Hailing from the famous Shilin Night Market in Taipei, Jenjudan has opened its flagship outlet in Citylink Mall!
We can’t get enough of bubble tea and brown sugar boba, and Jenjudan promises to deliver, being renowned in Taiwan for their warm, soft brown sugar boba. They currently have almost 30 outlets worldwide, including countries like Japan, Australia, and Hong Kong. This store in Citylink Mall will be their first foray into the Southeast Asian market, and will be open from today, 23rd March 2019, from 11AM onwards!
Established in 2010, Jenjudan’s name (珍煮丹) is a clever word-play on the characters “珍珠” (zhēn zhū), which represents the pearls in bubble tea. “煮” (zhǔ), meaning to cook, replaces “珠” (zhū), as a testament to the store’s dedication to cooking pearls true to the original Taiwan taste. Finally, the three characters placed together means “elixir”, perfectly capturing the brand’s delicious and whimsical beverages.On a more light-hearted note, when speaking to the Jenjudan creators, we learned that they’re huge fans of Chinese martial arts film Ip Man – and Jenjudan’s store name is also in part inspired by actor Donnie Yen, whose name in Mandarin is 甄子丹 (zhen tze-dan). A famous scene in Ip Man shows the iconic martial artist declaring that he will “fight off ten men!” and the owners were inspired by that line.
The bubble tea scene in both Taiwan and Singapore are extremely competitive, and just like Ip Man, they told us with a laugh, they would like to “fight off” ten competitors with their brown sugar pearls and variety of teas.
What sets Jenjudan apart from its rivals would be its brown sugar pearls. Unlike the conventional method of combining ready-made brown sugar syrup with pearls, Jenjudan caramelises its self-produced sugar in-house. In order to maintain freshness and texture, the pearls are cooked and glazed every two hours. We were entranced by the aromatic, burnished caramel scent of the pearls cooking as we waited for our drinks, and watching the staff serve up the golden goodness into our cups was amazing!
Besides that, Jenjudan also imports all its ingredients, other than milk, directly from Taiwan. Talk about authentic!
Jenjudan offers a wide variety of drinks, ranging from their signature Brown Sugar & Milk Series, Macchiatos, and Fresh Fruit Teas, to the more unique Brown Sugar Lemon Series. Some of the signature drinks include the mainstay Brown Sugar Boba Milk (S$5.20 for medium, S$6.50 for large), featuring warm, soft brown sugar boba served with chilled fresh milk; Oreo Brown Sugar Boba Milk (S$5.90), a blend of fresh milk, chocolate wafers, and sweet crème, as well as the Thai Style Milk Tea (S$4.20 for medium, S$5.20 for large), a unique fusion that borrows the taste of Thailand’s signature beverage.
So, how do Jenjudan’s drinks fare? Here are our thoughts!
Our absolute favourite would have to be the Oreo Brown Sugar Boba Milk! Creamy, smooth, and not too sweet, peppered throughout with bits of Oreo cookies and the caramel-y, QQ pearls; this drink was an absolute delight! Mix it up well and you’ll feel like you’re sipping on a cookies and cream drink – with pearls!
Another drink that we loved was the Brown Sugar Earl Grey (S$3.50). A simple iced Earl Grey tea, lightly sweetened with Jenjudan’s house-made brown sugar syrup, this was wonderfully refreshing and aromatic; and would be the perfect drink on a hot afternoon.
Another drink good for our intensely hot and humid weather would the Passionfruit Green Tea with Nata de Coco & Brown Sugar Boba (S$4.50). We ordered ours with 50% sugar level, but found it a tad too sweet, but the generous passionfruit pulp helped to even out the sweetness. We loved the fragrance of the green tea and how well it paired with the tart fruitiness of the passionfruit, and the nata de coco. For those who prefer your drinks less sweet but equally refreshing, try the Passionfruit Green Tea with Lemon (S$3.50), or Celadon Tea with Lemon (S$3.50)!
We ordered our Brown Sugar Boba Milk with Milk Foam (S$5.90) with 50% sugar level, and found it too sweet, even after mixing the drink, so perhaps order at 30% or even 0% sugar level, as the staff are generous with their servings of the boba. What we loved about the drink definitely had to be how the milk paired with faintly burnished scent of the boba. And with this drink, we could properly appreciate the deliciously QQ texture of the pearls – soft and chewy, yet with an al dente-esque centre.
The Thai-style Milk Tea, was a bit of a disappointment, we felt. Although a lovely shade of caramel, and not a shocking orange like some Thai tea places we’ve seen, the scent of the tea is rather mild and seemed to be overpowered by the taste of the pearls.
Photo: Jenjudan Singapore
We are impressed with the variety of flavours on offer at Jenjudan, and with what we have tried so far, we will definitely return for more – especially since they will be creating limited edition drinks when seasonal ingredients allow for it. Psst: we heard they will be launching a line of taro drinks soon too!
Head down to Citylink Mall to get your brown sugar boba fix now!
Opening hours: 11am to 10pm
CityLink Mall, 1 Raffles Link, #B1-13, Singapore 039393
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