KOI Café

In my humble opinion, KOI seems to be very much still the market leader for bubble tea!

There are several bubble tea shops around in Toa Payoh, but it's not difficult to observe which one has the longest queue.Hazelnut Milk Tea with Pearl

Frankly, I find their menu similar to lots of other bubble tea shops, and while they offer very decent drinks, I feel many other bubble tea shops have also since caught up with their standards.

I do enjoy their drinks but I don't think I'd be willing to queue 30 minutes out of my 1 hour lunch duration for a cup of bubble tea again, which I can purchase cheaper and faster at other shops for the same standards.

My dad was feeling thirsty so he went over to Koi to grab a drink. At first, I told him to get Milk Tea, but he went to order Passion Fruit Ai-Yu instead. I was glad he did, because it was really nice. The Ai-Yu, which was something like jelly, was soft but tasteless. It was so soft it felt like a liquid, but it was clearly jelly. The passion fruit drink was sweet and tasty. It was a good choice to order that. It costs around $3 or more, which was a little expensive. But it was quite worth as it tasted really good.

2012-08-25

Sad to say that this is my first time drinking pearl milk tea from Koi Bubble Tea and was taken a back. I've always find their drink too over-rated as some of the popular flavours which i've drank so far, i find them so so only.To determine whether drinks from a particular bubble tea outlet is worth drinking onot, just by trying their milk tea alone will give u the answer. I reali wondered how come i didnt try the milk tea from koi?

The tea is thick is fragrant, pearls are chewy and not too sweet. Thumb's up! No wonder it's FOREVER long Q. haha..

2012-07-05

KOI cafe has gone healthy and introduced Jasmine Green Tea. I was at Toa Payoh Central and saw the banner. The queue was surprisingly short at this branch. So I just have to jump into it and get myself a drink. I only waited for about 5 minutes for my Ai Yu Green Tea. I enjoyed the combination of the Ai Yu and green tea. The ice cold green tea has a tad of tea fragant which was very freshing and light for the hot weather.

To me, a visit to Toa Payoh's never complete if I never buy some Koi to end the day with.
So, when I am at Toa Payoh again on 17 April, I bought my favourite Bubble Milk Green tea and Grass Jelly Milk Tea home to share. The staff mixed up the labels for the 2 drinks and pasted them wrongly. Felt that the grass jelly this time round was not as smooth and nice as the previous time, but still good enough for me.

2012-04-17

SGD 3.50(Tea)

Decided to buy some Koi bubble tea home when I was at Toa Payoh bus interchange. Bought 3 different flavours to try and share. Photo from left to right: Bubble Milk Green tea, Grass Jelly Milk Tea, Yakult Green Tea.

All 3 flavours are nice, but I liked the Grass Jelly Milk tea the most. Yakult Green Tea was a little sour. Chose 50% sugar level for all, and the level of sweetness was just right for me. After trying so many bubble teas from the different brands, I still think Koi's the best bubble tea chain around!

2012-03-02

SGD 2.80

I was feeling really thirsty and I happened to pass by toa payoh so I decided to head to koi for a nice cup of ice cream milk tea. I have been drinking so many different bubble tea the past few months but I still miss the nice milk tea that koi offers. I ordered a little ice cream milk tea. I love the creamy and milky ice cream they use. It is very smooth and when it melts, it gives the drink an extra creaminess. The milk tea is very fragrant, very creamy as well and most importantly I like it 25% cos it is not too sweet and when the ice cream melts, there is also added sweetness from the ice cream.

Walked past it and decided to taste what the hype was about.

Had the bubble green tea, cold, medium size.

Serivce - bad. Girl did not speak English and I could not understand what she said, and I wasn't sure if she understood what I said. But she did get the order right. I didn't know if I should repeat my order or if she should repeat it back to me to double check. I wished I had gotten the drink warm instead of cold.

Setting - takeaway. It's jam-packed with people, very crowded and just annoying to wait outside the shop for your number to be called. And it's obstructing the walkway and other shops' business. But the wait wasn't long at all.

Value - great. Reasonably priced at $2.10 for a medium bubble tea with no milk. Could be a tad cheaper, I supposed, seeing as it's just tea with some pearls and sugar in it. Would have cost them $0.50 to produce it!

Beverage - I loved it! It was great! The taste was perfect. The pearls were perfect - not mushy, squished, overly soft or chalky or hard. Cooked to perfection. Perfect size, perfect rounds, perfect texture, perfect portions! VERY generous portions at 25% of the cup size! Other bubble tea shops only give a small dollop of pearls, but here they giev you 25% of the cup size! And the pearls had a slightly sweet caramel taste which was perfect.

The tea itself was brewed properly, with no taste of additives or instant stuff. Just pure brewed tea. Excellent! I felt sooooo good after having this drink, unlike with other bubble tea shops which made me feel sick after finishing the drink. It's just so great I can't stop raving about it.

However, another time I went there and asked for warm tea, they gave me boiling hot tea in the same plastic cup and it was so hot the plastic cup half melted and I felt like I was drinking plastic! It made me really sick and I never went there again. Even the bubbles melted and stuck together!

2011-02-20

i still go back to KOI as i think they serve the best bubble, chewy and nice!

My favorite in KOI always be the Cocoa Berry. It is a dark chocolate beverage for chocolate lover!

What i like about them also you get to choose an option of selecting the sugar level of the milk tea for a healthier choice! And personally i find the 50% is already pretty sweet.

2011-10-07

I personally adore bubble tea, to the extent that I must have one every week (I have a friend who has one every other day O.O) Anyway, through these years, I've tasted many bubble tea shops here and there, and i would safely say that the best bubble teas always seem to come from Taiwan/Taipei I remember during my secondary school days, me and my friends would zoom over to Koi, as we really liked their bubble milk tea! So obviously I would recommend the infamous bubble milk tea that Koi offers. It's one of the simplest items on the menu, but I like it I do think they could do with less pearls though, when I saw them preparing the drinks, half the cup is loaded with pearls I would like more milk tea than the pearls, thank you very much! ;) Also, I think their ice cream milk tea with pearls is great too, since it is like a ice cream treat for yourself, in drink form I love mixing the ice cream into the tea, and the aroma is crazy delicious Try one today!

Surely I have tasted almost all milk bubble tea in Singapore but still KOI Cafe is the winner.

My favourite and recommended drinks are : (50% Sugar Level, No Bubble, No Ice = more expensive but more milk tea, and usually medium size)

1) Ice Cream Milk Tea
2) Coconut Jelly Milk Tea
3) My own creation but they still serve it, Aloe Vera + Milk Tea

These 3 milk tea are the best in their league.

The queue at this Koi branch is also acceptable, usually my drink will be served after 5-10 minutes upon ordering.

2011-09-27

Koi Cafe is famous for its signature milk teas so each time i queue, i will made up my mind what i like to buy today and i will always buy extras if i'm meeting up with my daughter or hubby and this way i got the chance to try the different types faster!
I also love the facts that we can have the different level of sweetness to suit our taste buds.
For example if i'm buying mild teas, i will have it zero sugar so that i can enjoy the natural flavour.
Besides the different types of tea,i also like their chocolate as it's thick,creamy and simply awesome but if they could reduce their price it would be even more awesome because i ever spend $15 for 3 cups!

SGD 5(Other)

This is large hazelnut milk tea (caramel) with grass jelly topping. My favorite drink with 50% sugar and no ice. It comes with medium size too. Different sugar level for you to choose. You can custom made your very own drink from KOI! But I find the price slight expensive. This drink cost me $5!! Not very affordable for everyone..

2011-08-17

Koi is one of the popular milk tea in Singapore nowadays. All the people is crazy about this milk tea and i think i know why. Koi is origin from taiwan and you can choose a different level of sweetness according to your personal's liking. i am always ordering this ice cream milk tea because i think is a brilliant ideal to mix ice cream and milk tea together.it is such a joy. You can either choose adding pearl or without it will still tastes great!

2011-07-08

The weather is getting really hot these days. I always think of KOI whenever i want a cold drink and i am really glad there are many outlets in different part of Singapore though no matter which outlet you go there is always a long queue.

My regular drink is green tea with pearls. Their standard has been quite consistent so far. No matter what level of sweetness you required it is always a spot on. It is a refreshing drink and the chewy little pearls compliment it. This is my personal favorite and it's the best amongst its competitors.

Highly recommended.

SGD 2.90