PETALING JAYA, Oct 29 — Bubble tea has gained a notorious reputation for being a sugar-laden treat, but change is already on the horizon.
Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea, the latest tea joint to land in Malaysia, is here to provide boba lovers with a much-needed respite from the brown sugar milk craze.
You won’t find any creamers, powders, syrups, or juice concentrates at Yi Fang where drinks are prepared using fresh fruits and natural ingredients that result in a light and refreshing taste.
Brand operations manager Sandy Berahim said that Yi Fang stands out from its other competitors thanks to their unique menu.
“Even though there are close to 100 bubble tea brands operating in Malaysia, a majority of them are local brands focusing on making brown sugar milk drinks.
“Yi Fang is well-known for being an international brand and a pioneer for fruit teas, and there are only a couple of players in the local market when it comes to this kind of product.
“We are more on the healthier side as well and we make everything on the spot,” he told Malay Mail.
The menu features thirst-quenching delights like the iconic Yi Fang Fruit Tea, the refreshing Aiyu Jelly Lemonade, and the rich Taro Series, a seasonal offering that is limited to 100 cups per day.
The drinks are brewed with specially imported tea leaves from Taiwan while fruits are sourced locally to support the local economy.
Yi Fang’s first store opened at Sunway Pyramid in August and now shares the same roof as many other bubble tea brands in the mall, a decision that Sandy explained is driven by their goal to learn the tastes of Malaysian consumers.
“We did consider opening up our first branch in downtown Kuala Lumpur before we realised that it would hamper our research on the local market.
“Fruit tea is a fairly new drink in Malaysia and not many people know much about it.
“We wouldn’t be able to do a proper analysis of what the Malaysian market truly wants in an area that has many tourists, so that’s why we decided to go to open our first branch in a more suburban area.”
With time and effort, Yi Fang hopes to change the image of bubble tea in Malaysia by offering alternatives that aren’t sickly sweet, especially as more and more brown sugar milk brands continue to spring up.
The saturation of the brown sugar boba market is in Yi Fang’s favour, as they focus on bringing tasty yet healthy Taiwanese tea to its customers through more than 1,500 stores across the globe.
“We are doing our best to strike a balance between being healthy and being tasty, that’s why we have a lab in Taiwan that develops recipes and measures how many calories are in our drinks.
“There’s a lot of news coming out saying that bubble tea is full of sugar and is bad for you, but we want to educate consumers on the better options that are available.”
Yi Fang's Malaysian operations are managed by their holding company BlizzKorp and the brand is currently hatching plans to open a second store soon.
If you’d like to try out their drinks for yourself, head to Yi Fang Taiwan Fruit Tea at Lot G, LG2 CTR in Sunway Pyramid.
