Milk tea shops and cafes offering healthy bubble teas

Source: Instagram

Source: Instagram

The milk tea craze shows no signs of slowing down. Even the pandemic--with all the lockdowns and limited mobility--is no match to Pinoys' love for this sweet drink from Taiwan, with consumers ordering through the delivery apps available.

However, milk tea also carries inherent health risks with its high sugar and calorie content due to the added sweeteners.

There are, of course, healthier options out there. Find out which shops offer healthier milk tea drinks.

Tea Culture PH

In Davao City, a milk tea café has put a healthy spin on the popular drink by using probiotic yogurt in all of its flavor variations.

The Tea Culture PH is the brainchild of Kriza Faye Calumba.

If that name rings a bell it is because the young food technologist was in the news recently because of her probiotic beer made with durian.

The beverage concoction was her master's thesis at Louisiana State University, USA.

The durian beer though still requires further modifications to make it commercially viable.

But what Kriza already had figure out is how to create a healthy variation of the popular milk tea.

Source: The Tea Culture PH (Facebook)

The Tea Culture PH serves probiotic yogurt milk tea in different flavors including durian, mango, cacao banana, and apple and cinnamon.

Probiotics in yogurt contain live microorganisms packed with health benefits such as improving digestion, helping in weight loss, reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases, and enhancing the immune system.

“There are yogurt milk tea series offered by milk tea shops, but what they usually use is yogurt syrup. If yogurt man, not with live bacteria. That's what differentiates us - we produce yogurt milk tea with live probiotic bacteria,” Kriza, who obtained her master's degree on a Fulbright scholarship, tells GMANetwork.com.

“I also did a simple experiment on our product to determine the sugar content. I compared it with known milk tea brands and found out that ours has lower sugar content than typical milk tea, so aside from the probiotic benefits, lower sugar din.”

Location: Door 7A, Bldg. 1, MS Land Complex, Matina, Davao City.

Brown Café

This Thai milk tea brand uses natural ingredients instead of artificial ones. What's more, their teas are extracted from real leaves and their tapioca pearls produced in-house to ensure freshness.

Location: Serendra 2 Loading Bay, C127 Ground, Taguig City.

Dakasi

Source: Dakasi (Instagram)

The Healthy Oats Milk Tea flavor combines black tea, non-dairy roasted milk-flavored creamer, and topped with oats. You can opt to add coconut jelly, pearls, grass jelly, or red beans for added flavor.

Location: 207 Banawe St, Quezon City.

True Boss

Source: True Boss (Instagram)

This Taiwan-based brand prides itself in creating healthy milk and fruit teas. Their specialty fruit enzymes are a must-try for fruit juice lovers. Milk tea fans, meanwhile, can snatch the Brown Sugar Fresh Milk with Pearl or the Green, Black, Oolong, and Alpine - all are made with just the right amount of sweetness.

Location: 1237 E. Rodriguez Sr. Avenue, Quezon City.

Tea Mama

Source: Tea Mama (Facebook)

Tea drinks with vegan and non-dairy options? Get it here at this local brand founded by tea master Renee Sebastian. The Signature Milk Tea with Almond Milk is a go-to for milk tea fanatics. What makes it unique is that you can request to change the drink's base to almond milk or soy milk. The drink also uses honey pearl sago instead of black tapioca pearls.

Location: 5/F Mega Food Hall, Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall Building D.

Tea 18

Source: Tea 18 (Facebook)

Another Taiwan-based brand, Tea 18 offers milk tea varieties made with less sugar but tasteful just the same. For starters, try the Honey Milk Tea and Taiwan Classic Bubble Milk Tea.

Location: The Stratosphere, 136 Valero Street, Makati City.