Xing Fu Tang

It's been around in Vancouver for months now with new locations popping up all over the place. Something unique they have at all their locations is this Chinese fortune box. They were the first ones to really bring stir-fried bubble tea pearls to Vancouver. At each of their locations they have a giant wok with brown sugar pearls and these are they type of pearls they use in all their drinks. They offer a softer and chewier pearl with a highly caramelized flavour.
The milk tea at Xing Fu Tang is pre-made instead of being made fresh. I'm not sure how I feel about it but I guess this helps the flavour meld together? The milk tea here is super rich and creamy which made it absolutely delicious.
It also had a caramel flavour to it despite only having grass jelly and no pearls. The grass jelly here is taken out of a large wooden container so perhaps they make this fresh too? It definitely tasted different than other grass jelly I've had before. I loved every bit of it!

This is probably 3.5 stars. It just opened over the weekend when I was there. The smell of the pearls cooked in brown sugar was promising. It was tantalizing.

I had the signature brown sugar pearl milk. It looked pretty. Very Instagrammable. Taste wise, it was ok. The sweetness came from the pearls. The milk was quite tasteless, it lacked the brown sugar sweetness. There was no smokiness or caramelized taste in the milk which was surprising.

I have not tried any other brown sugar pearl milk in Vancouver, but if you have ever tried the version from Tiger Sugar (which apparently made the stripey thing a thing) in Asia, you could tell the difference. The brown sugar taste was stronger, and the milk creamier at Tiger Sugar. It was also very sweet at first sip but toned down to an acceptable level after blending it. This was the main difference for me between Xing Fu Tang and Tiger Sugar. The sweetness only came from the pearls and not the milk/drink.

The place is nice though and the fortune sticks thing is quite fun.

We were told it was a must try boba place when we are in Vancouver by a set of friends and another set said it was a waste of calories. Unfortunately, we agreed with our 2nd set of friends that said it was a waste of calories.

I ordered their flagship product, Brown Sugar Pearl Milk. The boba was actually quite delicious and had a nice chewiness too it. But after awhile it just became too sweet and the drink itself had way too much milk for my liking. Too bad they don't allow you to adjust the sweetness and amount of milk you actually want in your drink.

After a few sips, I saw instructions on how to enjoy my drink more. LOL, I was supposed to stir my drink 18 times and enjoy within 30 minutes for the best flavor. I followed the instructions and the drink was better tasting but still too milky and sweet.

I'm glad I tried it and can cross it off my checklist of famous boba places to try but I don't find it necessary to ever go back as brown sugar pearl milk is just not my thing.

If you've tried one Xing Fu Tang, you've probably tried them all. I do like this location a bit more since it's within walking distance of home. It's also a fairly nice and roomy spot to chill out, talk, or study at.

Would still recommend the regular brown sugar milk tea. The other drinks aren't as appealing to me and it's a shame there's not a bit more extensive of a menu. I do wonder if they could get into this gimmick a bit more but alas it might not meant to be.

Good spot to drop by if you're in the Kingsway area. Not as highly populated of a spot so you can probably get in and out quicker.

Most bubble tea lovers should hear the Brown Sugar Bubble Milk from Xing Fu Tang (XFT) 幸福堂. XFT is one of the popular bubble tea chains from Taiwan. Its iconic is the fresh stir-fried brown sugar pearls.

We ordered both Brown Pearl Sugar Milk Tea 幸福黑糖珍珠厚奶茶 and Brown Sugar Pearl and Herbal Jelly Milk Tea 黑糖珍珠仙草仙奶.

Left - Brown Pearl Sugar Milk Tea: The creamy foam on top of the Brown Pearl Sugar Milk Tea had a bit of salt with very fresh concentrated milk. The pearls were pretty soft and chewy.

Right - Brown Sugar Pearl and Herbal Jelly Milk Tea: The grass jelly of the Herbal Jelly Milk Tea was perfect in texture and sweetness. The brown sugar pearl in both drinks tasted really good!

XFT Kingsway is located at Renfrew-Collingwood neighbourhood. It is at 2675 Kingsway, Vancouver BC.


Drink: 4/5 Should Try!
Service: ‍‍‍‍4/5
Kids: 3/5 A-OK for kids (a bit expensive for the size that you get)
Price: 1/2less than $20 for two
Presentation: 3/5
Parking: Street or validated parking
Tips:
*has generous amount of pearls
*comes in one size
*mentions Yelp for receiving 10% off on your drink
Would I Return: Yes ‍

Review from last week visit. They had happy hour menu for selected item and I was happy with it simply. Tried Taro and their signature pearl. Very good. They use real taro and it comes with "milk tea" colour. Not typical purple. The taro chunk were quite big and made me feel just finished a piece of cake. Very satisfying drink I guess.

Conveniently located on Kingsway where free street parking is available, this cozy location has limited seating inside and can get quite busy. I usually just order and leave, so I haven't had any issues. Service is efficient. Small menu, compared to some of the other BBT places, but I'm a fan of the brown sugar drinks, so I'm happily satisfied with what they have to offer here. Love the soft, chewy texture of the brown sugar pearls here (find the strawberry pearls kind of disappointing; I can't really taste the strawberry). My only caveat is the price for the size of the drink. You're paying about $6.50 for what feels like a relatively small sized bubble tea. When this location first opened, they didn't have any stamp cards, but they do now. They also sell loyalty cards for $5 which allows you a free birthday drink and 10% off your purchases.

Lotta hype about Xing Fu Tang and gotta admit it lives up to most of it. Brown sugar milk type drinks are all the rage and Xing Fu Tang definitely roasts their sugar to caramelized bliss. Walking in to see the molten vat of goodness is awesome to see and smell.

I opted to try the brown sugar pearl milk tea with the handmade pearls - I didn't think my body can tolerate that much milk to just get the signature drink. The drink itself was very good - black tea sweetened with brown sugar and the warm pearls. While the milk tea isn't anything special, I did appreciate the fact that its base sweetness was actually not that sweet. One of the other of us got the bunny jelly mango smoothie, which has this adorable white bunny perched on top of the drink that makes you feel bad to puncture it with the boba straw, but you'll do it anyways to consume. Any who, it's a very refreshing mango drink if that's your thing with strawberry pearls (who knew that's a thing?). And note: it's not popping boba, it's strawberry flavored pearls. Which creates the perfect segway for the next section of this review.

So what makes Xing Fu Tang so awesome? It's those pearls. Without a doubt, these handmade pearls are the best tapioca pearls I've ever had, especially when they're still warm when you first get your drink. The pearls definitely tighten up as they cool down, so it is a boba drink that behooves you to drink it faster imo. But the texture is soft without being molten, chewy in the way a good mochi would taste. And to experience that in boba is a unique and magical experience since the pearls are also not uniform and the brown sugar flavor is soaked throughout. If their tea game was upped just a little more, it would be perfection in a cup but even as is, would definitely stop by.

Now that the whole black sugar pearl milk is everywhere I had to try the one that started it all! Although I think the originating drink is the one with the fresh milk, I just personally am not that huge of a fan. It's great and all but I usually do tend to go with the milk tea option. With that being said I always do try the fresh milk one at least once.

The black sugar pearl milk tea here is so different than the others that I've tried. The way the sugar reacts to whatever it is that makes it different from the fresh milk version makes the drink have a malt-like flavour. It's like drinking a milo or chocolate malt! I love it! It really brings the big kid in me out! As much as I do love the flavours of this milk tea, I do find that it is quite pricey. The size of the drink isn't as large as other places but I guess compared to others I do like the flavour here best. For $6+ though, I do not come often, usually only with out of town guests who don't have a XFT in their area.

Another thing with this one drink in particular, they don't have sugar or ice level options so if you don't like sweet you may want to skip this one.

I usually do not like pearls, I heard about the brown sugar pearls & I was curious & wanted to try. I ordered the regal brown sugar milk tea. The pearls were warm, soft & chewy. Surprisingly not that sweet which I was glad. I didn't stir it as o wanted to taste the pearls as is. I liked the pearls... an enjoyable drink ... will definitely have it once in awhile. Thumbs up!

This has been said to be one of the most popular BBT shops in Vancouver! I just had to try it before I left and honestly, it didn't disappoint. We couldn't decide on 3 drinks (the original brown sugar milk tea, matcha milk tea and the bunny) so we got all three! The matcha wasn't as good as we thought it would be but the other 2 drinks were pretty good.

When ordering, make sure if you want "milk tea" specifically, order it. There's a difference between the first one on the menu (brown sugar milk) and the one I had (brown sugar milk tea). Hope that made sense!