Sakura Hanami: Premium Japanese Tea Now in Arrow Food Park (Vito Cruz Taft Manila)

While some may be lucky enough to visit Japan for its Cherry Blossom Viewing as much as they can.  Many of us are not able to due to time and monetary constraints.  Fortunately for us, we have the newest milk tea concept in the Philippines inspired by the Japan's Cherry Blossom Viewing tradition - Sakura Hanami.   It now has several branches and Sakura Hanami Taft in Arrow Food Park is the one we recently got to visit. 

Sakura Hanami which directly translates to Cherry Blossom Viewing is a millennia-old tradition in Japan which still has a growing popularity up to present.  In fact, around 5,000,000 million tourists fly to Japan just for this in a year.  It gets so crowded and popular that some viewing spots even charge a lot just for exclusivity.   

At Sakura Hanami, you can enjoy your choice of tea in a pink floral atmosphere.  It also has a long operating hours from 10 am to 12 midnight so it's easy and quite convenient to drop by anytime.  

You see its menu covering all four seasons shows how much variety it offers.

It has three sizes for cups.  The tallest one you see is already one (1) liter!

Winter Blends (Hot)

Traditional Cherry Blossom Tea (195 php)

One of the distinguishing features of Sakura Hanami is that it serves hot floral tea variants.  One pot is good to share for two to four people.  

We tried the Traditional Cherry Blossom Tea which had a generous amount of real edible cherry blossom flowers.   The Traditional Cherry Blossom Tea has a lot of health benefits like anti-inflammatory and anti-aging.  But, due to the preservation procedure of the cherry blossom flowers, the taste may not be for everyone.  The taste is mildy sweet and salty with a plum-like after tone.  Because we are Tsinoys who are used to eating preserved plums (kiamoy), we enjoyed this!  You can add as much honey as you want to fit your taste profile.



Autumn Blends

Lava Pearl Latte (180 php/XL)

The Lava Pearl Latte just shows us that Sakura Hanami caters to all types of tea drinkers. While we found the Lava Pearl Latte at regular sugar level too sweet for our liking, we do know a lot of sweet tea lovers who will crave for this.  For a slightly lighter sweetness, you can opt for the Okinawa Roast Milk Tea (95 php/regular).

♥ Classic Milky Bubble Mousse (155 php), ♥ Matcha Creme Milk Tea with Sakura Pudding (140 php/Regular) and       ♥ Sakura Signature Bubble Tea (95/regular)

For those who want to appreciate the authentic strength of black tea, contrast to the sweet Lava Pearl Latte, we suggest to have the Sakura Signature Bubble Tea with mildly sweet sugar level.

♥ Matcha Creme Milk Tea with Sakura Pudding (140 php/Regular)

The most impressive drink for us was the Matcha Creme Milk Tea with Sakura Pudding.  This is a legit matcha drink!  We bet that if you order the XL, you'll really feel the caffeine kick from this drink.  It's so bold and rich just the way we always wanted our matcha but rarely could have. We also love the rosy flavor of the Sakura Pudding that perfectly matches the matcha. 

Bubble Mousse

The Bubble Mousse is a dessert snack packaged in cute bottle with pink ribbon.  We tried the
Classic Milky Bubble Mousse (155 php) and fell in love with it!  The strength of the tea flavor, the silky melt-in-your-mouth texture of the mousse and the soft to chew pearls on top gives a wholesome experience.  We just found this a bit pricey especially the other variants that cost 175 php per bottle But, if you can splurge then we guarantee the even biteful is heavenly!  The sensation is so appealing that we would probably try the Strawberry Bubble Mousse or Matcha Creme Mousse next visit!

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict

Sakura Hanami depicts the Japanese philosophy that highliughts premium quality hence the "kaizen" (かいぜん) concept which is actually rooted in the way they genuinely care for people "omoi-yari" (思いやり).  The drink quality and service is superb.  To sum it up, we,Tsinoy Foodies, guarantee that you can find satisfaction in Sakura Hanami with a reminder that premium variants comes with a premium price.

Tsinoy Foodies Review Rating		Sakura Hanami Taft Menu
Ambiance	★★★★	NA
Taste	★★★★
Service	★★★
Price	★★★
♥=Favorites or Recommended

Sakura Hanami Taft
Business Address	1021 P. Ocampo St, Corner Arellano Ave, Malate, Manila, Metro Manila
Business Hours	10am-12pm
Payment Options	Cash
Service Charge	none
Budget/Person	90-200
Free WiFi	No
Contact	(0917) 655-5584
Other

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