Chatime- New Annex Location

Chatime recently opened another location in the Annex and I went with my friend Janice aka @bluntfoodreview to celebrate the launch of their new store! In Toronto, there's basically a bubble tea shop everywhere you look. What really sets Chatime apart from all the other bubble tea shops is its strong tea taste, creamy milk teas and the ability to customize the sugar and ice levels (like Starbucks, but for bubble tea!). If you have ever experienced the line ups at other Chatime locations, it is clear that bubble tea is alive and well in Toronto after all these years.
Chatime is a global franchise chain of tea shops with locations around the world.  The first Toronto location at Bay and Dundas was opened ~3 years ago by Kenton Chan. Kenton grew up in Toronto, when the bubble tea trend first hit over a decade ago.  He first experienced Chatime in Sydney, Australia a few years ago and saw an opportunity to get in to the bubble tea game in Toronto. Fast forward to today, where he and his business partner, Thomas Wong, now lead the entire Chatime Ontario team, with 8 locations in Ontario and more on the way.
We sampled about 13 different drinks from their menu, ranging from the most popular drinks to hidden gems that people tend not to order. Like everyone else waiting in those Chatime lines, I usually order grass jelly roasted milk tea 99.5% of the time! The owners made it a point to highlight some of the other delicious drinks Chatime carries. The highlight for me were the red bean milk tea and the tea espressos, which actually have no espresso in it but are brewed to order in a speciality espresso machine. I also really enjoyed the Wintermelon Milk Tea with Mousse.  The Wintermelon tea is refreshing and goes surprisingly well with the savoury Mousse that covers the top 1/3 of the drink. Don't mistake the mousse for regular foam, as it is a delicious sweet and savoury treat on its own.
What's better than a regular Chatime bubble tea?  A GIANT Chatime bubble tea cake. The best part of the afternoon was having a bite of that giant Chatime cake!! It was a deliciously moist chocolate cake with green tea buttercream. 
The Chatime Annex location is now open for business.  It is located near St. George station, so it can be expected that hordes of students from U of T will be getting their bubble tea fix in between classes!

Chatime Annex
337 Bloor Street West
Toronto, M5S 1W7
416-901-5660
www.chatime.com