Chuan C.
Yelp
This is a Taiwanese bubble tea brand that has 200+ locations in many countries (like Singapore and Cambodia). They have been in business since 1998. It expanded to Canada in the Vancouver area in 2022. This is the first Ontario location.
There is no indoor seating, but the outdoor patio is amazing! My pictures will show their esthetic.
I came on their soft opening on 2023-07-07. Their grand opening will be 2023-07-10.
I'm impressed with the quality of their drinks, the quality of their tea leaves, the precision in the way each cup of tea is made, the brewed-to-order feature, and the customer service.
All 6 tea flavours are sent yearly to the International Tasting Institution in Brussels for a worldwide competition. Teas are rated 0 to 3 stars. They usually get a 2 or 3 star rating. In 2023, 5 of their teas received 2 stars, and their green tea received 3 stars. This location is currently serving only 6 tea flavours, with plans to expand to more.
The teas are in small vacuum sealed packages, enough for exactly 10 servings. Unused tea is put in a vacuum sealing glass jar. All of this is to maintain the freshness, exposing as little tea as possible.
They have little jars where you can smell the tea leaves. I liked the smell of the Cassia Black Tea (with notes of chocolate) and Osmanthus Oolong Tea (with notes of honey). Other Chicha locations are bigger, and so they have space to sample brewed teas.
I ordered the following:
1. Cassia Black Tea ($5.95), with Cream (+$1) and Grass Jelly (+$1).
2. Taro King ($8.95). You can choose black or green tea (I chose green tea). It comes with Taro Paste and Bubble (tapioca).
Both drinks are impressively tasty. They say that part of your taste interpretation includes what you smell. That is definitely true of both drinks. The tea quality is quite good, including the Grass Jelly, Tapioca, and Taro.
The Ding Dong Oolong Tea is grown on Lishan mountain at 2000-2200 metres altitude. It holds a prestigious Highest International Authority iTQi certification for quality. The tea is rare and is also very expensive!
Everything is precisely measured to the gram. They use a see-through coffee brewer so that customers can see what is happening. There is a control that you can specify which tea, the sugar level, and which toppings, so that the precise amount of tea is brewed. They even use a thermometer to confirm the exact temperature (must be above 65C)!
Every customer gets a freshly brewed tea instead of the tea being in a ready-made pot.
Toppings are 125g, instead of the usual 50g from other vendors.
You can customize with light sugar (30%), less ice, or no ice.
Customers are skeptical about bubble tea vendors in that with more ice, it means less tea used. That is true if they brewed the tea ahead of time into a big pot; more ice uses up the cup volume, resulting in less tea volume. However, every customer gets individually brewed tea. Their brewing computer is told how much toppings and ice will be in the cup. The computer then calculates the amount of water to brew the same amount of tea. So even if you have less tea volume, you get the same amount of tea. Obviously, with less volume of tea, it is more bitter. But the taste is offset by the sweeter toppings and melting ice. Together, the tea will taste the same no matter whether you have toppings or the amount of ice. It is recommended that you choose "less ice" with your drinks.
Sanchen means 3000 in Mandarin, which is a very high number in ancient times; it was the equivalent of infinity.
There is free WiFi. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible, but there is no door-open button. There are no customer washrooms. There is free and paid neighbourhood street parking.
Review 2023-219