Popular Taiwanese bubble tea chain Xing Fu Tang is opening its first standalone franchised store in Singapore at Century Square mall in Tampines on June 28. But first, they’re teasing fans with a pop-up stall at Takashimaya’s atrium food fair. The pop-up opens today (May 30), and runs till June 16. 8days.sg went down this morning to check it out — here’s what to expect.

You can’t miss the Xing Fu Tang kiosk, which is located right beside Takashimaya’s basement fountain. The local franchise owners have already anticipated a queue, which is why barriers are set up to corral the lines. When we arrive at around 10.30am, half an hour after the stall opened, there’s already a small cluster of customers queueing up to buy bubble tea. From what we observe, the queue moves quickly. Yay.

Due to space constraint at the pop-up stall, there are only two drinks offered: Xing Fu Tang’s signature Brown Sugar Boba Milk ($5.30) and a new Damascus Rose Tea with Lemon ($4.90) that was only launched at the brand’s native Taiwanese outlets just last week. There’s also an yummy-sounding Fresh Milk with Brown Sugar Boba Soft-Serve Ice Cream ($4.50), which unfortunately, wasn’t ready during our visit, but will be available from May 31.

Despite the cramped stall space, the pearls that go into the drinks are made from scratch on-site. We spy a kitchen mixer industriously churning tapioca dough that’s later hand-kneaded and cut into slabs by Xing Fu Tang staff, and fed into a cute little machine that spits out pea-sized pearls. If you’re looking for fellow Taiwanese bubble tea chain Tiger Sugar’s bulbous, gooey pearls, you won’t find it here; Xing Fu Tang’s pearls are more like small, al dente pellets.

Watch the process of how the pearls are made below.

Like Xing Fu Tang’s other outlets outside of Singapore, you can watch the pearls being cooked in a wok at the pop-up stall. An employee patiently stirs a wokful of caramelised pearls, and upon order, ladles steaming pearls into a plastic cup, making sure to coat the sides of the cup for that marble effect when milk is poured in later.

A Xing Fu Tang staff member makes each drink order by hand. The Damascus Rose Tea with Lemon is painstakingly adorned with lemon slices in a rose shape (though it’s sadly obscured once the plastic lid goes over the cup). The Brown Sugar Boba Milk is more elaborate: a generous sprinkling of brown sugar is poured over the milk, whipped cream and brown sugar pearls concoction before being blow-torched till it’s caramelised.

We’re advised by the staff to stir our drink “18 times” to mix the brown sugar syrup, cream and milk thoroughly before drinking. While all of the ingredients used at the pop-up are imported from Xing Fu Tang’s principal chain in Taiwan, the fresh milk used here is Meiji’s 4.3 Deluxe Milk, which you can buy from supermarkets here and is said to be creamier than the average fresh milk brand. It’s also the same milk that Tiger Sugar uses for its drinks.

We’ve tried lots of brown sugar pearl milk drinks, and Xing Fu Tang puts far more brown sugar syrup in its drink than its bubble tea counterparts. Good news if you’re into a full-on brown sugar flavour. But we found our drink too sweet, especially since we encountered crunchy bits of sugar granules that had escaped the blowtorch. And nope, you can’t customise the sugar level for the drinks.

“Their pearls are hard,” remarks our friend who had tried Xing Fu Tang’s drinks at its OG Taiwan outlet. Our colleague who had it in the Hong Kong branch said the same thing. What about the ones in Singapore? Well, our rather stiff boba required a fair amount of chewing, though the brown sugar flavour that permeates each pearl is fab.

Still, the overall drink is quite yummy: smooth, rich and infused with the earthy fragrance of caramelised brown sugar.

“Poke the lemons with the straw 18 times for the flavour to infuse before you drink,” Xing Fu Tang’s marketing rep tells us. We say take a sip of the Damascus Rose Tea first before you start vigorously poking; the delicate floral scent of the tea is really quite lovely, but gets overwhelmed once it’s mixed with lemon juice. Refreshing in our current blistering weather, though not as exciting as the Brown Sugar Boba Milk.

Yes, and no. The chain offers a more-than-decent version of the insanely popular brown sugar pearl milk drink, though we think it’s more for folks with a super sweet tooth — and we prefer the softer, gooier, bouncier, bigger pearls at Tiger Sugar. We’d try Xing Fu Tang’s Brown Sugar Boba Ice Cream when it’s available, though.

Xing Fu Tang Takashimaya pop-up is on now till June 16, 10am-9.30pm daily. www.facebook.com/xingfutangsg.

Check out our guide to the best Brown Sugar Pearl Milk in Singapore here.