Swensen's

Swensen's
Eastwood Mall, Libis

I was so excited to find out that Swensen's was finally coming to the Philippines; which was why we were right there on soft opening night. Not even their grand opening, me, my husband and my brother were already lined up at the nearest Swensen's at our place all ready to consume copiuous amounts of icecream. We've been to Swensen's Eastwood several times since its opening and the everything's been consistent so-far; service that needs improvement, tables are always packed and icecream thats always, always awesome.

Pretty much every time we've been to Swensen's in Eastwood, the place is packed and the service staff look disorganized. They have someone posted in front to direct customers yo tables - sometimes. Sometimes you're left standing there with several others and nobody knows if theres a qeue or not.

The place itself is a bit cramped; so much so that they have more tables outside than inside. The chairs outside though are horribly uncomfortable and the high traffic area does not make for a relaxing atmosphere. Inside, the tables are packed so tightly together that when its full; you could practically swap faces with the stranger next to you.

So its really not looking good for Swensen's; the battle for the table, the staff who looks lost half the time, the noisy environment, the excruciatingly slow service which doesn't deliver everybody's order all at the same time- which is a recipe for melting icecream. But, but, but, then the icecream appears before you, and its so, so good.

Their icecream is absolutely delicious. Its creamy, its sweetness is just right, the chunks are generous and its wonderfully complemented by the hot fudge, the bananas, the caramel, the wafer, the nuts... I could keep going for a while. They have a pretty good sundae selection and it caters to many different preferences. They serve uber chocolatey things, fruity bowls and flavors, kiddy servings, barkada sized monster bowls. Their coffee is pretty good too and for the price (Php60-100 each) very competitive.

I definitely recommend; the Hot Fudge Bonuz (Php145), Banana Boat (Php185), the Chocolate Fondue (Php555 - 9 mini scoops of icecream and other choco dippables) and if you're feeling very hungry; the Earthquake (Php655 - 8 big scoops and toppings). For all their sundaes, you can opt to change the flavors to anything you like from their long list of unique flavors. I definitely recommend the Rock@Heart, Turkish Coffee and Chocolate Chip. My brother worships their Vanilla. Dad loves their blueberry.

So, all in all, the icecream is great and the shop would be perfect if only they could work out the kinks in their service. A definite reco, but try it out at an odd hour to make the experience more pleasant.

Milk+Tea / Drink Tea

Milk + Tea
Katipunan

Drink Tea
5th floor, Podium

So this whole milk tea craze has spawned all kinds of milk tea franchises all over the metro. I have noticed all sorts of variations and word plays on the word 'tea' and I think that its starting to get downright ridiculous. I have spotted (and have yet to try) an Infinitea, a Tea Ninja, a Teaology. I mean, what? Does the business really have to have 'tea' in it? And then we have these two 'new' players in the milk tea market, hoping to take a chunk out the big boys; Serenitea, Happy Lemon and Tokyo Bubble Tea. They're obviously either fans of the direct or have already run out of 'tea' word variations.

So these are a couple of the smaller players in the market and we're tried them on separate occasions.

First; Milk+Tea. Its a small shop pretty much on the middle of katipunan. One would think that will so many students in the area the place would be packed all the time despite having to share the area with several other milktea places. The sheer volume of kids in the area should ensure that you have at least a steady stream of clientele. But of all the times I've passed the place, its always empty. So we check it out one late-ish evening after work and we're craving for a cold drink. Coming into the shop, it was warm as if the AC wasn't on, and it smelled like really really sweet tea and sugar syrup. That alone should have warned me.

So I ordered what I always do when trying a new milktea shop; royal milk tea. Its supposed to be the simplest thing they can serve you and the whole menu line-up is based on how good their basic black tea and milk concoction is. So I always expect that the basic milk tea must be really good. But it wasn't all that. I asked for about 70% and it was still sickeningly sweet. I could hardly taste the tea which should be the star of the show. Jojo ordered chocolate milk tea with coffee jelly That's another thing thats hard to botch up. I mean, milk tea, add choco syrup; what can go wrong? And yet my husband who will eat anything as long as it involved chocolate didn't like it either. He says that the chocolate tasted kind burnt (not in a dark chocolate way) and absolutely synthetic; somewhat like melted local choco lollipops. It was pretty bad. He abandoned the drink not halfway through.

Pricewise; Milk+Tea is cheaper but not by a whole lot. It's really not likely we'll ever come back to their shop.

And then we have our other shop; Drink Tea. I understand from their menu that its a Taiwanese franchise and that its been around since 2006. We end up trying their milktea after a search for a light snack and drink.

I (very predictably) ordered their Royal Milk tea at 50%sugar, Jojo had the oreo coffee shake (medium, Php80). Its pretty obvious who has the sweet tooth between the two of us. I was delighted to find that they have a small size option (Php40) and its perfect if you want to try something new from their menu without committing yourself to a giant drink you might not like. Their tapioca was bright reddish orange, not the usual black. They say that they're roselle pearls, red in color because they've added rose extract to the mix. The roselle tapioca balls tasted pretty good; firm, chewy and sweet-ish. The milktea itself was good but not something I would seek out in the dead of night to fulfill a craving. Jojo liked his oreo coffee drink, I gave it a taste and it was okay too. Again, not something I'd think of immediately if someone asked me where they should get good coffee milk tea (I would reco Gong Cha, but thats another article altogether).

Drink Tea's service was fast and friendly, and I would like to try more things from their long menu. Not terribly good, but not terrible either.

So that's it for now, two mini milktea shops to try out or not-try-out. And before I end this article, a few ideas for my own milktea place (if I suddenly win the lotto and would like to jump into a funky business entirely out of my expertise);

- my brother's brainchild: Mr. T (where my tagline would be; "I pi-tea the foo'!")
- Tearahan
- for the risque: Naughtea or Pantea
- for the depressed: Emptea
- for archeologists and/or small children: Tea-Rex
- for the mysterious: Mysteaque
- for the children of the 80's: Tea, tea Boba-Tea, Banana-fanna fo-fa-tea, Fee fie moh-ma Tea.
- for the architects: Tea Square
- for those who live in Makati: MakaTea
- for the Timothies of the world: Tea-Moo-Tea

And finally, I call copyright on all our ideas for our (fictional) milk tea place! Don't ya'll be making shops with thse ideas on it or Mr. T will be there to smite ye!