Singapore is saturated with bubble tea shops, but there is apparently room for one more new brand in town. Taiwanese import Ji Long Tang (its name in Chinese means ‘lucky dragon hall’, and it also calls itself JLD Dragon) recently opened not one, but three franchised outlets in Singapore. It specialises in (what else) brown sugar pearl milk, which is made with Okinawan brown sugar. Other than its native Taiwan, the two-year-old brand also has outposts in Japan, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Ji Long Tang now has two branches open for business, at Waterway Point mall in Punggol and Star Vista mall in Buona Vista. An upcoming third outlet is slated to open at The Centrepoint along Orchard Road this April. We dropped by the Waterway Point outlet to try the drinks.

While it’s under Waterway Point’s mall tenants, Ji Long Tang’s open-concept takeaway kiosk is located in an outdoor area near Mos Burger (you can also see rival bubble tea shop Partea from JLT’s shop. Garang). There are no dine-in seats, though there’s a bench that is more for customers waiting for their orders.

There are five series of bubble tea offered here: Milk, Alishan Tea Milk Foam, Yakult Tea, Tea and Latte. The Okinawan brown sugar (called kokuto) here is also apparently a ‘healthier’ version, made from minimally processed sugarcane. JLT also claims that the brown sugar “contains high levels of calcium, iron and Vitamin B”. But we say it’s still sugar at the end of the day, so don’t guzzle it like a nutritional tonic.

Check out our verdict on some signature drinks below.

We have tried Ji Long Tang’s iced brown sugar pearl milk at its franchised branch in Johor Bahru, and found it rather unremarkable — the brown sugar has only a weak hint of caramelly flavour, while the fresh milk is not creamy enough. It is unfortunately the same case in Singapore, though the milk here is thicker and creamier (JLT uses the same Meiji 4.3 Deluxe Milk as Tiger Sugar mixed with fresh cream). We are pretty fond of the brown sugar pearls though, cooked for two hours in a caramel syrup; it’s cooked to a softer consistency but still has a nice chewiness to it. The hot version of this brown sugar milk has stronger brown sugar flavour, but gets too sweet halfway through even for sweet-toothed folks like us.

Iced green tea brewed with tea leaves from Taiwan’s famed tea-growing region Ali Mountain is topped with a thick layer of wispy milk foam, which sadly dissipates in the tea faster than we can sip it. It’s meant to complement the green tea, but ends up as an accidental hero masking the tea’s overly tannic taste.

If you must drink green tea, order it with Yakult here. The probiotic milk beverage’s sweetness jazzes up the tannic tea, and makes it much more palatable and refreshing.

Don’t wanna be judged for ordering your BBT with 100% sugar? Dial down the sugar level and go for this cup which is additionally sweetened with brown sugar and the same decent brown sugar pearls. It’s tastier than plain ol’ refined sugar syrup, since brown sugar has its own earthy flavour. The roasted oolong tea is fragrant enough and serviceable, though not the best version we’ve tried.

Ji Long Tang’s version of milk tea has black tea mixed with fresh milk, a lashing of brown sugar syrup and brown sugar pearls. Not bad if you like your milk tea on the milkier side, and the faint hint of brown sugar caramel makes this drink moreish.

In a market where everyone is offering brown sugar pearl milk, Ji Long Tang’s hero product doesn’t really beat its competition (we would like more robust, caramelly brown sugar syrup in its drinks). But we like that it’s not gimmicky — there are no rainbow BBTs or oddly-flavoured pearls, and the drinks are mostly a brown/beige colour adorned with a super huat dragon logo, and more atas than the average bubble tea joint.

Two outlets including #B1-43 Waterway Point, S828761 and #B1-37D Star Vista, S138617. Open daily 11am-10pm. www.facebook.com/jlddragonsg.

PHOTOS: KELVIN CHIA