Nowadays we have a lot of drink choices in Macau. So many coffee shops and bubble tea kiosks have been opened in last few years, and I think they have provided some liveliness to our rather boring city. I have been to plenty of these outlets, and I drink coffee much more than bubble tea, but honestly, I prefer the latter.
That is if we are talking about simple coffee vs. bubble tea because we have so many gimmicky flavours with coffee. Coffee comes in so many choices such as affogato, dirty, mocha and caramel latte, and we can also substitute the “tea” in bubble tea for bubble coffee if we want. I think it is only fair that we compare the simplest coffee to bubble tea.
In that case, bubble tea has many more flavours than coffee. I really like drinks which mix different tastes together, even the ones that my friends find disgusting sometimes. Cocktails and yuenyeung (a mixture of Hong Kong milk tea and coffee) are my absolute favourites. The chewy sensation of the bubbles brings a similar experience, but better. Besides having a brown sugar taste, the bubbles also have a different texture to the liquid.
Bubble tea also comes in a lot of styles. There are outlets that use fresh milk rather than milk powder. The milk powder, despite being unhealthier, definitely tastes better because the manufacturers give the powdered milk a much stronger flavour than normal milk, so that the tea would not dilute the milky taste. Red tea is better than green tea, because of its stronger flavour and more suitable mix with the milk. Green tea in my opinion is better to be savoured alone, or mixed with honey.
Recently some shops are making different flavours of the bubbles, such as golden bubbles and red bubbles, to create more gimmicks for the customers. I have not tried many of those except the golden bubbles, which I found are a bit too chewy. I also think that the regular size bubbles are better than the plus-size, because I am constantly afraid of choking on the bigger ones.
Nonetheless, one thing I am sure of is that while I can live without bubble tea, it is very difficult for me to live without coffee, but I am trying thus choosing milk tea over coffee here!
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