“Unless its Q Essential, otherwise I wouldn’t bother to spend my dollar on any other cheapo bubble tea stalls.”
I can’t believe this words came from my mouth when my husband asked me if I was sure about getting him to buy me a cup of bubble tea because I was never a bubble tea fan to start with.
Almost a decade ago, Singapore was swarmed by the fad drink infamously known as the Bubble Tea. Within a span of 15 months, as much as a hundred of such bubble tea stalls sprung up around our little island of over 5 million in population. Soon enough, supply supersede demand and prices for bubble tea fell tremendously. Suppliers for bubble tea raw materials cashed in on the hot market by retailing DIY Bubble Tea sets in major supermarkets. Competition arose, quality of drinks dropped and the perennial all-time favourite drink’s image got further tarnished when a particular notorious bubble tea stall in Woodlands banked on “sex” to sell simply, bubble tea drinks.
Matters didn’t help better when health experts put their two cents worth on this fad food. Concerns from tooth decay and diabetes filled newspapers health columns. Bubble tea drinks got sweeter (yes, competition again. Apparently the aunties behind the drinks counters felt that the sweeter the drinks, the better the sales), flavoured syrups became simple sugared substances without any fruity flavour, parents’ growing concerns over possible diabetes in their young children and before long, just about everyone got sick of this fad drink.
Economically, many bubble tea stalls closed down almost overnight. For investing in sub standard ingredients staffed by housewife aunties, they deserved it. During the years as of 2004 onwards, bubble tea stalls became a rare sight. One of the few survivors is Sweet Talk. I would credit the latter as a mere drinks stall though as all their bubble teas are far from average.
Q Essential Bubble Tea
When I came upon Q Essential Bubble Tea at Bedok Central one day, it perked my curiosity that a player is willing to hop back into the market. At least, they took over the shop space that was previously occupied by a horrid tasting, diabetic-inducing, unappealing Munchy Donuts.
Apparently, Q Essential has their marketing unique selling points (USP) worked out. This is the first BB Tea stall I know that allows a stagger of sugar levels according to the customer’s preferance.
YAAYY!!! No more horrid, diabetic drinks anymore!
No more unnecessary weight gain as I could just order a non-sweetened drink and mix it with my Equal sugar.
Being a Milk Tea lover and for about S$2++ a cup, I just thought to give this a try. After all, if it sucks, I’ll never, ever touch another BB Tea again for the rest of my life.
Bedok branch: Block 208 New Upper Changi Road, #01-663 ( Bedok Central)
Another selling point that won my tastebuds was Q Essential’s drinks’ substance. Previously, I could order a Mango Smoothie at a typical cheapo BB Tea stall and in return, I get sugared BB Tea with the bare hint of fake, chemically processed mango syrup. Q Essential drinks are never anywhere near that taste standard, thankfully!
You order a Blended Chocolate Smoothie, you REAL chocolate tasting smoothie. Ditto for their Mango Smoothie as well. Adding to their USP, the uniquity of flavours by Q Essential is a draw to me (and probably other curious customers as well). Flavours of Q Essential’s drinks hail from Taiwan, the mother land of all BB Teas. Unique flavours with ambiguous names such as the Hokkaido Milk Tea made a fan out of me.
The flavour:
Hokkaido Milk Tea
Richly flavoured with a sweet yet not fake-ish tasting syrup that I assume might be vanilla (I might be wrong), this refreshing sweet drink is best ordered at 75% sugar level. The perfect balance of a teeny slight hint of tea, milk with Hokkaido sauce gives this drink a unique flavour which invokes memories of my childhood drinks back in my old rundown, attap house-style primary school at Marshall Road. Apparently, this isn’t their best seller YET. The Top Selling drink, named Super QQ Tea is my next must-try on my list.
Ice Blended Chocolate Smoothie
Second best drink coming close (it’s my husband’s favourite and I do not know why) is the Ice Blended Chocolate Smoothie. I have no idea how the people behind the counters does it but they churn out a unique tongue tasting smoothie that is so thick, its almost chewy…. and its only made of blended ice. This tongue tingling, brain freezing chewy drink is best ordered at 100% sugar level. Why the extra 25% increase in sweetness? The colder a drink gets, the more sweetness is required to taste just nice.
Ice Blended Mango Smoothie
Imagine mango ice cream blended with chunks of ice into a chewy, frothy smoothie. Don’t expect this to be an ultra mango chock-a-lot, heavily pureed mango pulp blended in ice shavings. If you’re looking for that version of a mango ice blended, look to Sweet Talk. They make the best thirst quenching mango blend. For those preferring a subtle yet creamy mango ice cream-like smoothie, Q Essential offers it.
TIP: Q Essential can incorporate a more addictive mango-ey taste by adding freshly pureed mango pulp into their blend.
Alishan Milk Tea
What I wouldn’t give to try again is the Alishan Tea however. I am not sure if bitterness is meant to be that taste or if the staff over steeped on the green tea leaves but it wasn’t fun to have bitterness empowering the drink with an aftertaste hint of sugar. Bad choice.
I’ll be back again to blog about the different varieties of BB Teas from Q Essential, especially drinks with ambiguous names which one can never guess the taste from its name (ie: Alishan Tea, Hokkaido Milk Tea, Genmai Milk Tea, etc…).
Update: I’ve Googled and read great reviews about top bubble milk tea player, Koi Milk Tea. Unfortunately, its their loss to not have my good reviews ( I believe they may have good quality milk teas too judging from their huge fan base on Facebook) because they do not have a branch in Bedok. If it’s not in Bedok, I’m not a fan. 🙂
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