Is it worth it to upsize your bubble tea? Facebook user lets you know which brand offers the most value for money

Here’s a first world problem if we ever saw one — is it really worth it to upsize your favourite cup of bubble tea?

Well, thankfully for us, a Facebook user by the name of Jeremy Tan has saved us from this little conundrum.

In a Facebook post on Saturday (Sept 21), Tan detailed the results of his little experiment, buying drinks (with help from his family) from seven popular bubble tea shops in Singapore — R&B Tea, The Alley, Koi, Sharetea, Gongcha, Liho and Playmade. 

He compared the difference in sizes between the medium (M) and large (L) cups, as well as whether it’s worth it to upsize (calculated in terms of percentage change in price per litre). He noted that both cups should be duly filled with ice in actual scenarios, hence he's simply using full-cup measurements. 

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Too complicated? We break it down for you:

ABSOLUTE DIFFERENCE IN CUP SIZE 

Largest difference: Playmade 

Smallest difference: R&B Tea

Of the seven shops that Tan bought from, R&B Tea presented the smallest jump in quantity between the M- and L-sized cups, with a difference of only 80ml. 

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The largest difference in cup size (200ml) belonged to Playmade, where M is 500ml and L is a whopping 700ml.

So does that mean Playmade offers the most bang for your buck? Not necessarily, because the difference between an L-cup Playmade milk tea and an M-sized milk tea is $1.30, whereas at R&B, the difference is only $0.70.

WORTH IT TO UPSIZE?

Most worth it: Liho’s Golden Avocado Milk and Gongcha’s Matcha with Red Bean

Least worth it: R&B milk tea and Playmade’s milk tea. 

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So here’s where being good in math helps. 

Tan converted the amounts to price per litre, which is then used to calculate its “worthiness” based on percentage difference.

In some cases, the per litre price based on an L-sized drink is actually lower than that of an M-sized drink from the same brand. And that’s when you know it’s worth it.  

For example, The Alley’s Assam Black Tea costs $6.95/litre for the M size, but a slightly cheaper $6.77/litre for the L size. 

The Alley passed the litmus test of offering more value in a bigger cup size, as did Koi and Gongcha. 

For Sharetea and Liho, it was more worth it to upsize only for their more expensive drinks, like Sharetea’s Avocado Paradise and Liho’s Avocado Milk, in Tan's experiment.

CONCLUSION

If you’re still lost, don’t worry, Tan sums it up for us: 

“If you care about getting the most out of your money, upsize ONLY if you are buying the pricier drink offerings.

“NEVER upsize if you are buying the cheapest on the menu,” and lastly, “NEVER upsize at R&B.”

But he added a caveat that he still buys from R&B “because I love their tea cream drinks”.

It’s good-to-know and all, but at the end, free will prevails, and like Tan says in his kicker, “at the end of the day, just buy what you want. After all, taste preference matters.”

Because sometimes when a bubble tea craving hits, you just gotta have it in a bigger cup. And that to us, makes it all worth it.

candicecai@asiaone.com