N and I met up for the first time after COVID-19 physical isolation with ice cream. This is The Alley LuJiaoXiang Royal No 9 Milk Tea Soft Serve ($5.00, + $0.30 for deerioca pearls). It uses their Royal No 9 tea, which is a blueberry scented black tea that is the base of their popular milk tea by the same name.
Upon tasting, the distinct fruitiness of the blueberry flavour came through and holds it’s own spoon after spoon with the boldness of the black tea in the background. The texture is smooth and the sweetness is balanced and accentuated by the brown sugar from the tapioca pearls that add a firm chew from the coldness of the ice cream. In comparison to other tea flavoured soft serves, which usually have a more subtle tea flavour that faded on subsequent spoonfuls, this soft serve has a boldness of flavour that’s comparable to the matcha-based gelatos from Japan. This flavour was certainly unique to The Alley, but we’re disappointed by the small serving — it was filled just over halfway in a 240 mL cup — for the price.
This Royal No 9 Milk Tea Soft Serve appeared on menus at The Alley LuJiaoXiang in June 2020.