Disclaimer. I do not really take bubble tea. Perhaps once a year? This was interesting and the one that I tried was really good too!
I have seen The Alley bubble tea outlets. There is one at Funan Mall which is near my office. I do not drink too much bubble tea. Perhaps I have this idea that all bubble teas are overly sweet. I always wondered why when I ask for zero sugar content in my drink, the drink is still sweet. I have always thought that that sugar content is representative of how much additional sugar I wanted and not the actual sugar content in the drink. Perhaps I am right about this. However, I have always wanted the control as to what goes into my drink. Here at CREATE by the Alley, apparently I will be able to CREATE my own drink.
First things first… location.
Good location. First thing you see when you stand in the middle foyer area at Tampines One.
You cannot miss CREATE by the Alley.
You go up the escalator and turn to your left. Seriously, if you cannot see where CREATE by The Alley is, you have to get your eyes checked.
Seriously… this location is good. You cannot miss.
We were allocated seats for the day.
For today, Willie was unavailable. Kevin and I were there to represent Little Big Red Dot.
This is a special item that is available only at CREATE by The Alley. The signature drink at The Alley is their Royal No.9 Milk Tea. It’s a blueberry-infused milk tea with non-dairy creamer. Ah yes! I do know my milk tea. I believe I bought the drink as one of my cheat meals previously. I googled for non-dairy bubble tea options near me and this was an option that popped up. The Royal No.9 Milk Tea is very good.
Anyway, this is a cafe. Not your typical take away set up like the other The Alley outlets.
So there is a menu and here it is.
We were offered the Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk and Passionfruit Green Tea.
Sample of how your tea will be served.
For starters, the CREATea comes in a tray like this.
This is the Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk set. You get an instruction slip as to how to create your own drink. You decide how much of a certain ingredient you want. I think it adds a little more as compared to just sitting down and buying a drink.
Here is a video of Kevin and I at Create the Alley figuring out how to create our own CREATea.
Here is the final result!
The rest of the cafe, consisting of other members of the media invite, were also having fun.
A bit of explanation about CREATE by The Alley. Do watch our impromptu interview with Alvin which I’ve placed at the later part of this article. He did encapsulate the concept behind CREATE by The Alley in that short cameo.
This was mine. Hey how did the people at CREATE by The Alley know that I liked Passionfruit?
Here is the result!
I even got to decide how sweet I wanted the tea to be.
We asked the people at CREATE by The Alley as to what the concept of the cafe was. This, they mentioned, was an experiential cafe. Experiential as customers will be able to experience making their own drinks and tapioca pearls. There will be workshops to make the experience a lot more interactive as well.
Here we are trying our hand at making our own tapioca pearls.
Everyone tried making their own tapioca pearls.
Ok this one was a bit off. I think we were supposed to decorate our own cup. Kevin proceeded to paste the stickers on the sleeve of the cup. I think he failed to listen to instructions.
See how happy people are when things are done correctly?
We were served the Royal No.9 Milk Tea Soft Serve. This is a proper cheat meal dessert. Not too sweet with a hint of bitterness from the tea. Legit decent deal at $3.90.
We got an impromptu chat with the boss as well. Really nice and approachable guy. I do hope that CREATE by The Alley will be a huge success. It is so nice to see people taking risks in the food and beverage arena. You know what? He makes sense. CREATE by The Alley did make Kevin and I sit down and work on what we consumed for the afternoon. Typically we would just grab a drink and be on our way. The best part was both of us had not had our lunch and we stayed on till it was about 5pm.
Here was the impromptu chat…
I will be back for their workshops. It is something that I would like to bring my family to. Oh and to dispel the myth in my wife’s head that the pearls in bubble tea are undigestible and will stay in our digestive track forever…
Yours sincerely,
Daryl
