The Alley 鹿角巷 – New Bubble Tea Shop in Vancouver

Ever since trying out Tiger Sugar brown sugar bubble tea in Taiwan, I’ve been on the lookout for a bubble tea shop here in Vancouver that offers something similar in terms of flavour and quality. That’s why I was excited to try out The Alley, a new bubble tea store that opened up on the corner of Hornby and Nelson.

Deerioca Series

They are most known for their “Deerioca Series”, with the Deerioca Fever being the most popular.

Menu

They had a pretty extensive menu, although the prices were quite steep — you’re looking at spending at least $6 for one drink. I wanted to try the Morning Dawn which is part of their Aurora Series — they’re super colourful (and Instagrammable) drinks served in a plastic bottle. Unfortunately, it would’ve taken 15 minutes to make it so I decided to get something else instead. They’re quite expensive too, at $8.50 for a small bottle!

Royal No. 9 Milk Tea & Deerioca Fever

I opted for the Royal No. 9 Milk Tea which had a sort of fruity, fragrant flavour to it. It’s not your typical milk tea so it was good to try. I also added grass jelly for an extra 50 cents but the toppings were really sparse.. I kind of felt ripped off on that (and you can’t even really see much grass jelly in the picture).

My sis got the Deerioca Fever with fresh milk (it comes in either fresh milk or soy milk).  It wasn’t too sweet even though the sugar level is fixed for this one. I actually wish it had more brown sugar though. After the first few sips, it kind of just tasted like sweet milk and it didn’t have the sort of caramelized flavour that I was looking for.  I thought their tapioca pearls were good but my sis thought they were too hard… they probably could’ve been a little softer.

Having had to wait in line for this, I would say my experience was decent. The bubble tea wasn’t anything extraordinary, but it wasn’t bad either. I would probably come back and get the Deerioca Fever for myself and to try their other drinks though, notably the Aurora Series which looks super fruity and refreshing.. I just wish it were cheaper! Needless to say, I’m still on the search for a really good brown sugar bubble tea around here!