MILK TEA HAS BEEN ‘SOFT-SERVED’
Bea Atienza is no basic b*tch, and her mom was the first to tell her.
“The last time I tried creating something new, my mom asked me: ‘ You can’t do anything basic, no?’ That’s when I realized I don’t like keeping things the way they’re supposed to,” Bea said.
The experimental dessert maker, who is the head baker of Bellefleur by Beatrix, doesn’t like to stick to traditional recipes. She’s always finding new ways to introduce flavor combinations and unconventional ways to eat our favorite sugary treats. Deconstructing classic desserts is her forte. Bea’s popular ube and leche flan combo, which can be eaten as a slice of moist and creamy layered cake or as a rich scoop of ice cream, is a clear example of how she innovates traditional favorites. Now she has another creation we can’t get enough of—milk tea soft-serve ice cream.
This wonderful concoction can be found at The Dessert Table stall in Eden Food Hall, Taguig. It comes in two delightful flavors, Royal Milk Tea and Thai Milk Tea. Both are characterized by a distinct sweetness and texture.
Bea reveals that she took milk-tea-making classes for the sole reason of perfecting her ice cream recipe, and it took an entire month of making and eating milk tea soft-serve to finally come up with the flavors they now serve. She said nothing about milk tea is easy, from cooking the tapioca balls to brewing the tea and maintaining its natural sweetness level.
But hard work and patience pay off. One bite (or lick) of the soft-serve is enough for you to immediately taste the goodness and smell the aroma of freshly brewed tea. The flavor and fragrance of the tea are enough to convince you of the quality of the dessert.
Royal Milk Tea is your usual house blend—creamy and milky Assam black tea that wouldn’t be complete without “boba.” The orange-tinged Thai Milk Tea flavor, on the other hand, is a lot richer and smoother with the addition of condensed milk—an essential ingredient of this Bangkok street favorite.
When dusted with Milo powder, Royal Milk Tea soft-serve easily transforms into a chocolaty treat, with the slight bitterness of the ice cream elevating the taste of the cocoa. It’s definitely a cold twirl version of your favorite breakfast drink, while fans of chocolate milk tea would definitely taste its resemblance to their go-to cup.
The ice cream costs just as much as your regular cup of milk tea. The small cup is tagged at P105 for 8 ounces with tapioca pearls, and the big cup is sold at P140 with boba. Super tip: Always go for the big cup, the serving is twice as much!
At Dessert Table, you can have your soft-serve the way you like it—in a cup with tons of chewy boba, on a crispy and sweet waffle cone, or you could enjoy the hot-and-cold combo of ice cream topped on freshly made waffle.
During our ice cream binge, we managed to come up with our very own masterpiece: The Super Waffle. Make sure you try it for yourselves—Royal Milk Tea soft-serve that’s generously sprinkled with Milo powder, on a warm bed of dark chocolate waffle.
We know everyone loves milk tea—others are even willing to wait for more than 30 minutes to get their fix—and Dessert Table is home to the dessert hybrid of our dreams.