I'm TEA-rrific - A Dream Come True

DISCLAIMER :

LONG "WORD" POST + Photos

First things first. I've been receiving lots of comments (unpublished) that happen to be basically the same thing. Seems to me that lots of my current readers want to know what my boyf's name is... So I'm finally going to answer that before I receive another comment asking his name. He's known as Cris or Cj. I prefer the latter. So We'll be using that from now on, okay? *wink*

The other day, Cj & I were strolling around a local mall when I stopped *dead* on my tracks. Was I hallucinating?! Lo & behold, right in front of me was a soon-to-open milk tea stall. My eyes widened in delight and excitement.

You see, I'm *secretly* more of a milk tea/tea person that a coffee person. I like how simple it is compared to coffee. That's my opinion. Coffeeholics out there, please do not butcher me for saying so. First time I ever had milk tea was when I turned 18. I was online blog hopping on food blogs when I stumbled upon a tea lover blog explaining how she mixed milk with her tea to create "milk tea". It's ironic how the English have been doing these for years now. *ugh!* So I gave it a shot and *bam!* was hooked.

For those who still don't really know what milk tea is about, here's a short background about this tea-rrific drink. Milk tea refers to several kinds.

1. TEA with an addition of a little milk plus sugar (cubes/powder) - Very "English" in a sense.

2. BUBBLE "Milk" TEA is another famous version which involves the addition of "pearls/tapioca balls/sago balls". - I'm not very fond of "bubbles" in my tea.

3. HONG KONG STYLE milk tea is black tea sweetened with evaporated milk.

4. TEH TARIK is the de facto "national" drink of Malaysia & Singapore. It's tea plus condensed milk. - I've had my share of cups of this kind when I was back in Singapore. *missing it*

Though "bubble milk tea" happens to be the current crowd favorite it's a fairly new rendition of this timeless classic. Honk Kong style milk tea supposedly originates from the time when Hong Kong was under British rule. I won't bore you guys with more details about milk tea. So for now, this is about it.

Moving onto what this post is really about... I'm happy to share with you one of the many new joys I'm currently enjoying in our lil ole Zamboanga. *le sigh* TEA-RRIFIC's milk tea stall opened last Saturday and I finally had the chance to try it today! I had to control myself as Cj & I walked towards the stall. Cj asked me what flavor I wanted or something to that extent... I was a little preoccupied just staring at the stall, making sure it was really there. Call me weird, but well... It's MILK TEA, people!

The Tea-rrific stall is located at Mindpro Citimall's ground floor, towards the side of the grocery's entrance, in front of the baggage counter and beside the Coco Loco stall. (Will talk about Coco Loco in another post...) The stall's pretty small, doesn't take up a lot of space at all. It has this cutesy cup logo that I'm totally diggin'.

They have a variety of drink available and I had enough b*lls to snap photos of each category.

"Traditional" MILK TEA. Tea-rrific describes it as freshly brewed tea made creamy and chewy. They only have 5 flavors available under this category. OOLONG is a natural mild fat burner, JASMINE boosts concentration, CEYLON's an immune system booster, GREEN TEA is a healthy antioxidant variation and WINTERMELON is a "feel-good" relaxing tea. 

Next up are the FRUIT SMOOTH-TEAs which happens to be a combination of brewed tea plus your favorite fruit. The flavors with the green lightning bolt are supposedly the highly recommended choices because they apparently offer the bigger "health boost". Don't quote me on that though. *wink*

The smooth-teas come in 10 flavors. I'm eyeing MELON MANGO and APPLE MANGO. :)

Another category is the TEA FUSION which is a concoction of tea plus fruits. I'm still a little confused with the difference of tea fusion and the smooth-teas though. Anyway, for this variant I'll probably try out MANGO CEYLON or CEYLON LIME first.

Lastly Tea-rrific offers a concoction called YIN&YANG. It's a mix of BOTH coffee & tea. I think this is geared towards those coffeeholics who're willing to try something new or tea drinkers that want an added caffeine boost! This variant's offered in hot & iced. Since I'm a huge JASMINE fan, I think I'd go for that.

Tea-rrific offers three sizes for most of their drinks. They have medium (12oz.), large (16oz.) and grande (22oz.) Each size has a corresponding price. The price range for the different variants are around P39-P69. 

Since it was our first time with Tea-rrific, Cj & I decided to get our drinks in the medium size so in case we end up not liking our drinks, it wouldn't be too much of a dismay on our pockets and stomachs. After debating on what to get, we settled for milk teas. He decided to get OOLONG for P39.00 and of course I went for JASMINE which cost P45.00. We also swapped drinks while walking towards the food court so that we could both taste the two flavors. The verdict?

JASMINE MILK TEA

Hers : I definitely loved my jasmine milk tea. It was mildly sweet with just the right jasmine kick! The only downside was the fact it had pearls. I forgot to tell the lady to hold the pearls on my drink. I dislike tapioca pearls in my drinks. It's just a quirk I have.

His : "Dol bien sabor sakate man gayot ste babe?" - Babe, it tastes too grassy. *lol* Apparently he felt that it had too much of an "herbal" kick to it.

OOLONG MILK TEA

Hers : I didn't like this at all. It was too strong for my taste. Well, oolong does really have a robust flavor to it but I thought the added milk would have subdued some of the stronger notes of the flavor. I thought wrong.

His : He loved the oolong kick. Just right for his taste buds. He finished his milk tea a whole lot quicker than I did mine.

OVERALL

I'd shell out my $$$ for more of Tea-rrific's milk tea and other variants though next time I'll definitely tell them to skip the tapioca balls. Can't wait for my next milk tea fix! :)