The day has finally come.

After being on a hiatus since May 2016, Gongcha is officially back in Singapore come Dec. 1, 2017, with its first outlet at SingPost Centre.

Aside from the well-loved Royal Milk Tea with Pearl and the beloved Gong Cha Milk, the Taiwanese milk tea chain will be bringing in new drinks made exclusively for Singaporean consumers.

New drinks

Gong Cha has developed never-tried-before selections including smoothies and tea lattes.

These were what we tried:

Purple sweet potato milk tea (S$4.50)

Don't be deceived by the bright purple hue, this drink is nothing like the popular taro milk tea.

While the taro milk tea has a nice, distinctively sweet and refreshing taste to it, the purple sweet potato milk was almost tasteless -- you can taste the slightest hint of sweet potato but otherwise, it was bland.

However, it is a bit jelak to our liking as it had a thick, grainy texture to it.

Matcha with red bean (S$4.30)

This was one drink that we were looking forward to because what can go wrong with matcha and red bean, right?

Well, it can go wrong.

It started off sweet but a strong, earthy flavour from the green tea leaves lingered in our mouths for a tad too long, even the layer of red bean couldn't salvage it.

We had to wash it down with water, along with the expectations we had for the next new drink.

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Brown Sugar Fresh Milk Oolong (S$4.30)

This drink didn't let us down but it didn't make us go wow either.

While this may look like Gong Cha's signature milk tea, which is more subtle in taste, this brown sugar drink packs a punch with a sweet gula melaka-esque flavour.

The oolong flavour may be weak, but it was still distinct enough to cut through the overly sweet brown sugar.

It's worth a try, but do opt for a smaller sugar percentage.

Crowd favourites

Most of the newer drinks we had were not as great as we liked it to be, but what's the point of Gong Cha's comeback, if not for their signature drinks?

Pearl milk tea (S$3.20)

One sip of the milk tea and we knew that Gong Cha is definitely back.

The caramel-like taste of the well-loved drink tasted so familiar, it was as if Gong Cha never left our shores.

Oh, how we have missed you.

Earl grey milk tea with 3J (S$4.10)

This was another crowd pleaser, and we too were pleasantly pleased that the flavour was on point.

The fragrant earl grey milk tea was better with the 3J, a chewy assortment consisting of tapioca pearls, herbal jelly and pudding.

It was as if our mouths had a fun party, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

QQ passion fruit green tea (S$4.10)

For non-milk tea lovers, Gong Cha always had an assorted tea selection, with one of the more loved ones being the passion fruit green tea.

While this fruity drink was invigorating, it could have been better with less sugar.

It was much sweeter with the addition of coconut jelly and pearl, which otherwise gave a nice QQ texture to the overall drinking experience.

Do they still taste the same?

In early November, Gong Cha had sent their staff over to Kaohsiung, Taiwan for 12 days to undergo rigorous training with the tea masters.

We may not be bubble tea connoisseurs, but we're 99 percent sure that they managed to retain the authentic tea flavours that we've craved for the longest time.

Where to get: SingPost Centre 10 Eunos Road 8 #01-141A/141B Singapore 408600

All photos by Rachel Ng