Chatime 日出茶太 — Restaurant in Manchester

As a self confessed tea addict, I wasn’t actually aware that bubble tea was made from a blend of tea. Nicholas the friendly store owner took me through what bubble tea actually was as even though I had tried it before he knew I probably didn’t know what it was made from. The tea based beverage can be served either ice cold or piping hot. The tea base which is a special blend from Taiwan is mixed with either milk or fruit juice and served with Tapioca pearls or flavoured jellies. It’s a unique drinking experience, and not your usual afternoon tea delight. The tea is brewed in state of the art brewing machines which is all computerised technology. All drinks are made to order to retain the freshness of the tea blends and ensure that every drink for the customer is of incredibly high quality.

There are many variants of the drink which I soon found out and so many ways you can have the drink. With 12 different tea blends and 63 different varieties there are countless ways to try the tea. As I was a novice drinker I asked Nicholas to recommend something to me. He chose one of his favourite drinks which were the lychee green tea with coconut jelly. The drink was so refreshing and sweet especially on such a hot afternoon, as the drink is made completely to your preference you can opt for more or less sugar or a variety of different toppings. Apparently it’s very popular in Manchester to have additional sugar however this isn’t the typical Taiwanese way. The drink I had was just right.

I then went on to try the more traditional bubble tea drink which is the signature Chatime milk tea with tapioca pearls. The peals have to be specially made each day and have a very unique texture which makes for a very interesting drinking experience.

Both of the drinks were very filling and were a really novel experience and great to try something new in Manchester. Nicholas told me there were exciting plans for the cafe, having only just opened the place was really busy and it looked like it was doing really well. If you’re in the area and haven’t tried bubble tea before pop in and don’t be shy to ask for a recommendation the staff were ever so friendly...

Chatime

Please don’t waste your time. I’ve been here multiples times now but I still don’t see any improvements on the drinks which is very disappointing.

The drinks aren’t cheap and with the price paid, you can easily get better drinks elsewhere within the city centre.

On this particular occasion, I ordered a large honeydew bubble milk tea with boba.

The drink was so bland and I could barely taste any honeydew flavour (I’ve ordered this drink plenty times before so trust me when I said the flavour wasn’t there!)

The boba were all stuck together I couldn’t get any out without using a lot of forces! So bad, chatime is the only bubble tea place I’ve been to with this issue! I’ve been to the one in London, Sheffield, Leeds and Manchester. All have the same issue.

Not to mention that they’ve changed their straw to be more eco friendly. With the boba stuck together, before I even got any boba out the straw already cracked. Making it impossible to drink at all.

Had to walk back to chatime and explain the situation asking for extra straws just in case. Needless to say the look that I get from her, I have two straws, upon opening the first one, there’s already a crack. So just used the second one. But had to be so careful with the drink.

Will not recommend this...

The brown sugar bubble tea was great but the service was not! I’m a regular customer of Chatime but after today’s incident I will give the store a pass. I ordered a large drink and upon realising I won’t be able to finish it all I decided to share it with someone. I politely asked at the till for an extra straw and the associate bluntly said “no, sorry”. I looked at another pile of straws and said “how about these?” And then she proceeded to call her colleague who said they were “running low on straws”. I did not understand how asking for a single straw would escalate to this (and I was more than happy to pay for an additional one) but at this point I wanted to return the unopened drink and get a refund as I did not feel welcomed. Nevertheless I thanked the associate and left the store...