The Alley Luxe @ Cineleisure - The Alley's First Ever Premium Lifestyle Concept With Signature Beverages And European Baked Pastries

This May, The Alley makes its mark in Singapore with the launch of its first-ever premium concept - The Alley Luxe at its first flagship store at Cineleisure. This premium lifestyle cafe concept will showcase The Alley's finest collection of beverages, as well as an array of exquisite European baked pastries such as croissants, cruffins and kouign-amann. Customers get to enjoy the scenic view of Orchard Road as they indulge in The Alley's signature beverages and mouth-watering baked pastries. The Alley’s flagship store will open on the 18th of May 2019, at Orchard Cineleisure Level 2.

Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk 4.2/5, Matcha Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk 4.5/5

Renowned for its signature Brown Sugar Deerioca series, The Alley continues to amaze with soft, chewy pearls meticulously brewed for over 4 hours with their all-natural brown sugar, and complete with Japanese grade fresh milk for the perfect brown sugar fresh milk experience. Go for their Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk ($5.30) or Matcha Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk ($6.30) which boasts a robust bittersweet matcha flavour. Remember to suck on the brown sugar pearls at the bottom of the cup first to experience that warm, rich caramelised soft pearls before mixing the cold milk together with the warm brown sugar pearls for a satisfying cup.

Royal No. 9 Milk Tea 4/5

Garden Milk Tea 4/5

The milk tea series, Garden Milk Tea ($5.30) and Royal No. 9 Milk Tea ($4.30) boasts a rich assam tea aroma with a roasted, milky flavour, and complete with soft, chewy pearls. The Garden Milk Tea comes with an additional blanket of oreo crumbs atop and mint leaves, resembling a 'garden', which also adds some crunchy texture to the drink as well.

Snow Strawberry Lulu 4/5

The all-new Lulu series features a concoction of fresh fruits and tea, finished off with a dollop of snow velvet cream that will surely delight all fruit tea with its refreshing and fragrant taste. The Snow Strawberry Lulu ($6.30) is light with a well-balanced tangy-sweetness from the freshly brewed white peach oolong tea and fresh strawberries added to form a perfect blend of flavours.

Snow Velvet Peach Oolong Tea 4.2/5

For something light and refreshing, go for their Snow Velvet Peach Oolong Tea ($5.80) which features oolong tea freshly brewed from the oolong tea leaves upon order and tops with a creamy snow velvet cap. Twist the cap to sip on the foam and use a straw for drinking the tea separately, and you get to enjoy the natural taste of the tea.

Aurora Series: Northern Lights 4.2/5

An eye-catching bottle of ice blended drink - the Aurora series: Northern Lights ($8.80) features a wonder infusion of tea and fresh fruits which includes apple vinegar, grapes and butterfly blue pea to form a beautiful gradient of colours. Not just instagrammable, it scores on the taste as well!

The Alley Luxe also introduces a new lineup of European baked pastries such as the Almond Croissant, Sausage and Cheese Croissant, Cruffins (salted caramel, lemon meringue, kaya and chocolate flavours) and Kouign-Amann. The cruffins are a croissant-muffin hybrid and boast flaky external layers, fluffy insides and slightly sweet yet flavourful centres.

Having opened its very first outlet in 2013, The Alley has come a remarkable way with more than 300 outlets around the world today, in places like Toronto, Los Angeles, Paris, Mainland China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan etc. The Alley commits to create only the finest beverages and uphold an extremely high standard in its choice of ingredients, placing great attention in quality, from the hand harvesting of tea plants to the choice of ingredients and ratios. As a leading trendsetter of artisanal tea, the brand continues to make waves in the international food and beverage scene with its signature beverages that everyone loves.

Photos and words by Crystal. A girl who likes to eat, photograph, and write about food, and dreams about travelling around the world one day. Note: This is an invited tasting.


The Alley Luxe
Cineleisure Orchard
8 Grange Road
#02-06A/B
Singapore 239695
Facebook
Website
Nearest MRT: Somerset (NS Line)

Opening Hours:
Daily 12pm to 10pm

Direction:
1) Alight at Somerset MRT station. Take Exit B. Walk to Grange Road. Cross the road. Walk to destination. Journey time about 5 minutes. [Map]

HEYTEA @ Clarke Quay - Opens 2nd Outlet With 4-Exclusive Alcoholic Creations

The popular China Number 1 contemporary tea connoisseur and the original inventor of cheezo tea HEYTEA has opened a second outlet in Clarke Quay. The new outlet reflects a lighthouse theme design inspired by the history of the maritime trade at Clarke Quay.

The latest outlet also comes with an in-store tea experience laboratory TEA GEEK BAR. Tea-baristas at Tea Geek Bar, upgrades the tea drinking experience of Singaporeans with 6 brand new alcoholic tea creations inclusive of 4 Singapore exclusive: 2 alcoholic tea creation and 2 alcoholic ice creams.

The Royal's Romance

The 2 Singapore-exclusive alcoholic tea creations are The Royal's Romance and Scarlet's Heart. The Royal's Romance ($22) is a stellar combination of vodka and osmanthus oolong, laced with a sprig of thyme and coupled with a splash of zest from fresh lemons. The summer cocktail is light and refreshing. Perfect for the humid weather in Singapore.

Scarlet's Heart

The other Singapore-exclusive alcoholic concoction is the Scarlet's Heart ($16). It is a refreshing watermelon-pink tipple topped off with a layer of fomay egg white. The combination of fresh fruits, pineapple pulps, cognac brandy and jasmine green tea give the drink a silky texture and sweet mellow flavours.

Singapore Sling

 The other 2 Singapore-exclusive alcoholic creations is the Singapore Sling ($5.50) and Guinness ($4.50) soft serve. The iconic Singapore sling cocktail is transformed into an alluring blush-pink soft serve. As for the Guinness soft serve, it has a malty Guinness flavour that goes well with the refreshing oolong tea ice cream.

Salted Egg Yolk Ice Cream

If you are not into alcohol, there is another Singapore-exclusive ice cream - Salted Egg Yolk Ice Cream ($4.80). It has a very subtle salted egg flavour infused in the creamy swirls. It is more sweet than savoury.

Right across the Tea Geek Bar is where you can get your non-alcoholic tea drinks such as their popular Cheezo Teas, Fruity Cheezo Teas and Bobo.

Duo Bobo Milk 

The Duo Bobo Milk ($5.5) has a fragrant brown sugar taste, soft chewy bobo pearls infused with sweetness from the brown sugar. The drink is capped with a creamy milk foam, sprinkled with brown sugar and torched to give it a smoky caramalized flavour. It is pretty enjoy. It will be perfect if the brown sugar aroma is stronger.

Located amidst the bustling bar scene at Clarke Quay, unlike all other HEYTEA outlets, this outlet opens at 12pm and closes as late as 1am into the night to cater to all the party lovers. Its well-thought-out opening hours fits perfectly with the Singapore drinking culture, especially when it is located in Clarke Quay.

Note: This is an invited tasting.


HEYTEA
Clarke Quay
3A River Valley Road
#01-06
Singapore 179020
Facebook
Nearest MRT: Clarke Quay (NE Line), Fort Canning (DT Line)

Opening Hours:
12pm - 1am

Direction: 
1) Alight at Fort Canning MRT Station. Take Exit A. Turn right and down River Valley Road. Turn right onto Tan Tye Place. Walk to the end of the road. Turn left onto Clark Quay. Walk to destination. Journey time bout 5 minutes. [Map]

2) Alight at Clarke Quay MRT station. Take Exit C or G. Walk to the river front. Turn left and walk down the river. Cross the bridge. Walk to destination. Journey time about 5 minutes. [Map]

Bobii Frutii @ The Clementi Mall – Taiwan’s Most Instagrammable Bubble Tea Has Arrived In Singapore

Bubble tea fans rejoice as Bobii Frutii, a popular and premium Taiwanese bubble tea brand is making its way to our shores this year, with the first outlet set to officially open in The Clementi Mall on 10 January 2018. Tapping on the lively local bubble tea culture, this latest entrant is anticipated to take Singapore by storm with its catchy moniker and gorgeous Insta-worthy cups of delicious drinks concocted with top quality ingredients.

Not only high on the visual scale with its carefully curated layers of beautiful colours, each cup is also made with natural ingredients and fare even better in taste. To ensure the quality of its ingredients, only premium brown cane sugar from Taiwan is used, oolong tea leaves are sourced from the tea plantation in Miaoli, as well as red tea from Sri Lanka and green tea from Vietnam. The mochi-like high quality bobii (tapioca pearls in colloquial Taiwanese) are specially imported from the factory in Taiwan, and contain no preservatives, additives and artificial colouring. Customers are also able to choose the sweetness level for the tea-based drinks as well.

Offering uniquely concocted drinks under 5 categories namely the Tea/Au Lait series, Fruit Tea series, Ice Blended series, Matcha series, and Cheese Tea series, it features a wide variety of bubble tea offerings – a total of 37 different drinks for it’s Singapore menu, which constitutes almost 80% of the selection in Taiwan. You can also add The bobii – available in original, butterfly pea, and brown sugar flavours on to any drink with a small top-up ranging from $0.60 to $0.90.

Expect drinks with whimisical names such as the Don’t Want to Work ($4.50), Mermaid’s Tears ($5.90) and Don’t Want to Grow Up ($6.90) that give each creation its very own narrative and ‘soul’, making the Bobii Fruitii experience a fun and happy one.

source: Bobii Frutii

Brand Ambassador and artiste Nat Ho serves as Creative Director for Bobii Frutii Singapore.

Uji Snow 4.2/5

The matcha series feature a variety of authentic matcha beverages made with only the highest grade of matcha powder sourced from Uji. Each cup is hand-whisked to order, with a Japanese ceremonial bamboo whisk till an ethereally-light froth is formed and carefully topped onto the drink, in order to ensure the freshness of each drink served. The Uji Snow ($6.50) comes in a cup of matcha drink layered with fresh milk. Smooth and creamy, the drink boasts a fresh milky body with an authentic flavour of the Uji matcha powder used, presenting a well bitter-sweet balance. The original bobii added has a soft bite with a chewy texture to it. Other variations from the series include the Dawn of Uji ($5.90) a matcha and lemon mix, and Uji River ($4.90) a pure green tea drink as well.

Extraordinary Bubble Milk Tea 4.2/5

The Tea/Au Lait series feature specially curated blends that use single-origin tea leaves to boast an authentic, inimitable fragrance. In addition, only fresh milk is used, resulting in a rich flavour worthy of a tea au lait. One of the drinks from this series – The Extraordinary Bubble Milk Tea ($4.50) comes in a cup of fragrant black tea layered with fresh milk. The addition of brown sugar bobii contributed a subtle sweetness on top of the strong tea aroma, and soft tapioca chewiness to the drink which gets addictive after a while. After taking your insta-worthy shots, the drink is best enjoyed upon mixing of the perfectly proportioned tea, milk and bobii.

source: Bobii Frutii

Bobii Frutii Singapore works closely with the Taiwanese team and undergo strict tea-making training to ensure the best customer experience. With the first outlet to open in the Clementi Mall well under way, there are even plans of expanding the outlet to more branches in prime shopping malls such as Suntec City later in 2018.

Words and photos by Crystal. A girl who likes to eat, photograph, and write about food, and dreams about travelling around the world one day. Note: This is an invited tasting.


Bobii Frutii
The Clementi Mall
3155 Commonwealth Avenue West
#04-K4
Singapore 129588
Facebook
Website
Nearest MRT: Clementi (EW Line)

Opening Hours:
Daily: 10am - 10pm

Direction: 
1) Alight at Clementi Station. Take Exit A. Walk to destination. Journey time about 3 minutes. [Map]

KOI Cafe @ Toa Payoh Central

KOI cafe has gone healthy and introduced Jasmine Green Tea. I was at Toa Payoh Central and saw the banner. The queue was surprisingly short at this branch. I only waited for about 5 minutes for my Ai Yu Green Tea. I enjoyed the combination of the Ai Yu and green tea. It was very refreshing.

Ai Yu Green Tea 4/5

KOI Cafe
190A Toa Payoh Central
Nearest MRT: Toa Payoh (NS Line)

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KOI Cafe @ Iluma

Lately there is a new phenomenon in Singapore known as "KOI'ING". Beside taking a queue number to see the doctor at polyclinic or collection of my passport at the immigration office, I didn't know that I have to take a number and wait more than 20 minutes for my cup of milk tea.

I personally think that the milk tea is not much different to others like Gong Cha or Cup Walker. However they do have a more interesting menu than the others which probably that is why they are attracting long queues of customers waiting to KOI.

Ice Cream Milk Tea 4/5

KOI Cafe Iluma
Iluma at Bugis
201 Victoria Street
#01-15
Nearest MRT: Bugis (EW Line, DT Line)

Gong Cha @ City Square Mall

Ok, I finally get to try the bubble mike tea of Gong Cha. The pearls were big and chewy. However,I was kind of disappointed with the tea it used. I have not tried KOI, so I can only compare it with Each-A-Cup. I find that Each-A-Cup tasted better for their bubble milk tea.

Bubble Milk Tea 3.8/5

Bubble Milk Tea

Gong Cha
City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road
#B2-K3/K4
Nearest MRT: Farrer Park, NE Line

Gong Cha @ City Square Mall

Bubble tea has turned premium with Gong Cha. It is a franchise from Kaohsiung, Taiwan that offers premium Taiwan tea for their bubble tea. Their signature are Gong Cha Milk Tea and Pearl Milk Tea. You can also choose the amount of sugar level for your drink. It was a very hot day so I went for something more refreshing instead. I ordered lemon juice with seaweed Ai Yu.

Gong Cha Shop Front

Lemon Juice with Seaweed Ai Yu 4.5/5

Lemon Juice with Seaweed Ai Yu

Gong Cha
City Square Mall
180 Kitchener Road
#B2-K3/K4
Nearest MRT: Farrer Park, NE Line