Chatime Atealier

Update: Name has been changed to Chatime Atealier rather than Chatime Innovation Bar

Feb 12, 2021

New flavours at Chatime Innovation Bar for BOGO

Jade Berry Blossom Tea ($7 for 2) and Hibiscus Berry Blossom Tea ($7 for 2)

The drinks were beautiful with the colourful gold swirls (which also made them only available in cold). 

The jade berry blossom tea had a strong jade jasmine tea flavour that stood out. 

The hibiscus berry blossom tea was really good too with a nice floral scent and berry flavour - it was much better than the jade version. We got both teas with one having 0% sugar and the other having minimal sugar just to taste the difference and I think the added sugar made the tea flavour stronger and brought out the berry flavour in some ways. The hibiscus was still really good with 0% sugar (but the jade was a miss). 

Feb 8, 2021

Definitely have to take advantage of the Ubereats BOGO promotion with my favourite drinks as many times as possible before it ends! 

Handwhisked Taro Tea Latte (hot, no sugar $7.65 for two) and royal blueberry milk tea (hot and no sugar $6.95 for two) 

Since I got 4 large size drinks, I got a purple pocket from Chaime with a promo coupon!

The taro tea latte was delicious! Grainy texture from the ground taro (not as many bigger chunks of taro like last time though) and it came with frothy lactose free milk which made a delicious sweet combo that wasn't too sweet. This is definitely my favourite taro drink and favourite chatime drink! 

The royal blueberry tea came with options: milk tea or tea latte or teaspresso - I got one of the milk tea and the tea latte to try it out since they were BOGO. 

The milk tea version had a yummy smooth equally balanced blueberry and milk tea flavour that was pretty strong - but it definitely needed minimal sugar to make it taste better. 

The latte version had more milk, less tea flavour and the blueberry flavour was stronger and more prominent than the tea or milk flavour - I definitely preferred the milk tea version. 

Feb 4, 2021

I can't believe I saw my favourite taro drink on sale (BOGO) on Ubereats!

Taro Tea Latte ($7.65 for 2)

Such a good deal! It's made so much better at their Innovation Bar (now Atealier) locations. 

For taro lovers, this is a dream! It's filled ith tons of ground taro and has a really strong and sweet taro flavour even when you get the drink unsweetened (so guilt free pleasure!). Definitely worth a try here (and for that price now - amazing!)!

July 6, 2020

OMG I've been craving Chatime Innovation Bar's Handwhisked Taro Latte for a while now (especially since they opened up their HQ to offer Innovation Bar drinks). Their HQ on Scarsdale Road is delivery only. 

I was a little sad I couldn't get my drink hot (since that's the way I prefer it), but the no ice version was okay. The flavour wasn't as strong when it was cold and the texture is a little weird when it's not hot (I think the hot water helps to melt the grainy texture of the ground taro into a more smooth texture). It was also much more expensive $7.30 for the drink (compared to the Innovation Bar location at Wellesley's $5.80) and when I contacted Chatime about it they said: "due to COVID, there has been an increasing in demand for our products, and we opened a cloud kitchen uptown to fulfill the orders. With the cloud kitchen, there has been extra costs and therefore resulted in higher prices for the Scarsdale location."

May 30, 2019

Blue Crystal Coconut (less ice and no sugar)

It looks better for pictures than it tastes. It turns out butterfly pea flower tea is actually kind of bitter, you definitely need a lot more sugar for this drink to taste better. Personally, I don't like super sugary drinks, so I'll skip this in the future. 

Taro latte (hot with no sugar)

This was REALLY GOOD! I think this is my new go-to drink. It's perfect even unsweetened because the taro is sweet enough by itself and it tastes like a warm soothing milky taro drink - aka AMAZING. It does have a bit of a grainy texture from the taro, but that's how you know you're getting the real taro.

Mar 15, 2019

I've been watching and waiting for this Chatime location to open up. They're supposed to have special drinks that aren't available in regular Chatime stores. 

Black Onyx and Royal Blue tea lattes

I think the Royal Blue tea is supposed to compete with The Alley's Royal No.9 milk tea, unfortunately, it's got a long way to go in my opinion. I probably should have gotten it with more sugar or something so that the flavour is enhanced, but I generally don't like to have super sweet drinks. The Black Onyx was much better. 

Website: https://chatime.com/

CoCo Fresh Tea and Juice

Feb 6, 2021 @ 3300 Midland

The Coco location at Scarboro Village Mall had their popular Bubble Gaga BOGO on Ubereats

Large Bubble Gaga $5.85 for 2

I got no ice and no sugar (probably not the best idea for a sour fruit drink and I definitely regretted it later). The tapioca was super congealed and sticky and stuck to the bottom of the cup, the lychee jelly added some sweetness to the 0% sugar drink (thank goodness), the passionfruit seeds/pulp added a nice texture with the crunchy seeds. Unfortunately overall though, the drink was really tart and sour - it NEEDS sugar. I wouldn't get it again though - sour drinks aren't really my thing and I don't want too much processed sugar in my drinks either. 

Jan 8, 2021

 The January special was a large sago taro for $3.99 (pretty good price for a bubble tea drink)

0% sugar and warm

The taro part of the drink was made with powder and while it was sweet, it also tasted like more milk than taro, but at least it felt like the flavour was more concentrated than the last time I had it (but still watery). I don't think this time will change my initial opinion of this drink, there's better taro sago drinks out there and I wouldn't get this version at Coco. 

Jan 3, 2021 @ 808 York Mills

Pearl Milk Tea BOGO on Ubereats $5.35 (for two)

No sugar and hot milk tea, this one tasted much better than previous versions I had since it had a stronger tea flavour and it wasn't as milky or diluted like the other milk teas I had here before. The tapioca was chewier and fresher as well. There was a long line up of people today - so maybe the turnover of their tea and tapioca was better. 

Dec 27, 2020 

With the Ubereats BOGO promotion at Coco, I could try out two of the mango sago green tea for $6.05

Unfortunately, it only came cold, but I could get no sugar and no ice. 

It had a good mango juice flavour that was sweet and tasty and pretty good sago, but it didn't have a strong tea flavour. I think Coco does much better fruit teas than milk teas. 

Oct 5, 2020 @ 808 York Mills

Fresh Taro milk with QQ $4.99

I thought I'd try their QQ with the taro milk, but it tasted like warm milk, taro paste and gummy QQ balls individually - but not necessarily blended well together. I think the QQ balls were the strongest flavour and it really just reminded me of a hot milk bedtime drink - I wouldn't get this again. 

Sept 18, 2020 @ 808 York Mills

Coco's September promotion for their QQ series $4.80 for a Large size

The milk tea was really super sweet and the gummy potato and taro QQ were kind of bland. After trying both milk teas, I'm not sure if I'd get their milk tea again.

Pearl Milk tea with 30% sugar and no ice $2.99 promotion on Sept 15

Super sweet milk tea and on the milky side - I could barely taste tea. The pearls were really soggy and soft. Hopefully it's only opening issues and they figure out their recipe soon. 

Mar 19, 2019 @ 648 Yonge Street

Fresh Taro with Milk Tea

It is exactly what they advertise: mushed up taro with milk tea poured in after and haphazardly mixed. I got it unsweetened thinking that the taro would sweeten it naturally, but nope that's not what it tasted like. I'll pass on this in the future.

Oct 28, 2016

I've been intrigued by Coco's Sago Taro Milk Tea for a while, but I just haven't had the chance to try it until now. I imagined it would be like the Taro Sago Chinese dessert, but a cold drinkable version. 

Unfortunately, I don't know if I killed it with less ice and 30% sugar (or maybe they put more ice and no sugar), but it was a little bland and not that tasty. I loved the sago, but it wasn't enough to save the drink. I also don't know if I'd pay for this again. 

Website: http://en.coco-tea.com/

Real Fruit Bubble Tea

Jan 12, 2021

I'm kind of determined to find a hot tea I would enjoy at Real Fruit, but so far I haven't been that successful. Here's another attempt:

Original Milk Tea & Lychee Green Tea ($5.07 for two because of BOGO)

Original milk tea without sugar: Tasted like black tea mostly with a dash of milk. It had a pretty strong black tea flavour but it was kind of boring like a normal black tea you could make at home with a tea bag (I wouldn't pay $5 for this again).

Lychee green tea (could not change sugar level other than requesting minimal sugar): Tasted like lychee juice with green tea and sour. When these two are combined hot rather than cold, the combination is actually kind of terrible. 

Overall: I think I've given this a shot, and can safely say that there's nothing hot that I would order from here other than the oolong (with less milk and/or water)

Jan 10, 2021

I thought I'd try some of the other hot drinks during Real Fruit's BOGO promotion (since the oolong and matcha didn't work out that well)

Hot Taro Almond Milk tea and Hot Almond Milk Tea ($6.77 for both with tax)

The hot taro almond milk tea was made with taro and almond powder mixed with a super bland milk tea (maybe made with a tea bag? the flavour wasn't consistent). It wasn't very good, especially since the almond powder was super strong and pretty sweet and it completely overpowered the taro flavour. Unfortunate, that it didn't work out because taro almond used to be one of my favourite flavour combinations (maybe the 0% sugar also didn't help? but I cut out sugar from milk tea in my diet). 

The hot almond milk tea was awful; the powder was super sweet and had a strange aftertaste that you could distinctly tell when it was just the almond flavour. It tasted more like almond milk than tea. 

I guess the only drink that's good here is the Mango Diamond Slush. 

Dec 26, 2020 @ Shops at Don Mills

Matcha Milk Tea

The most prominent flavour in this was the cream rather than the matcha as there was way too much milk/cream in the drink (and not enough matcha powder except to make it green). 

Dec 19, 2020 @ Shops at Don Mills

Real Fruit still has their BOGO hot drinks promotion - have to get my fill of their oolong tea before it gets more expensive! 

Oolong Milk Tea $4.59

Very milky oolong tea, but it had a stronger oolong flavour than the Yi Fang oolong tea (might just be this location though). The milk did water it down quite a bit, but they also gave me a lot of tea that was filled to the brim in the cup. 

October 27, 2020 @ Victoria Terrace Shopping Plaza

I came to try the oolong and the matcha tea for the BOGO promotion. 

Matcha

The matcha had a nice strong matcha flavour, but sadly it was nowhere near the same level of matcha quality as Cheese Garden's matcha that I had recently. It was also super watery without much milk to balance it. 

The oolong was also super watery and there wasn't a lot of milk tea flavour, but a heavier oolong flavour from just the tea and water - so it wasn't really mixed well (unless I was just ordering an oolong tea with a dash of milk).

Overall, their drinks weren't very good here - they were all super watery and I probably wouldn't order from here again. 

October 24, 2020 @ Shops at Don Mills

I haven't had Real Fruit Bubble Tea in a really long time and they were running a buy one get one (BOGO) promotion for their hot teas.

I decided to order on Skip the Dishes, which had it for $5.59 for two as opposed to $4.99 in-store, but I also had a free $5 off coupon, so it came out to $1.32 with tax if I went to pick up. Unfortunately, I could only buy two of the same drink to get the bogo deal. 

Medium oolong milk tea

One was less sweet and one had no sweetness. The less sweet drink was still really sweet in my opinion (but I've started drinking a lot of my drinks without added sugar - so I might not have been used to it either). The medium was actually quite a large size, especially compared to other drink sizes I've seen. The oolong had a nice flavour, it wasn't super strong, but it was on the milky side with more milk than tea. I think I would still prefer the Chatime version though. 

June 16, 2018 @ Chartwell Mall

Scarborough Bluffs

Mango Diamond Slush

Super refreshing with ripe mangoes and icy cold slush - this might be my drink of the summer! 

Website: http://www.realfruitbubbletea.com/

Chatime Bake Code

Jan 4, 2021 @ 4910 Yonge Street

$15 for 6 macarons

Clockwise from top left: Earl Grey, Chocolate Raspberry, Mango, Pistachio, Lavendar and White Sesame (centre)

Earl Grey: sadly no earl grey flavour whatsoever. 

Chocolate raspberry: good raspberry flavour, but the raspberry jam inside wasn't that good. 

Mango: really good macaron with a soft inside and crispy outside and lots of mango flavour. 

Pistachio: super crumbly macaron with decent pistachio flavour

Lavender: excellent floral lavender flavour and it was super fragrant with a cookbook perfect macaron finish

White sesame: good white sesame flavour - distinct Asian flavour (pretty neat)

Overall: These macarons will do in a pinch! But there's definitely better macarons in Toronto. 

Aug 29, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Taro Mini Loaf $6.50

The taro loaf looked pretty nice with all the braids, almond slivers and what looked like coconut shreds outside. 

There was some taro flavour inside with the taro paste, but it was pretty light and it wasn't easy to slice it (so I just ripped some pieces to eat). The loaf was sweet, but it wasn't anything special (and was a little pricey relative to the size of it).

August 8, 2020 @ 9255 Woodbine Ave

Tea of the Month $4.50 for a Large

Oolong Milk Tea!

Strong oolong flavour (which is fantastic for oolong tea lovers) and it was really good without sugar since it has a slight sweetness from the milk

Mille Crepe Cake

Custard-y in between the layers of crepe. I liked this one better than the Earl Grey and it had no powdery stuff on top! 

June 16, 2020 @ 4910 Yonge Street

In the month of June, Chatime was offering a promo code every Tuesday for $3 off order of $15 or more, so I decided to order some croissants and desserts from Bake Code through their online system. 

Unfortunately, my Charcoal Thai Milk Tea croissant got lost somewhere in the order delivery process. It was a bit of a trial getting a refund for it (they say it takes up to two weeks to process the refund, but the store ended up offering me a coupon instead)

Purple Potato Latte $5.30 (a Bake Code specialty)

I was pretty excited about this drink at first since I've really wanted a purple potato/taro/ube dessert for a while. I was rather disappointed with this whole experience since it tasted like purple potato mush mixed with water (or skim milk?) and it was super bland as a drink. I wonder if adding sugar would have helped? I wouldn't order this again.

Vietnamese Coffee Cruffin $4.70 and Ube Croissant $4.50

The croissant baked into a muffin was okay, but definitely mushy in the middle. It had a fantastic strong Vietnamese coffee flavour. 

Ube croissant

The ube filling was more milky flavour than ube and it was really sweet. An interesting French-Asian fusion dessert. 

Charcoal Chatime Roasted Milk Tea Custard Croissant $4.90

The croissant was really flaky and it had a strong roasted milk tea flavour in the custard. It was sweet as well, but I found it slightly better than the ube croissant. I would get this one again. 

Earl Grey Crepe Cake $8.50

I got this mostly for comparison purposes of the Earl Grey crepe cake at Millie Patisserie. I previously got this in January at another Chatime location.

The Earl Grey flavour was pretty good, but not as good as Millie's. I found this cake really sweet and I wasn't a fan of the powdered chocolate on top since it leaves a strong powdery chocolate taste and after-taste. The crepes weren't as good as Millie's either and they were slightly more dried out than Millie. However, it was still a pretty decent crepe cake (and it's not as expensive). 

Website: http://bakecode.com/

Petit Potato

Dec 8, 2020 @ Finch & Leslie

Petit Potato had some BOGO offers on Ubereats:

Black Garlic Sliced Pork Ramen $16.25 (x2)

We got both thick egg noodles and thin egg noodles (and preferred the thick noodles). The broth was pretty good, but it did taste like it had a bit of msg though. The pork belly was more fatty than lean meat, but worked well with all the other ingredients like bamboo shoots, fungus, corn and ramen egg half.

I loved this dual compartment for the takeout ramen - top layer was all the toppings and bottom layer was the pork and noodles. I think this is so genius!

Sous Vide Chicken Breast Omurice with Black Pepper Sauce $17.50 (x2)

The omurice (which is rice wrapped in an egg omelette) was okay - I liked that they used a heavier strong flavoured sauce like black pepper with the chicken to give the whole dish a better overall impression (since chicken and scrambled egg don't have strong flavours). The sauce was definitely very peppery and was quite good with the egg omelette around slightly seasoned rice (it wasn't just white rice, but it wasn't fried rice either). I think it was pretty interesting overall. 

Oct 27, 2018 @ Finch & Leslie

Red bean and soy milk

House Special Soya Bean Jelly with Coconut milk with red bean, taro, sweet peanut, taro Q ball, sweet potato Q ball, sesame dumpling, tapioca

There were a lot of things going on in this dessert - definitely ambitious. Some things were really good like the taro ball, but other things were a bit of a miss for me like the sesame dumpling. 

August 10, 2017

I've walked by Petite Potato a few times, and I thought it had a really interesting menu. My friend said the food was pretty good here, so we went for dinner here. 

Spicy grilled eel bibimbap with fried egg $14.25

It was an interesting fusion and actually pretty tasty. 

Sliced beef teppan pasta $9.99

This seemed really interesting with your choice of meat, pasta, sauce and/or toppings. 

It was a little strange though when we got beef with fettuccine and then curry sauce. I wouldn't really recommend that combination again. 

House Special Grass jelly with coconut milk 7.99

There was so much in this: red bean, peanut, taro, grass jelly, sweet potato q ball, taro q ball and tapioca. It was pretty good, but it was so much food for two people! 

Marshmallow custard toast $5.99

I also wanted the toast experience (even if we couldn't handle the golden toast series), so we split a marshmallow custard toast (which was okay). 

Overall: Fun experience at Petit Potato - there's a lot of interesting combinations and menu items here. It's pretty good for a meal or dessert and they have so many items to choose from. 

Website: https://www.petitpotato.com/