I came here for their grand opening as they were giving out free drinks. The first day, I ordered the #1 signature drink, no ice, no sugar. It's milk tea with boba - and instead of powdered milk, I got soy milk. When I was in line, there was a person coming to check up on us and when I asked about the milk, he said there's whole, oat, and soy milk as options for milk - but there wasn't whole milk. The wait was about 1 hour that day and we showed up at 11:50AM.
The tea flavor is very, very weak, and the soy milk is sweet so it adds sugar to the entire drink. There was also ice in my drink which was incorrect according to what I ordered, but I didn't ask them to change it. Also, I brought my own cup because for environmental reasons, I don't like using one-time throwaway items - especially if it's plastic. I asked the person if I could use my cup and she said she'll give me the drink in their normal plastic cup and I could pour it myself. She completely did not understand why I brought my own cup, and I had to explain it. Oh Nashville (and the south).
The second day was a lot faster, and unfortunately, I showed up when my friends had already gotten their drink - so I went back with them after lunch as I didn't want them to wait in the same long line again. There was practically no line at around 1:30PM, yay! There were tickets that day, and the person giving tickets told my friends that they could have a second drink. When we got up to the counter, the person at the counter said they couldn't have another drink - but I told the person her that the ticketing person said they could, and she let them have it. I got the same drink as yesterday because out of every drink I tried (from my friends the previous day), it was the best.
I also wanted to try the Thai tea with 30% sugar and no ice, so my friend ordered it for me - but that order was messed up. First time, they put ice in (I was sitting outside with the others so I didn't see this happening, otherwise I would've said it's fine), and second time, they gave taro tea instead of Thai tea; I'm not sure if they gave us taro the first time too, unclear based on what my friend told me. He didn't want to ask for another change so just took it, but I really don't like that drink because it's too sweet. Disappointed that I didn't get to try the Thai tea.
I tried a lot of my friends' drinks as well: the taro tea as mentioned above is too sweet but at least I think they have real taro as opposed to just powder. All the fruit ones are made with syrup, but the person telling us about the drinks while we were waiting in line the first day said Chatime has fruit orchards in Taiwan and the syrups are made from those fruits. Syrup is syrup, doesn't matter to me whether they're made from real fruit or not, it's a load of sugar and not the real type of fruit tea. He also said the tea is from Taiwan. If that's actually true, they either got crappy tea or they don't know how to brew it so that there's real flavor.
Definitely an Americanized, sugary boba tea spot. If you want authentic, high-quality Taiwanese bubble tea, Eat Bubbles and Sharetea are the places to go. People here are super friendly and nice though, I appreciated that! read more