Koi Thé

I love bubble tea, so while out exploring, a new friend highly suggested Koi Thé as a good place to get some. (Their favorite.) I ended up going once a day. (I didn’t want a repeat of Taiwan where I was all excited for bubble tea only to have one the entire time I was there, and I was in Taiwan longer.)

I started with their golden bubble milk tea. It’s a milk tea with a different style of tapioca pearls, instead of black they’re golden in color and called “one of a kind”. To be honest, as I wandered around in the rain and then carried it on the train to a mall (you can’t eat or drink on the subway or else you’ll be fined at your next stop) there were a bit too many bubbles for me. Blasphemy I know, but I got tired of chewing them. I joked with my friend that they must’ve thought I didn’t get enough bubbles in my life and decided I need extra.  (Which is how the cafeteria workers at my old school seemed to act whenever they saw me, piling my plate high with kimchi.)

It was good though. And the set up is similar to Gong Cha which we have in Korea. (And is apparently available in Singapore as well.) You pick the amount of ice you want, tell them how sweet you want your drink and the type of drink. Which I always appreciate because I can make the sugar low so I don’t automatically feel a cavity coming on.

Their menu is broken up into sections: flavored teas, chewy teas, signature macchiatos (NOT COFFEE), milk tea, tea latte and juice. (They do not serve any hot teas.) Macchiato means that there is milk foam in your drink. It doesn’t necessarily mean there’s espresso underneath.

I decided I wanted to try one before leaving for my flight so I tried their Oolong macchiato. Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea. It worked really well with the milk foam, however when getting a macchiato at Koi Thé you’ll be given a knife. They won’t give you a straw because there aren’t any bubbles. Instead it’s just ice tea and foam. There’s a small dotted line on the lid and they suggest you cut through it with your little knife and sip there. It was a bit difficult and made drinking it very slow. You can watch me struggle to do cut the lid open one handed while filming below.

Koi can be found throughout Singapore as well as Myanmar, Thailand, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and Indonesia. The ones I went to/found didn’t seem to have any seating. They’re more of a spot to order your tea to go. (But again do not drink anything on the public transit!) They can be found in most malls and in the airport.

Depending on location they tend to be open until 10/10:30pm.