Dakasi

B40. Siam Square Soi 7. Open daily 11am–10pm. 080-080-0600
The cup is compact and easy to carry. Sadly, though, the tiny pearls taste flat and the texture is pretty chewy. The pale milk tea is too creamy, with lots of powdered milk flavor and only a faint hint and aroma of tea. Nor do we like the over-frothy consistency of the tea.

Koguma Kafe

B35. Soi Yada, Silom Rd. Open daily 11am-midnight. 02-632-8822
The small cup and a non-sealed lid may make the drink less appealing and carry-friendly than other brands but the line in front of Koguma Kafe is usually long at lunchtime. Apart from the cute little yellow bear on the cup, what we love about Koguma is its authentic jasmine tea flavor. The milk tastes nice and smooth, but sadly the not-so-chewy pearls fall prey to the ubiquitous crime of blandness.

Miss Mamon

B40. G/F, Silom Complex. Open daily 10:30am-8pm. 02-632-1200
Miss Mamon bubble tea makes you feel like the sunny smiley face on their cup. The color is neither too white nor too brown, and the tea smells fresh, is well-balanced, and tastes delicious: smooth and a bit milky, but not creamy. The pearls’ texture is soft, not at all chewy or sticky, and they taste slightly sweet—again, just right.

Mr. Cup Tea & Coffee

B40. Siam Square Parking lot 1. Open daily 10am-10pm. 085-405-5551
Recently opened, Mr. Cup has already become quite a hit. Quite a nice blend between the milk and the tea, with just the right amount of bitterness and smoothness, but the aroma of the tea is a bit too strong. The pearls are also rather dense and insipid.

Mr. Shake

B40. By Pass at Siam Square (opp. Digital Gateway). Open daily 10am-9pm. 089-008-8899
Owning the highest number of branches, Mr. Shake is a bubble tea kingpin. The brownest of all the bubble teas, it smells fresh and feels neither too creamy nor too watery. Too bad the tea tastes a bit too sweet. But what we really love about Mr. Shake is its chewy and brown-sugar sweet pearls. Still, their cup is rather small and often filled with lots of big ice cubes, and it’s slightly more pricey than its competitors.

Ochaya

B35. Soi Sala Deang, Silom Rd. Open daily 6am-6:30pm. 086-629-9655
Although it smells like freshly brewed tea and has a pleasant bitter taste, Ochaya’s milk tea is too watery, lacking the creaminess of the milk. Still, the pearls are quite a treat. They are soft and sweet. Plus, Ochaya is by far the cheapest because of its tall cup—though that makes it less convenient to tote around.

T.Bar

B35. Siam Square near 29 Plaza. Open daily 10:30am–8pm. 081-825-5082
T.Bar is another newcomer in the bubble tea market. But in today’s health-conscious atmosphere, it offers something unusual: a choice of five levels of sweetness with level four as ‘standard sweet’! As interesting as this sounds, the tea, though quite smooth, tastes too milky and has a strong smell we can’t quite place. The pearls are tough in texture and bland in taste.

BUBBLES 101
The craze for bubble tea, or cha nom khai mook, started in Taiwan about 30 years ago and has since spread around the world, reaching tea lovers as far away as North America and the UK, where the first shop specializing exclusively in bubble tea just opened this year. The signature twist, of course, is the bite-sized dark pearls at the bottom of the drink, for which extra fat straws are provided. These pearls are made of starch from tapioca, a plant also known as sago and cassava in other parts of the world. The pearls first have to be boiled, stewed, then soaked in a sugary syrup for up to four hours before being deemed ready for consumption. Actually, they’re not even exclusive to bubble tea, but are added to other desserts as well. You may find them gooey or otherwise icky, but slurping up these beauties through big, brightly colored straws, are one of the joys of bubble tea, making them insanely popular and prompting shop owners to come up with their own fun, flavorful and chew-worthy alternatives, ranging from jellies to pudding mixes. Here we round up some of the stranger options that the top bubble tea shops in Bangkok have to offer:

Dakasi: pineapple jelly, aloe, chocolate pudding
Mr. Cup: chao kuay (grass jelly), vanilla ice cream
Mr. Shake: honey jelly, milk pudding, apple jelly
T.Bar: kanten (a Japanese gelatin)
Miss Mamon: azuki (red) beans, milk pudding