Chatime

Sipdown, and this has a leaf in the logo for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge.

I was shocked to find this actually in the Steepster database! I got it in Taiwan years ago, though I gather that it was perhaps sold in North American locations at some point as well. I actually really enjoyed this, more so when it was fresh but even this last, several-years-past-expiration cup too. It doesn’t resteep very well, but that first steep is floral and milky goodness. Some important caveats! I grew up on skim milk and now use dairy substitutes when making my own lattes, which is to say that I don’t like a thick, creamy texture in anything short of a milkshake. So this is the perfect amount of milkiness for me but I can imagine that being watery to someone else. Also, because I got this on a wonderful trip, I’m bound to have positive associations with it that color my experience. And relatedly, I don’t know whether the product they sell within Taiwan is identical to what’s sold abroad. So ymmv. But I rationed this and stretched it out as long as I could.

Sipdown (841)!

NOOOO!!

This mug was a whole lot of yuck! None of the Chatime instant teas have tasted good, to be honest, but this takes the cake as the worst one. I made it a third of a mug in and just heavily had to nope on out of there. It tasted like jasmine hand soap mixed with SUPER watered down milk and seaweed. Plus, the colour was like dish water…

Happy to have this one out of my cupboard.

Grabbed this at the mall today while I was out shopping for comic books; it jumped out at me because I’ve not seen BPF offered at other Chatime locations before. I got mine with pearls and coconut jelly, because mango and coconut are such an incredible combination. It was actually probably the most beautiful bubble tea I’ve ever ordered…

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B8-Ew3AgGey/

In terms of taste, I couldn’t bring myself to swirl the tea together to combine the flavours because it would have ruined how insanely pretty the drink was. So, I got two distinct “halves” to this bubble tea – one that was thicker and sweeter, with a sort of mango syrup flavour that reminded me of the mango sauce that I’ve been served over vanilla ice cream from Indian cultural events when living in Regina. The coconut jelly was also sweet, and it complimented so well – strengthening the Indian cuisine type of flavour profile I felt I was experiencing.

The top half? Well, it was just chilled butteryfly pea flower tea – which is not the worst tasting thing in the world, but also really not the best either. It tastes like water, if the water was too mineral forward and also kind of stagnant.

Still worth it, though.

Sipdown (801)!

Thank you to my coworker who shared this sample with me! I liked it more than the instant powder Chatime drinks, but to be honest that’s not saying much is it!? It steeps up a gross colour; this sort of brown watered down milk looking liquor that feels like it could be dirty dish water. It sort of gross to think about, visually. That said, it tasted fine. And honestly fine is the best I can give it; it’s a roasted barley type of flavour that’s pretty nice but then a weird, gross “cooked milk” type of taste that is really strange…

I like teas that challenge me, and I don’t like to dismiss “instant” teas or bagged teas right off the bat just because they’re not perceived as of high a quality as LLT. So I’m happy I tried it; but it didn’t make the best impression.

Same idea as the “Original” milk tea mix from Chatime that I just wrote about, but the oolong flavour instead. Going off the dry powder aroma it’s a roasted oolong but that’s not actually specified. I made this one iced with some added milk; the milk and ice totally “watered down” the drink so it tasted more like a sweet/sugared and VAGUELY roasted tasting cup of chilled milk but I think that’s probably for the best. My gut feeling for these Chatime mixes continues to be that I wouldn’t really want to experience them at “full strength” They just smell kind of off and funky…

My coworker Helen and I both really like bubble tea and have gone out for bubble tea a couple times now, and this week she brought me in a whole bunch of different “instant bubble tea” mixes to try out from Chatime – these are powders or teabags that are commercially available here in Montreal (usually in Chinese markets I think) that you can use to DIY a bubble tea at home, minus the tapioca pearls…

I’ll be honest, I’ve been HIGHLY skeptical about the quality of all of them – and in general I don’t seem to be a big fan of the Chatime franchise as a whole anyway. Y’all know my policy though: I’ll try anything at least once! So that’s what I’m doing – with as open a mind as I can muster.

This was definitely gross tasting though – it’s an instant powder; a pretty darn sweet smelling one with lots of visible sugar in the mix. Whisked up in hot water it smells kind of fishy and sour!? I’m pretty sure the original flavour is just a sweet black tea with milk – and taste wise that seems to be what I’m getting; a really sugary and vaguely creamy black tea taste, though a little weak. Maybe weak is good because I’m not tasting the same fishy aroma that’s coming off the mug.

Not the worst thing I’ve had, but far from ideal…

I was inspired by Roswell Strange’s note of this tea seeing as I always overlooked it. Because I was unsure if I would like it, I got the brown sugar milk tea as well. I didn’t love either if I am being honest but I was surprised to find the brown sugar one had a richer more molasses/coffee flavor than the winter melon since those were notes Roswell Strange mentioned for this tea instead.

Winter Melon Bubble Tea w/ added tapioca pearls from last weekend! There’s no picture to document this because I drank it too quickly to grab a good one – it’s been a while since I’ve been able to say that about a bubble tea…

So, this was actually my first ever time experiencing “Winter Melon” flavoured anything. I didn’t know exactly what to expect flavour wise, aside from the fact I knew that despite the name this was not going to taste like any sort of melon flavour I’ve ever experienced. That is definitely true – if someone were to order this expecting a melon taste I would expect they’d be very disappointed.

It’s hard to describe this exactly – but dark and sweet would be where my brain would want to immediately want to go. I got my bubble tea unsweetened as well, which is how I usually order, and this was SO insanely dense and sweet. I can’t even imagine how rich it would be if I’d gotten my drink sweetened – sugar coma level, for sure. I guess I’d say this is some weird mash up of caramelized sugar/brown sugar, molasses, and coffee. Mostly that caramelized sugar vibe though, I guess.

Good to know how much I like this! Probably gonna work it into my bubble tea rotation in some way, for when I want a sweet option.

Also – side note – this is probably the nicest thing I’ve ever had from Chatime!