed coffee addict, I love tea also, especially milk teas. Tea is the latest craze in town. Different tea stations are sprouting in the metropolis. I choose tea over coffee on days when I want to control my caffeine. The former has less caffeine content. I've tried many milk tea drinks from different tea stations and Chatime is in my Top 5 list for tea stations.

Chatime has so many choices to choose from flavor, toppings, ice options and sugar level. The flavors have 9 categories - Mellow Milk Tea, Smoothie Series, Coffee, Oriental Pop Tea, QQ Jelly (drinks that have pearls and coconut jelly), Chatime Special Mix, Fresh Tea, Energetic Healthy Juice and Chatime Mousse. Each category has an average of 5 selections. You may choose pearl, grass jelly, pudding, coconut jelly, rainbow jelly, red bean and aloe vera for your toppings. Additional charge of Php15.00 - Php20.00 is applied on extra toppings. It also has 4 options for the ice: Non Ice, Less Ice, Normal Ice and Extra Ice. Regular (16 oz.) and Large (20 oz) are the sizes of their drinks, except for the coffee, which is 12 oz. This is my first time to encounter 6 choices for the sugar options, other tea stations only offer 3-4 levels of sweetness for their drinks. Chatime has 6 sugar options: 0% Sugar, 30% Sugar, 50% Sugar, Normal Sugar and Extra Sugar. Price ranges from Php60.00 to Php100.00. Plus, it offers the same vibe that you get from coffee shops in which you can unwind, relax, read newspapers/magazines, surf the internet, hang out with family and friends. Most tea stations don't have ample seats for their customers, since some of them are merely stands or kiosks. What sets the Chatime apart from their competition is their wide array of choices, making your drink really personalized or customized to your taste.

These are what ordered in Chatime - the classic Pearl Milk Tea (for me), Taro Pudding Milk Tea (for my hubby Nelson) and the Taiwan Mango QQ (for my son Joaqui). I really liked the Taiwan Mango QQ, since it is kid-friendly. It does not contain caffeine. It's composed of fresh mango juice with pearls and coconut jelly. The blends were just right. You can actually see and taste the small fibers of the taro in the Taro Pudding Milk Tea.