Mat-Cha!

I suddenly craved for milk tea.  It's 30 minutes before 12 midnight and I am home sweet home in Malolos where milk tea cafes do not exist.  With some stocks at home I attempted to do my own version.  Surprisingly it does taste like those Taiwan milk teas.

Here is my own version of mat-cha:

• Simple syrup 1:1 cup of sugar and water. 
• 4 tea bags of Oolong tea  boiled in one liter of water
• skim milk dissolved from a portion of still warm brewed tea
• grass jelly an alternative sinkers since I don't have tapioca pearls

I used my beer mug to create my concoction :-) filling half of it with still warm freshly brewed Oolong tea.  Then I mixed in about 3 tablespoon of skim milk and about 4 tablespoon of simple syrup.  I don't have a shaker so I just stirred it well before adding the grass jelly and ice until the glass is almost filled.

I am calling it mat-cha - 맛차 short for 맛있다 (mashitta) + 차 (cha).  In Korean, mashitta means delicious and cha is tea so mash-cha would mean delicious tea.

Fast facts:  Koreans are fond of combining two words to coin a new one.  Namchin is from the word 남자 (namja) + 친구 (chingu).  Namja is man and chingu is friend where 'namchin' is coined to mean boyfriend.  So with 여자 (yoja) meaning woman, 여친 (yochin) therefore is girlfriend.

Tea Power with Chatime

I wonder if tea craze is here to stay just like people have made coffee shops their place to chill out and chat over a frappucino. I know the likes of Serenitea and Chatime have been around for quite sometime already but suddenly milk tea shops are everywhere.

My first taste of milk tea was the one from Tea 101.  I got hooked after tasting their wintermelon milk tea with pearls.  I began trying different milk tea shops like Bubble Tea (love the matcha milk tea), Serenetia (Okinawa milk tea ftw!),  Tea Farm, Gongcha (was disappointed with their milk  tea tasting like flavored water) even tried the little stalls like Tea Concoction and Tearrific.  So far Chatime is one of my favorite milk tea shops out there.  Here is the reason why:

The red milk tea is super gooooood!  I remember ordering the same sinkers from Tea 101, the red beans were a little sour =(  I usually order this when at Chatime.  The red beans goes well with their signature pearl milk tea and even with matcha.  I fortunately bought some vouchers from Groupon last time and I am enjoying my milktea at 50% off the price.  With summer coming in, milk teas will surely fight side by side with the pricey frappucino.

Tea over Coffee

I decided to continue making this site as my other world. It's been a long time since I last posted something here. I wouldn't want to create laundry list of new year's resolution but I would like 2012 to be a year of change for me. So I am starting this post with a change.

Since Starbucks started with their Holiday drinks promo, I have always been on the line to get a premium cup of this coffee in exchange for a sticker to I can get a new planner. This year, am missing this planner:



Though I missed getting the planner this year, it really did not make a difference except that I know a portion of the spending I made with coffee purchase at Starbucks goes to Hope Sparks, so for this year I failed to contribute to this institution. Honestly, I really never used any of the planners I got. I sometimes even forget to use the vouchers that goes with it. This is not to say I don't like Starbucks because I am a coffee lover. My day will definitely not be right without a hot cup of coffee.

One driver to this change perhaps is that late last year, I got curious to try milk tea. I have known this drink for so long but I really never tried to have one since I fear experiencing 'royal rumble' after having a drink. Tea101 is my first try on milk tea.



I must say that the service crew at Tea101 in SM Megamall recommended something that changed my drink of choice every December. I tried the best seller, wintermelon milk tea in pearl. After my cup, my perception on milk tea changed. I never get rid of hot coffee in the morning but my afternoon or night drink would be milk tea.

My Tea101 experience started my milk team adventure. I got to know Gongcha, Teafarm, Serenitea, Share Tea, Bubble Tea and Chatime. So far this are the tea shops that I have tried and only the first one is out of my list. I didn't like their wintermelon tea. Other favorites would be matcha green tea of Teafarm and Bubble Tea, red beans pearl milk tea of Chatime, okinawa of Serenitea.