Considering how many Malaysians swear unbending fealty to Xing Fu Tang, the Taiwanese bubble tea chain that has become embroiled in a boba brouhaha, I am really confused at the downright awful cup that I drank the other day. Did I inadvertently go to a fake, knockoff Xing Fu Tang?
Click on menu picture to enlarge
I got their Brown Sugar Boba Milk Tea (RM12.20 after tax) and got to watch its creation thanks to their open-concept layout. The cup that was placed on the counter looked nothing like the picture on the menu, nor did it look like any of the pictures that others have posted on Google. Where were the rich, dark brown swirls mingling with creamy white milk that is typical of high-end brown sugar milks? What appeared instead was a cup of cappuccino-coloured liquid with a dark mass on the bottom. Have things gotten so bad for the chain that they’ve had to cut this many corners?
I took my drink, the warm tea at the bottom of the cup feeling very promising against my fingers. The first sip, usually met with a rush of sugar and happiness, was an anticlimactic disappointment.
The milk tea was tasteless and watered down right from the get-go. There was also a bitter tang to it – I assume from the overcooked tapioca. The boba, still warm from the wok, were sweet with brown sugar but had no bite to them. They were so soft that they disintegrated after one chew. They held their structural integrity just enough to elevate it a notch above totally gross boba mush. With too few customers, I suspect that the boba had been stewing in that wok for far too long. Maybe even since yesterday… or longer. Ugh, I don’t want to think about it.
Since the price at Xing Fu Tang is almost the same as The Alley, which is supposedly consistently amazing, I won’t ever be visiting Xing Fu Tang again.
