We have been drinking a lot of bubble tea; to the point where we decided to compile an unofficial ranking of bubble tea shops in the Greater Vancouver Area. Below is a brief summary of our methodology:
- We only compare milk tea w/ pearls (or the closest equivalent)
- There’s a bit of leeway on the type of tea used; some stores prefer black tea, oolong tea, or green tea, etc.
- Default sugar and ice level
- Default dairy component
- Default pearls
- Scores are determined by a weighted average of these three main categories:
- Tea: Good tea in bubble teas is like a good broth in soups. This is the foundation, so it holds most weight in the final score.
- Creaminess: We are talking about milk teas here, so it needs some kind of dairy component. It doesn’t matter if milk, cream, or powder is used; as long as the perfect ratio is there. Too much would overpower the drink, and too little would make the drink taste watered-down.
- Pearls: Self-explanatory. The pearls must have the best combination of texture and flavour. This category holds slightly more weight than “creaminess”.
- (Bonus) “Value” Factor: Each shop may get a bonus/penalty up to +3/-3%. Bonus is applied if the vendor is cheaper than average, offers consistent promo, and/or serves larger volume than average. Conversely, the more “overpriced” a place is, the more penalty it would receive.
LFFFMolangs 