Halo-halo Tea

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Nope. I was faked. It was not a halo-halo tea.

It was fairly a long time when I previously dined in a Chowking restaurant. I did yesterday and was surprised to see this poster on top of their POS machines.

Beside the wonton soup is pearl milk tea. What's that, tea? Yap! And the price is friendlier than those in milk tea shops.

I looked up at the menu overhead and saw the pearl milk tea again on the poster of desserts and drinks. On that poster menu, there are options for cup sizes of the pearl milk tea.

Many milk tea shops are popping up here and there. Now quick service restaurants are also venturing into such wagon. It looks like milk tea business is a boom.

I ordered for my lunch and added the pearl milk tea.

The cashier was quick and smart with her upselling.

"Upgrade to large, ma'am?" She meant the cup size of my tea.

Upselling is very common in quick service restaurants. The cashier would usually ask in a very casual manner if the customer wants to upgrade. I was "victimized" several years ago for additional expenses when I kept answering "yes" without thinking of what they just said. That scenario when you were computing the amount in your head but what comes out of the cash register is more expensive just because you said yes. I learned my lesson.

"No, just the medium one."

My lunch was first served. After few minutes, a cup was served in front of me. I was surprised to read what's on the cup. Halo-halo? I did not order for halo-halo.

I opened the cup to confirm what was inside. I thought I laughed when I saw it.

Yes, it is my pearl milk tea. They just used a cup for halo-halo.

Few years ago, I bought a meal in a quick service restaurant where they put the meals in boxes. When I was done, I ordered for takeaway and told them to reuse the box where I just ate. I thought that would somehow help the business to save for their box production and also the environment to lessen wastes. The crew was saying she can reuse my box but she will still give me the unused one for my takeaway. Otherwise, she might just throw it away. I frowned.

She explained that they do inventory of their supplies every end of the operating day.

"Of course, that's SOP." I thought. She continued to explain that they match their daily cash inflow with the number of used supplies from their inventory. She gave me my case as the example.

If they are missing 10 boxes at the end of the day, that should mean they sold 10 sets of meal in the day and the expectation is that they should have 10 times the price of the meal set registered in their cash registry.

I asked if that is how quick service restaurants really do it. She said yes, most of the time.

Now with this tea in a halo-halo cup, I wonder if they are tracking the cups manually.

If I can, I will intentionally take my meal a little off of the regular schedule as I want to avoid the crowd. At pass one o'clock in the afternoon, there were few diners when I got inside the restaurant which was good. A few late diners like me came when I was in the middle of my meal.

After my meal, it was time for the tea. I took a sip and realized that the crew did not ask me of my preferred sugar level. I guess that is the big difference in milk tea shops. In milk tea shops, the prepare the tea according to what was ordered but quick service restaurants have their pre-defined measurement.

In spite of the sweetness, it was good that I can taste the acrid tea on my tongue. At least, it is not just sugar that I am tasting, I thought.

I turned the cup and noticed the delivery contact details of the restaurant. This is the second time that I noticed a restaurant doing this. I thought it is a cool marketing strategy to advertise for free or without additional expense on top of their operating costs.

This particular branch of Chowking has fairly spacious area inside. They also have more seats outside, in front of the restaurant and upstairs in the terrace for people who want to be in the open air.