The Battle of the Tea Shops

Do you remember those days when frozen yogurt stores flourished the whole town? When Red Mango was at the peak of its opening sale in Eastwood Mall and Frutti Froyo and California Berry were still standing proud in Katipunan?

But that was so last year.

Step back frozen yogurt because here comes milk tea -- the new fad in food blogs and the drink arena. You know it's a fad when all of a sudden new stores dedicated to such food and/or drinks emerge...and get their own place where there are lots of people AKA my turf that is Katipunan.

To date, there are already five tea shops in Katipunan. Seven if we count those who will open soon.

• Moon Leaf Tea Shop (at E. Abada St. cor. R. Alvero St.)
  
• Cha Dao Tea Place (at R. Alvero St.)
  
• Tea.ology (at Xanland Place, Katipunan Ave.)
  
• The Tea Shop (Katipunan Ave. cor. B. Gonzales St.)
  
• Saint's Alp (at Regis Center, Katipunan Ave.)
  
• Serenitea (soon at Oracle, Katipunan Ave.)
  
• another Moon Leaf Tea Shop (soon at Sunrise Residences, E. Abada St.)
  

I've developed three main points for this milk tea battle: taste, price, and ambiance. For the taste, Moon Leaf and Tea.ology battle for the top spot. The Tea Shop and Cha Dao are on the average side. Saint's Alp would probably rank the lowest because I didn't like their so-called must-try bestseller, taro milk tea. But I really liked their Sumiyaki coffee jelly and white moustache light black tea. I have yet to taste other drinks at Saint's Alp since they opened just a few weeks ago.

Speaking of the top contenders, I like the play of flavors in Tea.ology because of the huge variety and the degree of customization they offer: the concentration of sugar with 25, 75 and 100% sweetness. In the picture is one of their bestsellers, the Kyoto Matcha Green Tea with egg pudding. This one tastes really good considering the fact that I am not a huge fan of green tea. In this case, I finished it to the last drop.

Moon Leaf, on the other hand, plays with flavors on the traditional side with a hint of the Filipino childhood. Yes, the famous lychee Yakult milk tea flavor caught my attention when I first scanned their menu and it tastes weird. Good weird...and definitely new to my taste buds. The one pictured above is my all-time Moon Leaf favorite, the wintermelon milk tea. It's not your traditional milk tea but it still tastes like one. The authenticity of the taste of the black tea is still there but with an oomph of melon, just an addition of a fruity flavor and extra sweetness from the juicy pearls.

The others?

Saint's Alp caught me with their Sumiyaki coffee jelly but it's coffee so it won't count. The presentation with the teapot is cute though. The white moustache light black tea, pictured above, was good. It's like Happy Lemon's signature rock salt and cheese but slightly different.

The fact that Saint's Alp's is whipped cream counts. And secondly, there is a certain authenticity in the taste that simply screams black tea but once the cream and the tea mix...the magic happens.

The price range is a different battle. Moon Leaf, Cha Dao and The Tea Shop has a more affordable price than Tea.ology. Saint's Alp is on the more expensive side, considering that they're a franchise from Hong Kong. But I say, having the more expensive drinks from Tea.ology and Saint's Alp is a sacrifice if you are also going for the ambiance.

Moon Leaf is a small stall/booth in front of Crave Burger. If there's a lot of people and it rains, it would be chaos. They wouldn't want to sacrifice Crave Burger, right? Cha Dao is a small cozy place. The Tea Shop shares space with I Heart Froyo. Saint's Alp has a really exquisite interior with leather seats, good ventilation, framed artworks and modern furnishings. I wish they had wi-fi though because of all these places, Tea.ology is the only tea shop I mentioned above with free wi-fi connection, good ventilation, a cozy ambiance, modern furnishings, framed artwork and all combined.

Long story made short -- I say Tea.ology wins this battle for me because I go for the taste, the price and the ambiance. But setting aside my preference for the airconditioning and the wi-fi connection, Moon Leaf would definitely be on top of the least. The ambiance is just a plus, if we think about it. We could just have it as a take-out order and enjoy the milk tea goodness. But if we're talking about the real sulit factor here, Moon Leaf would have he highest score for quality times quantity.