BBT Is Life

Ordered two sets of donut with straight tea using Burpple Beyond and our bill came up to $6.40. On its own, the Tie Guan Yin with Kurozu Konyakku costs $3.90.

I ordered the tea with 30% sugar. The tea is pretty fragrant, and 30% is good enough to mask any bitterness from the tea without being too sweet. What’s special about the tea here is the kurozu konyakku. Kurozu is actually black vinegar, and Kakuida’s version has been aged for 3 years and infused with real fruit extracts. I didn’t actually know this prior to drinking the tea, so I had an interesting sensory experience when I first sucked up the jelly bits! The jelly was vinegary and sour, but also had fruity sweetness to it. Very nice, and went well with the tea. The beverage was unique, super refreshing and I enjoyed every sip of it. Perfect to cool off on a hot day ✌🏻

Another drink that we ordered a second time, the cocoa latte with 0% sugar and rock salt pearls (Sunday flavour) and thankfully, it was good both rounds unlike the matcha latte.

This is one of the crowd favourites according to the staff, but I doubt many people order it with 0% sugar. I did find it a good balance with 0% sugar as the cocoa (unlike matcha) has a slight natural sweetness to it so it doesn’t feel like you’re drinking a bitter cocoa drink. The latte milk also evens out any residual bitterness and leaves you with a smooth and chocolatey beverage to sip on. The pearls might also have helped with the sweetness but what I liked most about them was the unique salt flavour that surprisingly complemented the bittersweet cocoa latte well.

Would order this again at HOLLIN for sure :)

Second time ordering the matcha latte with 0% sugar at HOLLIN, and unfortunately the standard is quite inconsistent between both orders. While the first time we ordered the matcha latte was a pleasant experience, this time we were served a diluted and milky drink. Despite the promising deep green colour of the beverage, the matcha taste was barely detectable.

Service has always been good at HOLLIN though, so I wouldn’t mind going back again especially with the Burpple Beyond deals. Just keeping my fingers crossed that their standards stay consistent with our first visit.

I had the HOLLIN Black Tea Rock Salt Macchiato with Rock Salt Pearls (Sunday flavour) at 25% sugar (Regular size $3.20 + pearls $0.70). This is one of their signature drinks, and was what the staff recommended. It is indeed a good recommendation!

The staff also recommended not to mix this drink, but to drink the macchiato milk out of the sipping hole, and using the straw to drink the black tea and pearls below. I love the salty macchiato milk on top, which is a HOLLIN exclusive that has rock salt. Sipping half a mouthful of the milk, and then gulping it down with the black tea was super delicious! It wasn’t too cloyingly sweet. Personally I don’t like my bubble tea that sweet, so 25% was a good balance for me but I am also tempted to try 0% the next time around. HOLLIN’s white pearls are just the right amount of chewy, and the rock salt flavour is really nice in my opinion! I have yet to try the matcha flavour but it’s hard to make a trip down on weekdays :( in all, I actually prefer HOLLIN over LiHo and Gongcha and this is a flavour I would order again!