War of Bubble Milk Tea: Chatime VS Cool Blog!

Before Chatime ever open their outlets at Queensbay Penang, my all time favorite Bubble Milk Tea would be Cool Blog (Only for The Kulim Giant outlet!). So what are their differences? For which one is better, there would be no clear statement.

 VS

Cool Blog (Kulim Branch)

Cool Blog has many of their branches around Malaysia. Their product is very common, not just adding bubbles to their ice blended drinks, they also add cendol, lengkong, jelly... etc. Why do I specify only the Kulim branch? I do notice that they are franchised like KFC, Sushi King... etc. I still believe that different branches manage by different people, and they create products with different qualities! For example, you visit Sushi King at Autocity, Juru, ordered a soft-shell crab temaki, you might get a cold, really softed soft-shell crab temaki with missing fish roe inside. When you order the same thing at Sushi King Kulim Branch, you might get a nice hot crunchy soft-shell crab temaki with extra fish roe (I do know why, because Kulim branch have relatively less customers, and they only fried the crab when you order. The chef at Kulim branch also a new un-experience chef which he still need to use weighing machine to check the sushi weight of each plate.) Thus, same thing for the Cool Blog Kulim Branch, the mak cik there is so friendly and she takes challenges! I ordered a mix of strawberry + coffee blend and she can make a nice one for me even though it is not in their menu! Mak cik do have experience in the bubbles she makes, she knows in what condition the bubbles would harden and she knows to soak them on sugar syrup to make them have some sweetness in it. Although, the ingredients Cool Blog uses are relatively cheap and common, their service is the star!

Chatime (Queensbay Branch)

This is a very new outlet which I found on the day visited Penang after my nice lunch with colleagues at E&O. Chatime have a more solid concept in their business. They are not using those powders to make their drinks, instead, they use better quality ingredients suchas brewed coffees and real tea leafs. I do taste the different in quality of the drinks, and they are much higher in price. Around RM2 more compare to Cool Blog's. There is a quality! (What I dislike about Chatime is that they keep on playing their cooperate video with heavy stressful cooperate musics... I know it is for promotion purpose, but they should have advertise their products, not their cooperate.) The people there, aren't as experience as the mak cik at Cool Blog, and they have wide variety of choices available, so there won't be any special customer request special recipe taken. The bubble which they claims to be different, is actually the same. They claim to be fresh, which is true, since I can't taste sweetness in their bubbles, they didn't soak it with sugar syrup. The overall quality of the drinks is definitely better than Cool Blog, with a RM2 more expensive than Cool Blog. 

My winner for this Bubble Milk Tea War, I would choose both win! If want to describe Chatime, I would describe it as the Starbuck, and Cool Blog would be the OldTown, in terms of coffee. Chatime is iPhone, while Cool Blog is CSL, in terms of mobile phones. I would still support Cool Blog, but I do hope they do some improvement to fight this global competitor, it won't be hard for a change since they are local products. I do support Malaysian products, we do need change! Better change! I'm waiting!