Gong Cha: My Second Glass of Taiwan-Style Teas

Chatime was once my first obsession with the Taiwan-style tea brand since I wasn't much of a coffee person. I think it's probably because the prices of milk tea are slightly lower than coffee shops like Bo's Coffee Club where operating hours are longer while using premium ingredients. Definitely, I ended up having my thrifty side when I chose tea shops over coffee shops even if I do get a glass of coffee from Bo's Coffee Club if ever I'm meeting someone there. Gong Cha became my second alternative to Chatime all before more competition sprang up.

The story of Gong Cha

Here's an excerpt of Gong Cha's humble beginnings:

In 1996, a man named Wu opened a premium tea shop in Taiwan. The reputation of the shop grew and it wasn’t long until customers were lining up to purchase Wu’s tea. To meet the demand, Wu decided to expand, standardizing his recipes to ensure that all stores served consistently good tea.

Wu worked hard to develop his own tea blends, testing everything 23,000 times to perfect his recipes and ensure he could guarantee the same high quality at every single shop. He patented his milk foam formula and, in 2006, Wu established Gong cha in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

The new tea brand inherited the quality and commitment of the original shop, but with the new Gong cha commitment to serve tea fit for a king, literally — Gong cha refers to the act of offering tea to the emperor as a form of tribute in ancient China. The brand name represents Wu’s philosophy that tea served at Gong cha will be made with the highest craftsmanship and the knowledge of a tea master.

Gong cha’s success wasn’t thanks to a slick advertising campaign or a polished business strategy. Instead, the tea shop chain did things the old-fashioned way — letting its high-quality drinks speak for themselves and relying on word-of-mouth to grow the brand.

Later, a certain Mr. and Mrs. Berry eventually joined the family after they fell in love with it. Currently, it has a global headquarters in London which opened in 2020. I wonder did the shares of the company split up yet again after the Korean owner was able to get 70% of the company shares from what I heard? I guess that's why Korean celebrity endorsement of it is very popular. Actors Lee Seungi, Park Seo Jun, Lee Jong Suk, and Roo Woon (all South Koreans) have been its popular endorsers. Seung Gi even endorsed Gong Cha for the Filipino target market. Its marketing may have been done due to the popularity of South Korean entertainment among Filipino tea drinkers.

I would think that I'm more of a fruit-tea lover. I do love milk tea but it depends on my craving. I was thinking about trying some stuff at Gong Cha not found in Chatime and comparing their products one after the other. I've tasted and loved their lychee green tea (which has lovely aloe vera jelly) and the Alisan Mango Tea. Alisan Tea is named after Mt. Alisan in Taiwan which is yet another tourist spot. I also enjoyed their strawberry black tea which for me is "exotic" even if it's reasonably priced given the long operating hours and premium ingredients. Gong Cha managed to fill in my cravings for Taiwanese fruit tea whenever I'm in a health-conscious mode in the desire to lose more weight. I usually order fruit teas sugarless unless my body craves something sweet especially when stressed. I did order their coffee milk tea when I wanted to try another variation after I tried Chatime's. I would say it was unique in its own way and a worthy competitor against the local coffee shops too.

So far, I've been to Gong Cha Ayala Center Cebu (near Persian Palate), Gong Cha SM City Cebu (which is a stall), and Gong Cha SM Seaside. So far, it's been a good alternative to my previous milk tea experiences. I usually recommend going after their fruit teas though. I do like their milk tea but I ended up enjoying some of their fruit teas better. Then again for some, it's the other way around, right?

References

"Our Story: Brewing Happiness"

https://www.gong-cha.com/web/story

Comments

Don't Complain About the PHP 500.00 Noche Buena Remark While Supporting the Filipino First Policy

It's that stupid when I read the remarks of DTI secretary Cristina Roque made a really tactless remark . Sure, the remark had people angry because, in reality, the whole noche buena at PHP 500.00 for a family of four will not match, given these ingredients: ham, P170 to P945; fruit cocktail, P61.76 to P94.41; all-purpose cream, P36.00 to P72; “nata de coco,” P52.50 to P62.50; “kaong,” P76.50 to P84; “queso de bola,” P210 to P470; cheese, P16.50 to P310; and mayonnaise, P20.40 to P245.85. /dda As I read through the list above, I'm reminded of how much I don't like December because it's the season of abounding toxic positivity . The song "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" is in full blast, even after Andy Williams died of old age in 2012 . I tend to drive the road and when traffic hits, I always think about the problem of last-minute Christmas shopping , and scream it, "Isn't it any wonder why the Philippines doesn't improve?" It...

Accepting Foreign Investments Isn't About Relying Solely on Foreigners

One of the biggest common mistakes about foreign investments is that it's all about "relying solely on foreigners" or "it's not going to develop the national industry". I agree that relying solely on foreign investments is not good. It's because if there are no local suppliers of local raw materials--foreign investments may have to rely purely on importation which isn't a good thing. Meanwhile, a nation will develop its agriculture and the like to provide raw materials for all kinds of buyers. It's pretty much a two-way street when it comes to investment. The late Lee Kuan Yew also talked about greening up Singapore along the way before it progressed. Singapore accepted foreign investments while it was still a third-world. However, it didn't neglect its own local industries. Reading through Chapter 4 of From Third World to First will tell us lessons about foreign investments. Lee saw them as the opportunity to bring in jobs, teach new skill...

Are People Complaining About Inflation in the Philippines Because They Feel the Need to Celebrate Christmas LAVISHLY?

Philippine Star Christmas is just in a few days, right? I'm reading Facebook comments about the ongoing inflation. There are those so-called thought leaders like Silent No More PH that have been putting, "Merry Christmas" while addressing inflation. It's no secret that the prices of noche buena (Christmas dinner) items have been increasing. There are a lot of virtue signals on Facebook which makes me wonder, "Do they realize that inflation has many factors ?" Do those whiners realize that prices in the grocery are more expensive than if you bought in the public market? I feel that those people complaining over social media about price inflation may have felt the need to make their Christmas celebrations lavish or it ain't Christmas. I could remember how prices soared after the Odette disaster. The simple answer is all on supply and demand . The prices of distilled water increased. The prices of vegetables increased. The storm destroyed a good supply of i...

Profood International Corporation's Calamansi Ginger Grean Tea Concentrate

I'm someone who always buys local and imported food products. However, I tend to buy local where I go because eating local is usually more beneficial. I was buying some stuff last Sunday. I found this product which I haven't heard of yet. It's called Calamansi Ginger Green Tea. If South Koreans have their Honey Citron, then maybe we can say Filipinos have Calamansi Ginger Green Tea concentrate, which also contains honey. I gave it a shot, and it gives some relief for the throat. I drank Ginga Ginger Brew after I caught Omicron. That was the time when COVID-19 would eventually "get us all". I was looking for Ginga ginger powder but I wasn't able to find it. Fortunately, this food product ws available and it's helping me. I tend to get throat problems whenever the weather changes too much! I would drink it either lukewarm or cold, due to the weather conditions. The combination of ginger and calamansi helped me feel better. I would like to recommend this foo...

Four Basic Chinese Conversational Questions, Grade 1 Style

I could remember how useless the Chinese classes were, not because Chinese is a useless language (there are actually over a billion speakers worldwide), not because the Chinese teachers were stereotypically very strict (Grade 2 was strict, Grade 3 was even stricter than Grade 2, Grade 6 was said to be the strictest ), but because of the way Chinese was to be taught. That's why I got encouraged to write about learning Chinese through meaningful conversations, not parroting . Fortunately, those old Sinjiang textbooks are no longer available except for museum purposes (read here ). Just looking at this question and answer sweet from Ling Ling Mandarin's Instagram account--I remember what my Grade 4 Chinese teacher said, "If you want only one bon toi (question and answer), go back to Grade 1. But I don't think Grade 1 only has one bon toi." The problem with the old class was that we had to learn Hokkien before learning Mandarin. I confess my Hokkien is really bad. Th...

Instead of Hating Successful Chinese-Filipinos, Why Not LEARN from Their SUCCESS Instead?

It's Chinese New Year and I can remember some crazy stuff back in my childhood. Right now though, there are still some Filipinos of brown descent (either Malay or Indonesian) who still have their typical bitter attitude towards successful people. I was reminded of someone who blamed the rich, rather than their poor attitude towards money, as to why she had to work as a working student. There are still some who have their attitude of hating the rich for simply being rich . I don't deny that some rich people deserve hate. But why hate the rich person who has gotten rich through honest gain and hard work? Why not learn from good rich people who can offer sound advice instead of being bitter about their success? Some Filipinos of non-Chinese origin may feel too proud about their being "Pure Filipino". However, any study of Filipino history will reveal that their brown skin isn't too unique. We can see Malaysians and Indonesians tend to have brown skin. Some of the ea...

Kabataan Partylist Seriously Needs to Learn ECONOMICS from the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union

Vietnam National University, Hanoi Kabataan Partylist, is that you? No, it's actually the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union (Đoàn Thanh niên Cộng sản Hồ Chí Minh), or alternatively, it can be called the Vietnam Youth Union . The color blue may remind some of Kabataan Partylist. Both Kabataan Partylist and the Vietnam Youth Union are involved with recruiting youths into the organization. However, there's a crucial difference between Kabataan Partylist and the Youth Union in how they view economics. The Kabataan Partylist Laguna's blog even writes this: It believes that the Philippines, as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, is plagued by a system which allows foreign and big business interests to dominate, while the majority of our countrymen are left poor and hungry . We are living in a society where foreign subservience, peasant landlessness, and rampant corruption are the top three ills. To that end, Kabataan Party-list strives to galvanize the Filipino youth in u...

I'm Trying to Understand the Recent PSEi Decrease from 7,000+ to 6,800+

Business World Online The Philippine Stock Market Index (PSEi) has had another decrease. The score reached 7,000+ and I was getting pretty excited. I was thinking, "Should I sell my stock index or should I continue averaging into it?" I'm still holding some funds because I'm going to invest more in the long term than do day trading. I agree with Charlie Munger that day trading is nothing more than a speculative orgy . I got through Google News and found some factors that caused the recent decrease. I'd like to do this not as an analyst but as a lay investor and blogger. Profit-taking before key data The Business World website sites that there was profit-taking before key data . I was reading through and found out that there was indeed some profit taking The score that went from 7,000+ to 6,800+ can be affected. Here's an excerpt of the report which caught my attention: “Philippine stocks were sold ahead of the January inflation print tom...

My Personal Opinion on the Recent Universal Robina Incident

I was doing some news readings and I found out about the death of a certain Stephen Corilla. The incident happened in the Universal Robina Corporation's factory in Mandaue a few days ago. It really chilled my bones to read these details which I'll share from Sunstar : POLICE are set to investigate a food and beverage plant in Barangay Tabok, Mandaue City after one of its workers was killed on duty while cleaning a pulverizer machine Thursday afternoon, June 2, 2022. Cpl. Glenn Bordalba of the Mandaue City Police Office Station 3 in Barangay Basak who is leading the investigation told SunStar Cebu Monday, June 6, that they will visit the Universal Robina Corp. (URC) Mandaue City plant in Tabok on Tuesday, June 7, to investigate the matter. Bordalba added that they have not started the investigation yet as they were not allowed entry to the site by the URC management after the incident was reported to them. An approval from the corporation’s consultant is needed for the police to...

Refuting the BOGUS Claim That Wage Increase Alone, Not FDI, is the Key to Long-Term National Development

This is yet another stupid claim from Kabataan (Youth) Partylist. I wonder if the organization is linked to that joke of a Facebook page called the Philippine Anti-Fascist League (PH Antifa). You have had other similar organizations such as Anakbayan (Children of the Nation), Bayan Muna (Nation First), IBON Foundation, Kilusang Mayo Uno (May 1 Movement), and the League of Filipino Students that insist on the unsustainable demand for higher salaries, lowering the prices of commodities, and handouts for everyone. The idea itself is already not feasible (read here ) yet they keep demanding it. One must wonder are they a group of economic idiots or do they have ulterior motives? Do these groups understand what FDI really means? I noticed that people coming from like-minded groups (such as Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna) have their own bizarre ideas. I could still remember his Rappler article which he also wrote about FDI. If the likes of Casiño are linked with the likes of Kabata...

Business & Economics Perspective Blogger

Search This Blog