brown sugar – Jellybeans in the City

Have a Sweet #MomentOfSerenitea

Serenity is that feeling of peace and calmness from having an untroubled mind.

And soothing one’s thirst would go a long way towards soothing the mind.

Tea has long been touted as a way to relieve stress. For centuries, people have been drinking tea as an aid to meditation or to help achieve a peaceful state.

It’s no wonder then that tea brand Serenitea has made the achievement of inner peace its central concept. Established in the country in 2008, it helped usher in tea drinking amongst a coffee-drinking populace by brewing teas using an espresso machine and customizing drinks according to sweetness levels and by adding sinkers.

It recently launched its a new line of drinks – the Brown Sugar Series – which adds the luscious sweetness of brown sugar to its tea drinks. The Brown Sugar Frost (Php180), in particular, combined chewy pearls drenched in brown sugar syrup mixed with a rich and creamy premium farm-fresh milk topped with Serenitea’s Signature Cheese Frost and sprinkled with muscovado sugar.

It’s a truly indulgent treat that can chase your troubles away.

To bring you that moment of Zen that only Serenitea can give during these stressful times, Serenitea opened two of its branches – Congressional Town Center and The Exchange Regency Ortigas – for takeout and delivery via LalaFood.

Download the LalaFood App and get a free delivery coupon when you use my code: BEINGJMR53

This Serenitea branch is located at Ground Floor, Connecticut Carpark Arcade, Greenhills Shopping Center, San Juan.

Other branches in the metro are located at:

Quezon City: Eastwood Cybermall, UP Town Center, Scout Rallos Street, Ayala Vertis North, SM North EDSA, Congressional Town Center, Banawe, Belfast Road in Novaliches, Ayala Malls Balintawak
Pasig: The Exchange Regency, Estancia Mall, Robinsons Cyberscape Alpha
Mandaluyong: SM Megamall, Greenfield District, SM Light Mall
Makati: SM Jazz Mall, Glorietta 3, Glorietta 4, Ayala Tower One, Greenbelt, Rada Street in Legaspi Village
Taguig: Bonifacio One Technolog Tower, Burgos Circle, Venice Grand Mall
Pasay: Butterfly Garden in Newport City, Resorts World Manila, Shore Residences, Two E-com Center, ASEANA Square
Manila: Robinsons Place Manila, Elements Building
Paranaque: SM Bicutan, Ayala Malls Manila Bay, BF Homes
Muntinlupa: Alabang Town Center, Filinvest Mall
Las Pinas: SM Southmall

Check out my reviews of other milk tea joints:

Have a taste of Taiwan’s No. 1 Drink at Tea 101, California Garden Square

Milk tea fanatics have another reason to rejoice with another brand joining the milk tea fray.

Tea 101 has been hailed as Taiwan’s No. 1 Drink owing to the premium experience in drinking it. The process starts from harvesting the potent tea leaves from the heart of Taiwan, careful packaging and brewing in the traditional way without the use of metals or machines, to the mixing with various flavors and sweeteners to make Tea 101’s signature drinks.

But first, a lesson on tea history… a Tea 101, if you will… 🙂

Tea leaves are harvested from camellia sinensis, a plant that grows in tropical and sub-tropical climates. After harvesting, these are dried then packed loose or wrapped in tea bags.

Drinking tea as a beverage was first recorded in China in 10th century BC and it eventually became popular throughout East Asia by 200 BC. It spread to the rest of the world via international trade in the 19th century.

Tea was brought to Taiwan from China in the 18th century. By the 19th century, tea plantations have flourished in Taiwan with tea becoming one of the country’s top three exports.

It has also become an integral part of Taiwanese culture with most social activities involving tea service from the welcoming of visitors into a household, dinners, business meetings, weddings and funerals.

Taiwan is also the birthplace of bubble tea in the 1980s which was said to be a concoction of black tea, tapioca pearls, condensed milk and syrup.

Today, bubble tea has a wide assortment of flavors and variants from fruits, yogurt, yakult, coffee and chocolate and more, many of which are included in the menu of Tea 101’s branch in Mandaluyong.

Choose your fave from Tea 101’s featured drinks:

Regular (Php85 for tall, Php105 for skyscraper, Php125 for empire sizes)

Milk Tea Series: includes Wintermelon, Okinawa, Pearl, Caramel, Green, Lychee, Strawberry, Taro and Matcha
Fruity Fresh Milk Series: includes Blueberry, Green Apple, Grass Jelly and Strawberry
Heal Tea Series: includes Black, Green, Yakult Green and Yakult Lychee
Choco Craze Series: includes Chocolate, Chocolate Mint, Choco Strawberry Milk and Choco Slush
Iced Slush Series: includes Green Apple QQ, Mango, Strawberry, Lemon Yakult, Taro Milk Tea, Lychee Nata and Matcha
Lemonade Series: includes Lemonade, Strawberry, Green Apple and Blue
Fruit Tea Series: includes Green Apple QQ, Lychee Aloe Vera and Strawberry Aloe
Freaky Milk Tea Series: includes Rocky Road, Strawberry, Tiramisu, Green Tea and Rainbow

Premium (Php95 for tall, Php115 for skyscraper, Php135 for empire sizes)

Taiwan Favorites: includes Milk Tea with Oreo, Chocolate Milk Tea with Oreo and Nutty Choco Matcha

Rock Salt Series: includes Rock Salt Milk Tea, Rock Salt Chocolate Milk Tea and Rock Salt Black Tea
Brown Sugar Series: includes Brown Sugar Milk Tea, Brown Sugar Fresh Milk with Grass Jelly and Rock Salt Brown Sugar Milk Tea

My personal preferences run toward the sweeter and creamier variants such as the Chocolate Milk Tea with Oreo and Brown Sugar Milk Tea.

Many thanks to Ms Ani Conanan of Tea 101 for the drinks and to Harvard of AlwaysHungryPH for extending the invitation!

This Tea 101 branch is located at Ground Floor, Anaheim Tower, California Garden Square, Domingo M. Guevarra Street, Barangay Highway Hills, Mandaluyong City.

Other branches are located at:

Hole in the Wall, Fourth Floor, Century City Mall, Kalayaan Avenue, Barangay Poblacion, Makati City
Ground Floor, South Wing, SM Mall of Asia, Mall of Asia Complex Pasay City

Disclosure: Together with fellow food bloggers, I attended this resto’s grand opening where drinks were served to enable us to sample the fare and to facilitate honest reviews. Said drinks were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other milk tea joints:

Fun and fresh flavors at the newly opened Yi Fang, Tomas Morato

The Pinoy’s fascination for all kinds of teas is going strong and is showing no signs of waning. Case in point: the proliferation of tea joints all over the metro and beyond.

One such joint is the newly-opened branch of Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea along Tomas Morato. The latest of this chain’s stores to set up shop in Quezon City, its opening day was marked by long lines of customers (including riders from food delivery services).

Taiwan is the birthplace of the milk tea. It was invented in Tainan and Taichung in the 1980s where it was dubbed the boba milk tea. Years later, fruit flavors are incorporated into the drinks, giving rise to fruit teas.

Yi Fang had its roots in the early 20th century Taiwan during the Japanese occupation of the country. Chen-Jen, developed cold drinks from overripe pineapples so that her husband working in the fields will have something to soothe his thirst. Chen-Jen´s nickname is Yi Fang, a name which her grandson adopted as the brand which inherited her fruit tea recipes and methods.

Yi Fang is notable for its brown sugar pearls – tapioca balls cooked and served in brown sugar syrup. These chewy and yummy pearls give the concoctions such as the Brown Sugar Pearl Tea Latte (Php120) a sweet and somewhat toasty taste.

It has also innovated on its tea mixtures through its Yakult series, drinks enriched in both nutrition and flavor with the probiotic milk beverage. The Yakult Pineapple Green Tea (Php120), for example, benefits from an added tanginess and creamy mouthfeel.

Want to skip the hassle and the long lines? Order online and just arrange for a quick pickup anytime from 11am to 11pm. You may also course your order through Honestbee or Grab Food Delivery.

Update: I recently joined my officemates in ordering a Brown Sugar Pearl Milk Tea (Php120) via Grab Food Delivery. I loved its creamy milk tea and chewy black pearls. Sugar level at 50% is just right because the brown sugar syrup is quite sweet already.

View this post on Instagram

Joined my officemates in ordering some refreshing drinks from @yifangteaph along Tomas Morato via @grabfoodph. Mine is the #brownsugarpearlmilktea, yum! It’s starting to feel like summer! Check out my blog post about this store’s opening day at https://beingjellybeans.com/2019/02/18/fun-and-fresh-flavors-at-the-newly-opened-yi-fang-tomas-morato/ . . . . . #drinkstagram #drinkersofinstagram #drinkpic #drinksmnl #drinksome #drinkstime #drinkspecials #drinksofig #drinkporn #beverageporn #saansaph

A post shared by Jellybeans in the City (@beingjellybeans) on Feb 18, 2019 at 10:02pm PST

This Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea outlet is located at 20 Lansbergh Place Condominium, 170 Tomas Morato Avenue Corner Scout Castor Street, Sacred Heart, Quezon City.

Other Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea outlets in the metro include:

Fourth Floor, Trinoma Mall, Bagong Pag-Asa, Quezon City

M. Paterno Street, Fronting Mango Tree Residences, Greater San Juan, San Juan City
Third Floor, Ayala Malls The 30th, Meralco Avenue, Ugong, Pasig City
Ground Floor, Bonifacio Stopover Corporate Center, 2nd Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
Ground Floor, Wumaco Building, Bonifacio High Street, 7th Avenue Corner Lane P, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City

Disclosure: Together with other food bloggers of #WeLoveToEatPH, I was invited to attend this resto’s grand opening wherein drink items were served to allow us to sample the fare. These were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Check out my reviews of other milk tea joints: