SAIBACHI: new found favorite milk tea

Milk Tea!

I really can't get over it.

Tea shops are already sprouting out everywhere in the Metro. Like here in the South, almost all bigtime tea shop are already putting shop here. Serenitea has been here for a while, Chatime recently opened its ATC branch and soon enough Gong Cha will be opening too. Still hoping that my favorite,Moonleaf would find its way here.

Currently, the price of a precious milk tea is more or less a 100 pesos. For the elites and well-off, this is heaven compared to sky-high prices of those fancy coffee drinks which is around 150 but for thriving people like me, its quite something. For a 100 pesos, you could actually have 2 orders of Chicken fillet meal at McDo at this price. So, I was on this quest to find an affordable yet quality milk tea.

Sai Bachi 3rd floor Kiosk

Fortunately, I don't need to look far because I found one in my very own city. My little piece of heaven. Located at the 3rd floor of Festival Supermall near X-site is a kiosk named SAI BACHI. Sai Bachi started as a casual Japanese restaurant at the ground floor of the same mall serving good tempura, sukiyaki and sushi. Eventually, they opened a take-out counter which sold tempura, prawn balls and their best selling Takoyaki. Yes, Takoyaki, as far as I remember they started the Takoyaki craze at Festivall Mall. Because of the increasing public demand for their yummy Takoyaki they opened a kiosk that exclusively sell Takoyaki. Now, due to the unquestionable popularity for Milk Tea, I think they decided to join the band wagon but the question is can they compete with those big shot tea shop?

yummy takoyaki

The SAI BACHI kiosk is very unassuming like what you expect to see on a stall selling mall-quality streetfood. Actually, I laughed when I saw that SAI BACHI is already selling cheap Milk Teas. A rundown copycat of Serenitea and Moonleaf, I thought. So I kept on ignoring it until one day, I was extremely and desperately craving for a Caramel Milk Tea. I was at Festival Mall that time, when I first tried it. It's the same day I ate at My Thai Kitchen, where I also had a glass of Thai Milk Tea.

drink sizes (M,L,XL)

Yeah, I was desperately craving for a milk tea, so I decided to give it a try. Note that at this time Sai Bachi is the ONLY store selling Milk tea at Festival Mall so I have no choice. The menu for their Milk Tea is very simple,straightforward,readable from a distance (not microscopic, ehem). The best flavors that I want is present on their list. All you have to do is choose your flavor and size (M,L,XL). No sugar level, no ice level, no sinkers/toppings (they only have pearls) or whatsoever to choose from which I personally like. I ordered a large Toffee Caramel with no pearls. I had low expectations for this drink, may be it would be just be milk with a hint of sweetness so you can say it's Toffee Caramel or maybe they have powdered milk tea flavors already but seeing the staff who was making my drink, who made it from scratch. That was actually my first time to see how a milk tea is made. My drink was done in a jiffy which is so unusual. I am used on waiting for 5-10 minutes on other tea shops.

The cup is bare, no labels,stickers,handwritings and designs. They wouldn't even get your name. Ok, enough with the rants. Of course what would you expect for a 45 peso drink which is half the price of those big shot tea shops.

First sip, WOAH! O_O

It's unbelievable. That taste is awesome. Is it really only 45 pesos? It's very awesome. The perfect combination of Black Tea and Milk plus the rich sweetness of the Toffee Caramel. Truly a flavor burst. It exceeded my expectations for its price. Its taste is comparable to Serenitea or even better. It is so good I finished it in 2 long sips.

Few days after, I realized that maybe I'm just craving for a milk tea desperately that day that's why I truly liked it. I have to confirm so I tried it again, the same flavor but now on XL. It's still pure awesomeness. I promised myself that day that I will try all their flavors so I kept coming back. So far my favorite is Wintermelon and Black Sugar. They also have fruit teas. I already tried the Passionfruit Green Tea and it has the same awesomeness of their milk teas.

By the way, as of the moment, they already have a competition around the corner. I forgot the name but it's price is way higher than Sai Bachi. So for identity sake, Sai Bachi added their name on their cups which I proudly display while walking on the mall. I'm their free walking endorser without their knowledge. I'm even putting it here in my teeny-weeny blog.

I just hope that they can maintain the quality (awesomeness) and low price of their drinks. This is their edge among their competitors. say what ROYAL TEAS?

*DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT PAID OR AFFILIATED TO SAI BACHI AND IT'S MANAGEMENT I'M JUST AN EXTREMELY SATISFIED CUSTOMER :)