M is for milk!! Milk tea to be precise. My friends have called me crazy, they’ve called me obsessed. Something that I always, always look out for whenever I travel is milk tea. Is it my sweet tooth? Quite possibly.
Tea commonly found in Seoul
The first thing I wanted to try in Hong Kong was not its famous dim sum but rather their milk tea. I had a taste of Hong Kong milk tea in Singapore and wanted to try the authentic ones there. They were so awesome, I had it with every single meal when I was there. I absolutely love that sweet-bitter taste of their milk tea.
It’s a bit harder to find milk tea in Seoul, mainly because they are mostly coffee drinkers. There are plenty of cafes around selling coffee, all sorts of coffee. There are also tea houses around for the tea drinkers. Milk tea, however, will take some searching. I discovered Gongcha, a bubble tea franchise, in Seoul last year and thought that I am finally ready to pack my bags and live happily there now that milk tea is around. However, it does not taste as good as the ones I’ve had here though. Nevermind, I’m happy enough that there is milk tea.
Sydney stumped me for a while but I bumped into my favourite bubble tea brand, Sharetea, when I was walking to the bus stop in Chinatown and managed to find some tea tarik, which is milk tea, there too. That was the happiest meal of the day for me. I got to drink 2 glasses of milk tea!!
My favourite milk tea in Japan, so many varieties!!
My happiest, happiest place is most definitely Japan. I was like a kid in a candy store with the huge variety of milk tea available. It was like opening the fridge door in 7-Eleven and being able to think which brand to choose. On one trip there, I remember drinking only milk tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner, every day! I even refused to stop drinking milk tea despite nursing a very bad persistent cough when I was there.
However, my craziest time with milk tea was actually ordering milk tea bingsu (shaved ice) in the middle of winter!! The tea shop had an extensive selection of hot tea available but I was insistent that I wanted bingsu instead because it was my only chance at having milk tea. I managed to finish more than half with occasional trips to the washroom. It was cold having bingsu during winter. Crazy? It was milk tea!!
My friends love to point out the irony of all these milk tea though. As much as I’m obsessed over milk tea, I’m actually slightly lactose intolerant. So all these milky goodness, I can’t drink too much of it either, or else… 😉
What other obsessions do you have when you travel? Please do share!! I would like to think that I’m not the only crazy person around with such an obsession. 🙂
Lifetomyfullest 
hahaha cool! I never heard about it and never tried it, but I love tea and milk 🙂
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milk+tea combo is awesome…but I think it’s just me overdosing on sugar….hahaha…:)
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hahaahha I also do that, even though sometimes I try to avoid…but its always better sweet! 🙂
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Definitely! 😉
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😃
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My obsession would be different types of chocolate. When I was in Japan I found about 10 different varieties of KitKat
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Oh yes, I did that one time too….going around to collect all the different varieties…haha…thanks for sharing!
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I have never heard of milk tea either. Two years ago while in Germany I saw lots of bubble tea stalls. I did not try as I thought I was not the demographic they were targeting. I do not like sweet drinks.
I was desperate for decent coffee, not instant, after travelling across China and Central Asia. So pleased to hit Iran.
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Haha, yes, I think milk tea is available more easily in Asia because I didn’t see much of it in Australia either except at Chinatown. I’m not really a coffee drinker but you should come to Singapore! Plenty of good coffee cafes here too! Haha..
Milk tea is my daily dose of sugar. It’s not really healthy so I’m trying to cut down. I limit myself to only 1 cup of bubble tea a week instead now. I just go a little bit crazy over it when I travel because it’s harder to get depending on where I’m heading too..haha… 🙂
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I thought you were talking about milk tea in random, ordinary places. But since you’re talking about places that serve the best milk teas, then sip away … sip away. 😀 I support your milk tea obsession.
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Hahaha, thanks for giving me the green light….I feel so much more reassured now…:D
Do you have any travel obsessions? Am I the only crazy one here???? >.<
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milk tea… is that just tea with milk? Or is there something special about a milk tea? Usually in Australia if you order tea, it comes with milk.
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Haha…yes, it’s tea with milk but there are variations of taste depending on the milk used and tea used. The ones that I like are the sweet with bitter aftertaste…there are actually a lot of this variety in japan…did you get to try them? Or are you more of a coffee person? 🙂
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Living in Japan made me love Milk Tea. I can’t get enough of the stuff. Thanks for sharing.
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Right? I absolutely love milk tea in Japan…:)
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Lol…you wrote a whole post about milk tea. Heh Heh. 😉
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I know right! You inspired me…haha…^_^
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come to Manila, Sha, we are also loaded with Milk Tea houses!
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Haha…really? Milk tea like bubble tea or is it a Filipino tea? I should do a travel special only on milk tea! Haha…
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Milk Tea like bubble tea – inspired by Hong Kong milk tea houses 🙂 We don’t really specialize in tea I don’t think we even have a tea farm (?), we do have locally grown coffee.
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Singapore has the best instant Milk Tea imo!
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Really? We do have a lot of milk tea here, instant or no…maybe that’s why I get addicted to it…haha
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mmmm teh tarik! slurp!!!
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I have to stop thinking about milk tea…limiting myself to only once a week..but teh tarik…..I’ll just think of it instead..hehe
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I could travel the world for tea! But then I’m not lactose intolerant – that’s definitely a twist!
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Unfortunately yes, I have to be real careful around dairy products…especially if I’m travelling..so I work around it to get my dose of milk tea as often as possible…:)
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There’s a chain in Indonesia called Quickly that sells the stuff with bubbles (black “pearls” made from tapioca) in it. It’s amazing and addictive. In western China and Tibet, they drink yak’s milk tea which is less than delicious. Approach with caution.
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Hahaha…I’ll be sure to take your advice to heart should I ever find myself craving milk tea in that area. Thanks for reading! 🙂
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Kopi O Kosong. 🙂
Chanced upon ur blog while looking for a travel backpack myself.
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Haha…my dad went to Batam and asked for kopi o kosong…and then he grumbled to me that they still added sugar and milk to his coffee…had to remind him that kopi o kosong works only in singapore…but I’m sure you don’t run into the same problem..:)
Thank you for reading and sparing time for mine. 🙂
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Hahaha this post made me laugh a lot! I’m not much of a tea person but now I’m intrigued. I’ll have to try milk tea sometime 🙂
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Yes please do but I do take to a bit extreme here…it’s just me though!! 🙂
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Haha, what an awesome obsession to have!! Pity about the lactose intolerance – how dare your belly not play nice with something you love??!! I have coeliac, so it’s difficult to curb some of my cravings too when I can’t have them.
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Haha, I know right! I have had to be careful with dairy products especially when I travel if I want to avoid running to the toilet all the time – not fun when travelling!
And it’s too bad that you have restrictions too but I can TOTALLY understand caving in to your cravings. It sometimes make it worth having…haha…:)
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