Just last week on October 4, Daboba opened its first Singapore franchised outlet in the Ang Mo Kio heartland. The kiosk shares the same shop space as a spa called Care Lyna (Daboba’s location is not completely random; as it turns out, the two businesses are run by the same local owner). While the queue situation at its Malaysian outlets is cray-cray, the shop thankfully had just a handful of customers on the random weekday afternoon we dropped by.

Daboba’s shop is one of the nicest of its kind — with hipster concrete counters, brick accent walls and photogenic potted plants. It wouldn’t look out of place in stylish cities like Tokyo or Seoul, but stands out in its sleepy neighbourhood overlooking the Ang Mo Kio Central Market & Food Centre. The shop mainly offers takeaway drinks, though there’s an al-fresco table with four seats and some public tables and benches a few steps away if you want to savour your spoils on the spot.

The menu here is small, with six ‘series’ of crowd-pleasing drinks like a Taiwanese Brown Sugar Series, Classic Milk Tea series, Cheese Tea Series and, per its claim to fame of being the pioneer of honey pearls, a Honey Golden Pearl Series. It also has a selection of Roasted Brown Sugar drinks, which is really crème brûlée-style concoctions with a layer of cream foam topped with brown sugar that’s torched till caramelised.

The bulbous pearls are cooked at the shop, though not in front of customers (like at Xing Fu Tang). The cooked pearls are stored in containers and ladled into cups upon order.

We’ve tried this super trendy drink from just about every BBT brand in Singapore, and sad to say, Daboba’s version is indiscernible from its competitors. The layer of cream foam makes the fresh milk thicker and richer, but we couldn’t really taste the caramelised ‘roasted’ brown sugar, or the brown sugar syrup, in this. The slightly overcooked pearls also bear only a hint of brown sugar’s smoky, earthy fragrance.

This milk-infused green tea drink is not as rich as the Brown Sugar Pearl Fresh Milk, but it’s more refreshing. The green tea flavour is robust enough, though we’re not thrilled about the ho-hum lurid yellow honey pearls. Like the brown sugar pearls, they are a tad too soft and taste very faintly of honey.

The gorgeous swirling colours in this cup look appealing and Insta-worthy, and the strong, fragrant tea tastes just as nice. The smooth, mildly savoury cheese foam also offers a nice contrast to the delicate, slightly sweet black tea. Order this if you want something light to quench your thirst on a hot day.

Milk tea sounds basic but it’s surprisingly hard to make the right blend of milk and brewed tea. Daboba’s silky version is decent, though it’s let down by the bland, mushy pearls.

We don’t usually go for cheese teas, but it seems like Daboba does it pretty well — the same fab milk tea from the Pearl Milk Tea is now pearl-less and topped with a generous layer of airy, creamy cheese foam. It makes our sips extra decadent, and we don’t even miss the mouthfeel of pearls.

Daboba has the advantage of being the only ‘brand name’ bubble tea shop in its Ang Mo Kio heartland ’hood, and is strategically located right opposite a hawker centre to cater to your post-lunch BBT craving. Some of its drinks (especially the cheese foam-based ones) are fairly yummy, though nothing really strikes us as particularly addictive. It remains to be seen if Daboba can hold its own in the saturated, fiercely competitive bubble tea scene in Singapore.

Block 727 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 #01-4252, Singapore 560727. Open daily 10am-9pm. www.facebook.com/daboba.sg.

PHOTOS: PYRON TAN & YIP JIEYING