Original Milk Tea by Chatime
Black Tea / Flavoured
$8.99 for 200g (10 x 20g sachets)
First Impressions
I am still in search for the perfect tea product to have on-the-go that has everything in it that I love (for a milk tea or tea latte), without being too something. Too sweet, too bitter, too expensive. There’s so many things that could go wrong.
Chatime is a popular brand out of Taiwan that happens to have brick and mortar locations. It happens to be a popular option for my fellow nurses to order in when it comes to food delivery services. so when I spotted a familiar purple on the shelf of my favourite Asian grocery store, I knew I had to give it a go.
The bag contains 10 sachets of the Original Milk Tea powder. Each sachet is 20g and contains: sugar, creamer, black tea powder, and artificial flavour. There’s also a “may contain” warning for gluten, tree nuts, egg, and sesame (in case any of those are allergens/concerns for you).
The powder itself is kind of a light brown, like a milk tea, and doesn’t have a very obvious aroma to it. It does smell sweet though.
Preparation
Chatime recommends making Original Milk Tea as cold or hot preparations.
For a cold preparation, combine 60ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until the powder dissolves. Add 60g of ice.
For a hot preparation, combine 120ml of hot water with 1 sachet, then stir until powder dissolves.
I opted to do a hot preparation, and I used water heated to 93°C (200°F).
First Taste
Original Milk Tea mixes up to a light brown colour. It has an aroma that creamy and black tea. The flavour of Original Milk Tea is surprisingly not as sweet as I was expecting, especially considering sugar is listed as the first ingredient. The black tea has a touch of astringency to it, and the sugar balances well against it. The creamer in the mix adds a nice amount of creaminess to it, without overpowering the black tea flavour. If I had been making it at home from scratch, I probably would have made it sweeter.
A Second Cup?
As Original Milk Tea is a drink mix powder, there are no second cups with the same powder.
My Overall Impression
I liked Chatime’s Original Milk Tea. It’s a very convenient method of making milk tea on-the-go, especially seeing as how I have access to a hot water dispenser at work. I like that it’s not too sweet, because it allows me to add some sweetener as I see fit. The flavour is good, and the slight astringency remind me a lot of the milk tea that you can get at Hong Kong-style cafes. Original Milk Tea is priced nicely, especially if you compare it to what a tea delivered to you would cost ($0.90 per serving versus $5+), making Original Milk Tea an affordable option.
Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.