Xing Fu Tang London – My first impressions | Boba Tea London

Hi guys, hi bubble tea lovers! In this post, I will share my first impressions from the brand new Xing Fu Tang London that opened just about two days ago, on the 28th of May 2019. If you’re new to this blog, hey, I’m Liza, I’m passionate about travel and bubble tea.

A couple of months ago, I created this blog post about revealing the best bubble tea in London, however, since that time, a couple of new places have opened, so I need to update this guide with Woo Tea and Xing Fu Tang London!

A bit of background story about Xing Fu Tang

I haven’t found that much information online that is not in Chinese (and I don’t speak it, sorry), so here’s what I could find in English. Xing Fu Tang is a rapidly growing chain of Taiwanese boba tea with a twist. Their speciality is brown sugar milk with pearl, and they create pearl (or tapioca, depending on how do you call it) in store and stir-fry it in a large fry pan. They use a secret family recipe for brown sugar and guess what, it’s glorious!

Xing Fu Tang is currently present in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Canada, Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Japan, USA and… it just arrived in London in May 2019.

What is surprising and absolutely crazy is that Xing Fu Tang was only established in 2018 (in January) and by June 2018 it already had 10 stores in Taiwan and just in 8 months of opening, it expanded to Hong Kong. This is tremendous growth and of course, it’s not surprising that it arrived in London as well.

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Xing Fu Tang London Chinatown

Xing Fu Tang opened its store in London at 29 Frith St in Soho, which is in the heart of China town. Even though the competition is fierce, there was a queue at the entrance of the store (when I visited it 1 day after the opening) and clearly, there’s a demand.

It’s interesting how the bubble tea industry is evolving in London – Bubbleology was one of the first-comers and they got trendy, however, when the authentic boba tea places started to expand to London, Bubbleology lost the market altogether. Now every new bubble tea spot in London brings something more and more elaborate.

Xing Fu Tang brings bubble tea to the next level with hand-made stir-fried tapioca pearls, cream on top and flambee! Every brown sugar milk tea is basically a work of art and is definitely worth £4.6 – which is pretty much the same as in other bubble tea stores, but yet so much better! Also, there is another signature boba tea with a rabbit on top of the tea. The second time I went to Xing Fu Tang in London, I ordered it and it was nice as well. Great for a warm summer day.

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Xing Fu Tang Menu

If you’re wondering about Xing Fu Tang menu in London and what kind of bubble teas do they have besides the signature brown sugar boba tea with pearls, here’s a photo of Xing Fu Tang Menu in London as well as the current prices. As you can see, the menu is quite cool and unusual and the price is the same as in the other bubble tea places in London. They also serve “black cup” tea, which is a regular tea that can be served hot, but it’s not very special compared to their other teas like brown sugar boba milk or mango smoothie and rabbit panna cotta.

Xing Fu Tang – first impressions, pro’s and con’s

As you can imagine, I went for the signature Brown Sugar Pearl Milk option and never regretted it. It’s very thick like double cream and the boba on the bottom of the cup is warm and absolutely delicious. It was definitely more like a desert compared to a regular bubble tea.

What I liked a lot:

a) a “different” offering – it’s hard to differentiate the bubble tea stores in London, but Xing Fu Tang has a clear advantage with its gourmet bubble tea for the same price.

b) the taste – it was stunning and I had the best tapioca pearls in my life

What could be improved:

a) So all the bubble teas and pearl milk options come with a lot of ice – there’s no way to choose an ice-free version, and mhm, it’s pretty cold in London sometimes, so the last thing you would want is an ICE TEA! It was 12 degrees outside, when I was waiting for my pearl milk, so I was already cold before even trying the tea. The boba is warm, however, it gets cold pretty quick with the amount of ice they put inside

b) You can’t customise the drinks – they come with a fixed level of sugar. It’s kind of normal for the brown sugar milk and brown sugar milk tea, however, sometimes it’s just nice to select the option without that much sugar in it.

c) The queue is a bit confusing and the waiting area just doesn’t make sense! It should be on the other side.

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Summary of Xing Fu Tang London bubble tea review

Overall, I really enjoyed by brown sugar pearl milk in Xing Fu Tang in London and I will DEFINITELY come back to try their other offerings. I will definitely recommend you to try it at least once.

Read my guide to the best and the worst bubble tea in London here >>>