rev:text
| - There was a hair in my bubble tea. A long one.
First off, kudos to the man in the corner, probably unfamiliar with Chatime, who ordered a coffee. He is the only person I've ever seen order a hot coffee in any bubble tea place.
I hope his coffee didn't have hair in it. Because my bubble tea did. I was halfway through my drink and nowhere near Chatime by the time I discovered a disgusting texture in my mouth. I wasn't going to walk back, so I emailed them and never heard back.
Chatime is already overpriced and I only indulge infrequently. I never really realized until I went to redeem my free Vicinity birthday drink, how strange it is for tapioca to be an extra charge. Regardless of how they position themselves, they are, to the core, a bubble tea business. Charging extra for tapioca is like Menchie's charging extra for flavour in your frozen yogurt or Gap charging extra for buttons on your shirt. The essence of these types of drinks (if we try to avoid the loaded term "bubble tea") is a cold beverage with tapioca. That's not to say you have to have tapioca, but "with tapioca" should be the default, quite frankly.
This is also just me, but I also think a free drink should be all-inclusive. It seems in poor taste to do otherwise, perhaps like a burger joint giving me a free burger that only consists of a bun and a patty, all toppings extra. I'm grateful for the free drink, but this just goes back to my thoughts on bubble tea having tapioca as a default.
At least to this location, I won't be back.
|