The Alley is a tea shop, mainly focused on making milk tea and tapioca pearls, or as they call it, Deerioca. Started in Taiwan, this shop has become more and more popular, with new shops in places such as Canada, Korea, Japan, China, France and America.
Their most popular drinks are the Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk, Brown Sugar Deerioca Creme Brulee Milk, Royal No.9 Milk Teal, Snow Strawberry Lulu and Hojicha Latte.
I tried the Brown Sugar Deerioca Fresh Milk first, which was $6. It was a small drink for its price compared to other similar tea shops, but I think it’s worth the price. The drink consisted of warm Deerioca pearls at the bottom and brown sugar syrup and, while the majority of it was fresh milk. The clash between the warm pearls and cold milk worked perfectly together when they mixed. It was pretty sweet at first but after I finished the boba and syrup, only milk was left
I then tried the Brown Sugar Deerioca Creme Brulee Milk, which was also $6. This drink was sweeter than the Fresh MIlk drink, but still had the warm pearls and fresh milk. In my opinion, it didn’t taste too much like a creme brulee but was still refreshing and delicious in its own way.
The drinks can also be customized by their sweetness and amount of ice along with toppings like pearls, grass jelly, coconut jelly, konjac jelly, red beans and aloe vera. Toppings can be added for an extra 50 cents.
The Alley website says that their tapioca pearls and sugar cane syrup are handmade. Their teas are hand-picked and roasted to ensure that the tea is memorable. The dough for the Deerioca is handmade, kneaded and rolled so that every bite is unique. Their sugar cane syrup is made with high quality sugar canes and boiled in-house, creating the delicate flavor.
The two locations in Southern California are in San Gabriel and Rowland Heights.
